Abstract

Recent global commitments to forest and landscape restoration in the tropics call for new management approaches that benefit both biodiversity and livelihoods of forest-dependent people. The sustainable use of wild forest products is a promising pathway, but requires clarity about harvested species' demography and harvesters' rights. Here, we explored how the exploitation of fruits of the threatened palm Euterpe edulis, a key fruit source for wildlife in Brazil's globally important Atlantic Forest biodiversity hotspot, could trigger local community involvement in restoration. This palm has both non-destructive (fruit) and destructive (palm heart) culinary uses, each with unique biological and resource-use conditions. We quantified all demographic stages of this species in multiple agroforests, secondary forests, and protected areas to parameterize demographic projections of palm populations, harvest profitability, and fruit provisioning to wildlife under different management scenarios. Field observations showed a clear depression of adult palm populations in protected areas, likely due to palm heart poaching, and of intermediate size classes in agroforests, probably from weeding by farmers. Field data and demographic models reveal that in this region, agroforests and secondary forests can successfully conserve this species while providing lasting profits for farmers under most scenarios. These findings demonstrate a clear case where local stakeholders both contribute to and benefit from restoration through harvest of wild products and also highlight a potential source of income from regenerating tropical forests.

Keywords

agroforestry; conservation through use; demographic modeling; Euterpe edulis; forest restoration; non‐timber forest products; protected areas

Published in

Restoration Ecology
2021, Volume: 29, number: 1
Publisher: WILEY

SLU Authors

• Salk, Carl

  • Southern Swedish Forest Research Centre, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    
  • Utsunomiya University

Associated SLU-program

SLU Plant Protection Network


Sustainable Development Goals

SDG15 Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss


UKÄ Subject classification

Forest Science
Ecology


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/rec.13294

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/109164