Two Decades of Logging and Fire along the Capim River in Eastern Amazonia, Brazil

By Patricia Shanley

Longitudinal research among forest-reliant communities along the Capim River in the Brazilian Amazon from 1993-2020, illustrates that waves of extractive enterprises, mirroring those occurring globally, are causing significant impacts on the availability of wild foods. In the early 1900’s, selective logging of forests along the Capim River included extraction of only a handful of high value timber species. Over time, the frequency and intensity of logging increased to include nutritious fruit and nut trees, as well as widely used medicinal oil trees (Shanley et al., 2002).

During two decades, collaborative research with community members was conducted on the changing ecology and use of the most widely consumed fruit species, Platonia insignis, bacuri, Caryocar villosum, piquia and Endopleura uchi, uxi, as well as species of medicinal use such as andiroba Carapa guianensis, and copaiba, Copaifera spp. and on the consumption of game.

Results indicate that over a period of eleven years, consumption of fruit such as piquia (Caryocar villosum) dropped by 80%, as fruit bearing trees were logged. These fruit trees also contributed a significant proportion of protein to family’s diets by attracting game. For example, in one community seven hunters captured 232 kilograms of game (18 paca, 4 deer, 4 armadillos, and 1 agouti) beneath piquia trees during the three-month piquia flowering season. This game would provide about 139 kg of edible meat costing the equivalent of US $ 526 in the nearest market. In addition, this quantity of meat corresponded to the price of 35 sacks of farinha (manioc flour), which is extremely labor intensive to produce (Shanley et al. 2005).

At the outset of the research, payment to families for individual trees was the equivalent of US $2.00 per tree.  Although highly variable annually and among species, findings illustrated that each of the three fruit species under study produced between a couple hundred to thousands fruit annually, and that their nutritional and/or market value as fruit, far outweighed the value of timber. Presenting research results as infographics on posters, helped families better understand the cost and benefits of logging. 

To assist in answering the research question of whether it made better economic sense to log or not to log his own forest, Mangueira and his family invested the time and energy to count and weigh all of the fruit they collected and the game they captured on one hectare of forest over a ten-year period. Discounting the substantial costs of collection, transportation and perishability, the net profit for non-timber forest products would be the equivalent of US$ 872. If all the trees of commercial value were logged, including the fruit and medicinal oil trees, and the family would have earned US$ 26/ha. Mangueira’s family also used the bark of uxi, the exudate of amapa (Parahancornia amapa) and copaiba, for medicine.  His family’s research highlighted the significant nutritional and medicinal properties of intact forest and helped other forest-based communities to realize the value of maintaining standing forest.

Brazil nut trees also occur in the region and are highly valued as a food source but are also susceptible to land use change. The nutritional value of Brazil nut is so high it is called “meat of the plant kingdom.” Brazil nut flour has 46% protein as compared to beef’s 31% and the nuts have twice the calories of beef.

Of available palms in the region, buriti (Mauritia flexuosa) is distinguished by producing one of the highest quantities of carotene among all the plants in the world, twenty times more than the equivalent weight of carrots. Vitamin A deficiency is common in certain regions of Brazil, leading to eye and mouth infections, toothaches, and poor vision. Due to its outstanding nutritional value, the fruit is used throughout Brazil to help in the recuperation of symptoms caused by vitamin A deficiency, as well as for malnourished children (Pacheco, 2005). Piquia, Brazil nut and buriti, bring to light the vital nutritional value of widely used Amazonian tree and palm species.

However, during the decades in which timber extraction became more intense, community access to these regional fruit species of highest nutritional and medicinal value declined markedly.  And ironically, while these forest fruit trees were once considered, “frutas dos pobres,” (fruits of the poor) with low prices, they have now become highly sought after by all classes of society and have significantly increased in economic value.

In the Capim River region of the Brazilian Amazon, due to landscape degradation by logging, forests became prone to fire, which tore through communities for months at a time. During the 1990’s, areas surrounding the community began to be transformed into cattle ranches, and more recently, into oil palm plantations. Formerly independent, many of the younger community members have become paid laborers on palm oil plantations. However, the Capim River communities played a central role in helping to generate research regarding the impacts of declining access to highly valued fruits, and game. They also took the next step and helped to communicate their experience to other Amazonian communities facing forest loss across the Amazon basin (Shanley et al., 2010). 

Their research findings were used in traveling workshops, and then became a radio program, a documentary (Daughters of the Canopy), and an illustrated book, Fruit Trees and Useful Plants in the Lives of Amazonians. This book integrates scientific findings from 90 Brazilian scientists, traditional knowledge from scores of forest community members, market research, stories, and music. Taken together, these resources describe the wide-ranging cultural, ecological, economic and nutritional value of forest fruits, medicinal oils and wildlife, to help other rural communities and policy makers weigh the cost and benefits of timber extraction.

References

Pacheco Santos, L.M. 2005. Nutritional and ecological aspects of buriti or aguaje (Mauritia flexuosa Linnaeus filius): a carotene-rich palm fruit from Latin America. Ecology of Food and Nutrition, 44(5):345-358. Available here.

Shanley, P., Cymerys, M. & Luz, L. 2002. Conflicting uses of Timber and Non-Timber Forest Products: Declining Resources for Subsistence Livelihoods. In: Shanley, P., Pierce, A. Laird, S. and Guillen, A. (eds). Tapping the Green Market: Certification and Management of Non-Timber Forest Products. Earthscan, London. 

Shanley, P. & Gaia, G. 2002. Equitable Ecology: collaborative learning for local benefit in Eastern Amazonia. 2002. Available at: Agricultural Systems 73:83-97. Available here.

Shanley, P., Cymerys, M., Serra, M. & Medina, G. (eds). 2011. Fruit Trees and Useful Plants in Amazonian Life. FAO/CIFOR/PPI. Download PDF.