| European
Tropical Forest Research Network |
NON-TIMBER FOREST PLANT RESOURCE
ASSESSMENT IN NORTH WEST AMAZONIA
by Joost F Duivenvoorden
A joint research effort of institutes from Colombia, Ecuador,
Peru, Denmark, Finland, and The Netherlands, funded by the European Commission
(INCO-DC, DG 12 - IC18 CT960038)
Presentation
In early 1997 an EC-INCO-DC funded project was initiated in
order to obtain an improved appraisal of the non-timber forest plant resource
availability in North West Amazonia by means of research on Non Timber Forest
Plant Products (NTFPP) trade patterns and market values, and potential NTFPP
supply from mature forests in three pilot areas. Partners involved are universities
in Bogotá (Colombia), Quito (Ecuador), Iquitos (Peru), Aarhus (Denmark),
Turku (Finland), and Amsterdam (The Netherlands; coordination).
Specific objectives of the project are:
1) to carry out a market survey of NTFPP in North West Amazonia,
with emphasis on the situation in Colombia. This should help provide a qualitative
update of the current situation of NTFPP commercialization (market analysis)
in North West Amazonia; and
2) to carry out a comparative assessment of NTFPP resource
availability in different forest types in three pilot areas in North West Amazonia.
Pilot areas have been selected in the Yasuni National Park and Waorani reserve
in Ecuador, the Ampiyacu River basin in Peru, and the Caquetá River area
east of Araracuara in Colombia. Recent quantitative ethnobotanic valuation techniques
of NTFPP resource availability are applied. Usefulness of trees and under storey
plants in different forest types, identified on recent aerial photographs and
satellite imagery, are compared. This allows for more precise recommendations
concerning potential development and conservation of North West Amazonian rain
forests. In early 1999 the project entered its final year of a three year funding
period. All fieldwork has been carried out successfully, and the project is
now in the analysis and reporting phase. The first preliminary scientific results
are not expected before spring 1999.
Two approaches
The project addresses the issue of NTFPP resource availability
through two interrelated approaches. The first approach is in the field of socio-economics
and economic botany. It includes research on the commercial demand, trade patterns,
and market value of NTFPP. This project line will encompass a market survey,
with emphasis on the situation in Colombia.
The second approach is of an ethno-botanical and forest ecological
nature. It is directed at obtaining improved quantitative estimates of potential
supply of NTFPP from pilot areas, one in each of the three participating developing
countries by applying complementary forest sampling procedures (plots and transects).
Together these two approaches will provide an insight into
the interrelationship between potential supply and NTFPP commercialisation in
North West Amazonia, which can be used for local, regional, or national development
initiatives.
Expected benefits
The three North West Amazonian lowland areas which are the
subject of the present project form a geographical and ecological entity, characterised
by humid climatic conditions, by comparable complex geological and geomorphological
structures, by a still dominant cover of extremely species rich virgin rain
forests, and by a poor infrastructure, poor living standards and skewed settlement
patterns of the indian, mestizo and colonist populations. Information from one
country may greatly contribute to the understanding of otherwise little known
properties in another country, eg. certain adaptations of local communities
to specific market situations, specific kinds of (economic) use of NTFPP, but
also comparable patterns of geology, plant distribution, and vegetation types.
Recognition of this fact has led to the initiative to share the Amazon expertise
of each of the participating European institutes and to carry out a joint research
effort with the developing country partners on the use and distribution of NTFPP
in the area.
At least two points distinguish this region of North West Amazonia
from other Amazonian lowland areas:
1) It is covered by forests with extremely high biodiversity levels, as exemplified by the world's highest levels of tree species richness.
2) It has a substantial population of indigenous tribes, many
of which still have a traditional way of life and a profound knowledge of use
of forest products.
In addition, North West Amazonia is still largely covered by
virgin forests. Degraded systems are only found at the margin of the basin near
the Andes and around large interAmazonian cities (e.g. Iquitos), usually where
substantial populations of settlers (including mestizos) are found. In view
of these overall regional properties, development of sustainable natural forest
use by NTFPP extraction is one of the more promising alternative forest land
use options. It may either provide income to the forest dwelling indigenous
people, or present less destructive ways of forest land use to settlers with
other cultural backgrounds.
In fact, North West Amazonia has a long tradition of commercial
NTFPP extraction. Production, however, was usually not on a sustained basis,
and net local revenues were very low.
The current project contributes to understanding how these
revenues may increase. It also addresses the issue of how to evaluate the high
biodiversity levels of North West Amazonian forests in view of production systems
compatible with conservation objectives.
