Sustainability indicators of the Brazil nut tree management

Abstract

Brazil nut tree (Bertholletia excelsa Bonpl) management, is a traditional activity that plays a key role in the economy of forestbased Amazon communities and in the conservation of forests. Nevertheless, some threats and critical points related to sustainability indicate to the need for establishment of monitoring procedures that can assist in the management of this natural resource. The overall aim of the research was to evaluate the MESMIS method as a tool to support the participatory definition of sustainability indicators to monitor Brazil nut management, and the viability of Brazil nut harvest over time. For that, we carried out a case study in the Porvir Community, RESEX Chico Mendes, Acre State (Brazil), aiming to integrate the perceptions of Brazil nut harvesters, researchers, managers, and technicians to define the indicators. The result was the generation of 18 strategic indicators to assess sustainability in the environmental, technical-economic and social dimensions. Assessment parameters, representing conditions that must be achieved for system sustainability, were collectively defined for each indicator. The main critical values attributed in the evaluation of the indicators are related to Brazil nut commercialization to intermediaries and oscillation in the annual fruit production. The use of the MESMIS method was considered appropriate to the studied context and can be recommended to similar non-timber forest product management systems.

Nutritional quality of Brazil nuts from different trees and under different storage conditions

“…1808, Lecythidaceae) is native to the Amazon, which originates multiple products and has high economic importance (de Souza et al, 2023). In areas related to Environmental Sciences in the Amazon, the Brazil nut tree is considered the symbol species of the region and an example that the best strategy for protecting the biome and keeping the forest standing is conservation through use (Guedes et al, 2014;Fonseca et al, 2021). The formation of Brazil nut tree stands in the aggregate can be related to the actions of original populations and agroextractivists aimed at using the ecosystem.…”

Threats and Sustainability of Brazil Nut (Bertholletia excelsa Bonpl.) Pre-Industrialization in the Amazon Region

“…The economy of the Brazil Nut in the Amazon is a forest-based extractive activity [6]. Brazil Nut trees form biodiverse forests gathered and traded by traditional communities, including extractivists, Indigenous groups, and African descendents (quilombola) [11][12][13]. This dynamic collaboration yields most of the Brazil nuts, creating a dual impact of income generation and biodiversity conservation [13,14], impacting positively local people's livelihoods [15].…”

“…This dynamic collaboration yields most of the Brazil nuts, creating a dual impact of income generation and biodiversity conservation [13,14], impacting positively local people's livelihoods [15]. Brazil nut management may account for >40% of the annual extractivist family income [12].…”

“…To assess the influence of the climate variability on seed productivity we took the mesoregion Baixo Amazonas, one of the regions of the Amazon with the highest historical productivity and socioeconomic importance for the Brazil nut national market. Understanding the influence of climate variability in productivity provides an indicator of ecosystem stability and resilience, guiding sustainability of forest management systems [12].…”