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SCIENCETuesday 3 November 2015
Indigenous from Amazon see Brazil nut as forest’s future
JENNY BARCHFIELD In this Oct. 28, 2015 photo, Cinta Larga indigenous men sell products made from Brazil nuts and lotions. Brazilian cos-
Associated Press during a fair on the sidelines of the Indigenous World Games in Palmas, Brazil. metics firm Natura buys oil
PALMAS, Brazil (AP) — The from the group.
creation story of the Cinta “It has completely changed zil nut can help prevent a naturally tumble to the for- The dried meal left over
Larga people holds that our lives,” Kaban said at the similar fate for neighboring est floor during the rainy from the extraction process
they were born out of the group’s stand at the World Mato Grosso, which is in the season, meaning harvest- is used to make cookies,
fruit of the Brazil nut tree. Indigenous Games, a cel- sights of big agricultural in- ers just have to pick up the noodles and granola bars
Now they are betting that ebration of cultures from terests as a frontier for soy, shells. But the oily nuts’ sus- that the federal govern-
the mighty tree could be around the world wrapping cotton, corn and cattle. ceptibility to fungus, bacte- ment distributes to 40,000
the key to their very future up this weekend in Palmas. Securing $1.25 million from ria and insects make get- local residents through
in the Amazon rain forest. The project was the brain- the Fundo Amazonas, a ting them to market before its “Zero Hunger” social
A project sponsored by child of Paulo Cesar Nunes, fund of international donors they rot tricky. program. “It really gives
international donors has an agronomist whose fami- that is administered by the Sentinels of the Forest our harvesters a sense of
helped the Cinta Larga ly moved from Sao Paulo to Brazilian government’s na- built 18 storage facilities pride to see their children
and other indigenous the forest state of Rondonia tional development bank, throughout the forest to and friends and neighbors
people from Brazil’s Mato on Brazil’s western frontier he set up a Brazil nut coop- keep the nuts fresh and dry consuming the product
Grosso state monetize the to harvest Brazil nuts. Grow- erative in Juruena, a town while awaiting processing. they picked with their own
towering centenary trees ing up, Nunes witnessed roughly halfway between The project has also invest- hands,” said Nunes. “Not
by turning their nuts, which the catastrophic results of the Cinta Larga’s reserve ed in industrial drying ma- only do we contribute to
normally plummet to the a government project to and another where the chines that allow them not the food security of the re-
forest floor and rot, into resettle landless farmers Cayabi, Apiaka and Mun- only to sell the nuts whole gion, but our harvesters are
cash. in Rondonia, which led to duruku peoples live. but also to extract the oil, also doing a kind of polic-
Since it started last year, nearly wholesale clear-cut- Brazil nut trees dot the re- which is used for cooking ing of the forest, checking
the Sentinels of the Forest ting in the state. gion, and the melon-sized and also as an ingredient for invaders as they’re out
program has boosted the Nunes believes the Bra- shells containing the nuts in shampoos, face creams on their rounds.”
tribes’ incomes 50 percent, Some 350 people, includ-
said Daeit Akata Kaban, ing tribe members and lo-
leader of the Cinta Larga. cal family farmers, work
That’s given the group of on the project, which in its
about 1,700 people re- first year generated nearly
newed incentive to protect $100,000. The initial harvest
their roughly 80,000 hect- was 130 tons, but ambitions
ares (2 million acres) of an- for the future are big: The
cestral forest from loggers, warehouses have capacity
ranchers and poachers to stock 1,000 tons — and
pressing in on all sides. with 875,000 hectares be-
tween the two indigenous
reservations, there are
plenty more nuts to be col-
lected.
“They’ve told us, ‘Too bad
this project didn’t exist 20
years ago,’” Nunes said.
“If it had, lots more for-
est would still be standing
today.”q