Because it operates at various levels, the project may benefit
different actors simultaneously. On a regional and national planning and decision-making
level, the project will lead to an increased consciousness of the importance
of non-timber products for local communities. The project will stimulate regional
and national institutions of planning and development to consider extraction
and use of NTFPP as a viable alternative for Amazonian resource management and
protection. At national levels the proposal seeks compatibility and complementarity
with existing territorial planning programmes of national and regional institutions.
The maps will provide essential information for the development and application
of GIS in this context.
The project aims at being consistent with the complex social
and economic problems of North West Amazonia, and with current strategies to
resolve them. It will also contribute to a strengthening of the research capacity
of the Amazonian countries involved, in particular by giving opportunities for
fieldwork experience in remote areas to young scientists in the field of Amazonian
socio-economics, ethnobotany, ecology, vegetation survey, and economic botany.
At the level of the local communities, the project will also
have several benefits. The project will yield estimates of the potential use
value of forest types in the area and also yield quantitative estimates of the
abundance of selected useful species. The market survey will enable this information
to be put into a local and regional perspective for commercial extraction potentials.
Communities may take advantage of the field activities to train their youth
about forest uses. Finally, community members obtain cash-income (paid for by
national currencies) in exchange for their services. It is outside the scope
of the project to expect direct and immediate improvement of living conditions
on the basis of the scientific information gathered. This was put forward explicitly
when the project was presented to the local communities. Instead, however, the
project seeks to present results in such a way that they can be adopted and
used by the communities or all those interested in specific extension activities
or more detailed research in the field of sustainable NTFPP extraction.
A substantial amount of the budget is spent on salaries and
travel expenses for a total of 7 scientists (excluding student activities) from
the participating developing countries. The project provides them with the opportunity
to improve their field knowledge in North West Amazonia and to travel abroad.
The project can therefore been seen as an important investment in the scientific
communities of each developing country.
For further information, please contact:
Joost F Duivenvoorden
Hugo de Vries Laboratory
University of Amsterdam
Kruislaan 318
1098 SM Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Email: duivenvoorden@bio.uva.nl
For more information on the project, see:
http://www.frw.uva.nl/icg/NTFP/flyereng.html
top of page
PALM HEART HARVESTING IN GUYANA'S
NORTH-WEST DISTRICT
by T R van Andel , P E Huyskens and K C A. Bröker.
ABSTRACT
Palm heart from Euterpe oleracea Mart. supplies a canning industry worth US$ 2 million annually in export value, and is the most important Non-Timber Forest Product of Guyana's North-West District. The multi-stemmed palm species occurs in large quantities in brackish swamps along the coast. To assess the sustainability of current palm heart extraction by the French-Guyanese company AMCAR, a four-month pilot study was carried out. Vegetation structure, regeneration and mortality were compared between areas with high and low harvest intensity. A previously undisturbed area was taken as a control. In Euterpe populations that had been harvested for several years, stems were significantly smaller in size and diameter than in areas harvested only once or twice. Palm heart weight, potential and actual yields were much lower in high-pressure areas, whereas clump mortality was almost three times higher than in the control plot. In areas where people combined subsistence farming with palm heart harvesting, fallow periods tended to be longer and less damage was done to the vegetation. Neglect of traditional farming and dependency on the palm heart industry has led to overharvesting and socio-economic problems in several regions.
Maintaining a minimum diameter for palm heart appeared to be a powerful method to prevent extraction of immature stems, which has led to severe overharvesting in Brazil. A detailed management plan is needed to ensure the future supply of palm hearts, since sustainable harvest of this resource is of vital importance to the country's wellbeing. A large-scale rotation system that allows vulnerable areas to regenerate, while intensifying extraction in undisturbed palm stands, will be used by the company in the near future. However, community-based rotation systems combined with stimulation programs for subsistence agriculture, should also be encouraged, The abundance and rapid growth of Euterpe oleracea offers good opportunities for sustainable extraction. Since the potential for conflicting land uses (commercial agriculture, mining or logging) is minimal, extraction of NTFP seems to be the most viable form of land use in the coastal North-West District of Guyana.
Andel van, T.R., P.E. Huyskens and K.C.A. Bröker.
1998. Palm Heart Harvesting in Guyana's North-West District: Exploitation and
Regeneration of Euterpe oleracea swamp forests. Tropenbos-Guyana Reports: 98-1.
Tropenbos-Guyana Programme / Herbarium Utrecht University.
To receive a copy of this interim report, please contact: top of page
Tinde van Andel
Herbarium Utrecht University
PO Box 80102
3508 TC Utrecht
The Netherlands
Email: tinde@xs4all.nl
by Wouter Veening, Vasco van Roosmalen and Amy MacKinven.
The objective of the Guiana Shield Initiative (GSI) is to promote effective and practical cooperation among all relevant actors to conserve the unique ecological and socio-cultural values of the Guiana Shield region. The initiative was the result of the Roundtable on European-Amazonian relations held in the European Parliament in November 1993. The Roundtable was organized by the European Working Group on Amazonia (EWGA) of which the chairmanship and secretariat lies with the Netherlands Committee for IUCN. It was chaired by Hemmo Muntingh, then Member of the European Parliament and as such promoter of several key resolutions and budgetlines on international conservation.
The forests, savannas, rivers and coastal zones of the Guiana
Shield Region constitute a largely intact and uninterrupted ecological complex
- the Shield is one of the oldest geological formations on earth - and the forests
are designated by the World Resources Institute as the most important Frontier
Forest in the world. Strong traditional cultures still abound in the region.
Their knowledge and skills are vital to the objective of the Guiana ShieId Initiative.
It is the position of the Initiative that international treaties like the Convention
on Biological Diversity, the Framework Convention on Climate Change, international
customary law and other international legal arrangements prescribe the conservation
of the ecological values of the region under full recognition of the traditional
indigenous rights. Considering the global significance of the ecological and
socio-cultural values of the Guiana Shield, the international community should
compensate the region for delivering the services derived from these values:
the preservation of biological diversity on all levels, the storage and absorption
of carbon in view of the global greenhouse effect, the maintenance of hydrological
cycles, and last but not least, the preservation of a unique knowledge and ethics
system in relation to man and nature.
Challenges in the region abound. While still largely intact, it is increasingly faced with unsustainable logging, socially and ecologically disruptive mining, the building of roads, transmission lines, large-scale tourist infrastructure, poaching, conversion of primary forests into plantations, migration into vulnerable areas and other forces with negative impacts, such as cultivation of illegal crops with all the associated destabilizing effects.
Irreparable loss of nature goes hand in hand with irreparable loss of culture as younger indigenous generations tend to drift away from their traditional backgrounds into 'western' life-styles.
The challenge is to counter the negative factors by providing
attractive alternatives in an effective manner building upon and complementing
existing positive developments, such as the recuperation of mercury used in
small-scale mining.
The end product of the Initiative would be a set of (formalized) agreements on intraregional cooperation and on international cooperation with the region. One of the links between the international and regional agreements would be a financial mechanism specifying the international payments for the ecological services delivered by the region and the receivers of these payments in the region: who pays whom for what. Also envisioned is the formation of a Guiana Shield Sustainable Development Corporation, which would provide a link to the private and commercial actors in the region by promoting sustainable practices and products.
The Initiative will also include a programme to promote commercial activities by identifying goods and services which can be produced sustainably, i.e. without compromising the ecological and socio-cultural values of the region, identifying markets for these products and assisting producers with technical advice.
Coupled with this will be a monitoring system to check delivery
of the services. This would take place against an agreed base-line situation,
laid down in a database and presented in the form of maps.
The reaching and maintaining of agreements will be supported and accompanied by an information and education programme, including a website, the reproduction of videos and other materials and the development of local capacity to educate the policy makers, the general public and schools, both inside and outside the region about the importance of the Guiana Shield.
The secretariat of the Initiative will be located at the Netherlands Committee for IUCN in Amsterdam, which apart from managing the discussion forum, for those actors interested in the region, would prepare drafts for agreements, including the financial mechanism, and would maintain dialogue with the relevant political actors for concluding and implementing the agreements.
For further information, please contact: top of page
W Veening/V van Roosmalen/A MacKinven
NC-IUCN
Plantage Middenlaan 2B
1018 DD Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Tel: +31 20 6261732, Fax: +3120 6279349
Email: mail@nciucn.nl
MESOSCALE LANDSCAPE PATTERNS
AND BIODIVERSITY RECOVERY
Increasing human pressure has caused a decline in tropical
montane forest cover in Central America. Human activities have led to a mosaic
wise distribution of various types of secondary vegetation patches surrounded
by remnant primary forest. The recovery of the forest cover could be dependent
on landscape patterns and land use history of secondary vegetation patches and
the surrounding matrix.
A project has recently begun which focuses on biodiversity
recovery in a disturbed Costa Rican montane region. This project is funded by
the Netherlands Organization for the Scientific Research (NWO). It is carried
out by the University of Amsterdam (UvA) in cooperation with the International
Institute for Aerospace Survey and Earth Sciences (ITC) and the Costa Rican
National Institute for Biodiversity (INBio). The project will focus at spatio-temporal
factors influencing the return of vascular plant species diversity following
different levels of human disturbance. The relationship between static and dynamic
landscape patterns and plant diversity will be studied and used to develop a
GIS-based predictive model of plant diversity recovery in secondary vegetation
patches. With this model different scenario's will be created of biodiversity
recovery related to relevant management options, supporting the conservation
and sustainable development purposes as formulated by the Costa Rican Ministry
of Environment.
Exchange of information on this issue is very welcome. Please
contact: top of page
Liz van Omme
Institute for Systematics and Ecology
University of Amsterdam
Kruislaan 318
1098 SM Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Tel: +31 20 525 7193
Email: omme@bio.uva.nl
RESTORATION OF TROPICAL DRY
ANDEAN FOREST BY ACCELERATING NATURAL SUCCESSION
Reforestation with native species is still a very underdeveloped
practice in the Andes. Natural and economic values of native natural forests
are receiving increasing attention. However, current knowledge on the restoration
ecology of native Andean dry forests, directed at the restoration of the entire
forest ecosystem is very limited.
It is the aim of the project to contribute to specific methodologies
to improve rapid restoration of native Andean dry forests. The proposal addresses
the following principal hypothesis: strategic insertion of plant species from
more advanced successional stages into less advanced successional stages accelerates
succession which eventually leads to a faster recovery of the climax vegetation.
In the watershed area of the Río Checua, a dry part of the high plain
of Bogotá, vegetation succession will be analyzed in order to select
successional vegetation types for planting experiments with early and late successional
species, already propagated in nurseries. Experiments will include planting
in existing plantation forests (Acacia, Pinus), and special treatments to protect
plantlets against harsh environmental conditions. Restoration results will be
deduced from survival and growth rate of planted species and from vegetation
cover, species composition and diversity (including mosses and lichens) in experimental
plots.
The project outlined above has recently been approved for funding
by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO-WOTRO) and will
be carried out by the Hugo de Vries Laboratory of the University of Amsterdam
in close collaboration with the Corporación Autónoma Regional
de Cundinamarca in Colombia, during a five year period between period October
1999-October 2003.
For further information, please contact Antoine Cleef (cleef@bio.uva.nl)
or top of page
Joost F Duivenvoorden
Hugo de Vries Laboratory
University of Amsterdam
Kruislaan 319
1098 SM Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Tel: + 31 20 525 7812, Fax: + 31 20 525 7840
Email: duivenvoorden@bio.uva.nl
OPTIMAL MANAGEMENT OF AGROFORESTRY
SYSTEMS
Agroforestry is a form of multiple cropping which combines
perennial woody plants with crop or forage species. In many tropical agroforestry
systems, nitrogen fixing leguminous tree species are used for the assumed benefit
of biological N2 fixation for the whole production system. The nitrogen
fixing trees (NFT) are often managed by periodic pruning for harvesting fuelwood
or forage, or to improve the micro environment of the crop by increasing nutrient
cycling and transmission of solar radiation. Different management objectives
of tropical agroforestry systems call for different pruning intervals, eg short
for forage production and long for fuelwood harvesting. The main constraints
for the periodic prunings are the resprouting and renodulation capacity of nitrogen
fixing trees. The resprouting capacity depends on the non-structural carbohydrate
pool in the remaining tree compartments. Pruning causes complete turnover of
N2 fixing nodules, and the symbiosis between the tree and N2
fixing bacteria recovers slowly.
The principal objective of the research is to develop the management
of N2 fixing leguminous trees in tropical agroforestry systems for
high and sustainable production of the whole system within the limits set by
the resprouting and renodulation ability of the trees. The research is carried
out jointly with the Centro de Investigaciones en Protección de Cultivos
of the Universidad de Costa Rica (UCR). We also cooperate with the Unité
Agropédoclimatique de la Zone Caraïbe of the Institut National de
la Recherche Agronomique of France (INRA-APC), situated in Guadeloupe, French
Antilles.
The research focuses on two tropical agroforestry systems with
different pruning intensities:
(i) cut-and-carry forage production of nitrogen fixing trees
and perennial tropical grass on the same plot in Guadeloupe, and
(ii) nitrogen fixing trees as living supports for vanilla (Vanilla
planifolia) in Costa Rica.
The research focuses on two leguminous Nitrogen fixing trees
species common in tropical agroforestry systems: neotropical Erythrina lanceolata
and pantropical Gliricidia sepium which exhibit contrasting characteristics
with respect to dynamics of resprouting and N2 fixation.
Systems analysis and structural-functional tree modelling are
used to study the Nitrogen fixing trees as functional entities. Thus, management
improvements can be formulated on the basis of the overall behaviour of Nitrogen
fixing trees. Previously, the management recommendations of Nitrogen fixing
trees have generally been based on the amount of desired tree harvest. Experimental
work is being carried out on the following key issues under different pruning
regimes:
(i) dynamics of non-structural carbohydrate reserves;
(ii) biomass allocation patterns following the pruning;
(iii) the mechanisms affecting the biological N2 fixation and renodulation following the pruning, and
(iv) the development of tree canopy.
The experimental results will be synthesized by means of modelling.
Modification of the LIGNUM simulation model for agroforestry applications is
underway, which takes into account both tree structure and functioning. The
simulation model will be applied to evaluate the effect of different pruning
regimes on the productivity and long-term sustainability of Nitrogen fixing
trees, as well as on the nitrogen supply to soil and shading of associated crop.
The flexible structure of LIGNUM makes it readily applicable to the modelling
of shoot structure, solar radiation transmission and gas exchange characteristics
of tropical Nitrogen fixing trees. The special developments of LIGNUM within
this project include modelling of biological N2 fixation and dynamics of non-structural
carbohydrate reserves. Further, special attention is paid to modelling of root
architecture and functioning.
The expected output of the research is improved understanding
on the functioning of Nitrogen fixing trees in tropical agroforestry systems,
which will be applied in formulating practical recommendations for sustainable
tree management for different production objectives.
For further information, please contact: top of page
Dr Pekka Nygren
Tropical Silviculture
PO Box 28
00014 University of Helsinki
Fax +358 9 70858646
Pekka.Nygren@Helsinki.fi
Prof Carlos Ramirez
Escuela de Fitotecnia
Universidad de Costa Rica
San Pedro
Costa Rica
Ramirezm@cariari.ucr.ac.cr
STAND DYNAMICS AND MANAGEMENT OF
FAST GROWING TREE SPECIES IN CENTRAL AMERICA
The overall objective of the project is to improve the management
of fast growing forest plantations in Central America through development, testing
and validation of appropriate silvicultural techniques in plantation management.
The specific objectives of this research work are:
To identify the principal factors influencing growth of key,
selected species grown in plantations in Central America;
2. To seek a better understanding of the physiological basis
of stand dynamics in the tropics;
3. To quantify the relationships between the principal factors
mentioned above with individual tree and stand development;
To model the interaction between management interventions and
the ability to generate desired forest products;
5. To validate on-site the applicability of the models and
silvicultural recommendations in terms of their technical and financial feasibility.
In Central America, the average annual rate of deforestation
during the last decade was 1.5% of the forest area, i.e. about twice the global
average. Many countries in Central America have started large scale plantation
programs, widely supported by the international donor community. The establishment
of plantations of fast growing tree species has increased dramatically in Central
America in the last 10 years.
Unfortunately, because the incentives for plantation programs
have mainly been used for plantation establishment, and on the other hand, because
the foresters in the Region lack experience in plantation silviculture, most
stands established are not given proper silvicultural treatment. This neglect
rapidly undermines a stand's potential to produce valuable, large diameter trees
or other desired products.
Appropriate silvicultural strategies for different species
vary. Key variables are crown morphology and site. A clear, objective understanding
of stand growth processes is lacking under tropical conditions and are needed
for demonstrating the critical importance of timely intermediate operations.
This work would have global applicability in tropical and sub-tropical regions
where plantations are being established.
The proposed research project consists of three phases:
1) system identification and description;
2) system behaviour;
3) validation and transfer.
The basic data has been collected by CATIE's researchers during
the last 15 years in a network of experimental areas in six countries of the
Central American Region (Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras,
and Guatemala). The modelling of stand dynamics and financial analysis of plantations
is based on methodologies, models and techniques developed by the University
of Helsinki team.
For more information, please contact:
Dr Markku Kanninen
CATIE, Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza
7170 Turrialba, Costa Rica
Tel: +506 556 1754; +506 556 6431
Fax: +506 556 6255; +506 556 1533
Email: kanninen@catie.ac.cr
Dr Frank Berninger
Tropical Silviculture
PO BOX 28
00014 University of Helsinki
Finland
Fax: +358 9 708 58646
Email Frank.Berninger@Helsinki.fi