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Baobab trees amoung rice paddies in Madagascar. (Photo by R. Butler)
SECONDARY FOREST PRODUCTS
There is great potential for the development of secondary forest products on a large scale to contribute to local
and national income through the global market. Some forest products can be domesticated and cultivated on a widespread
basis on highly degraded and formerly forested lands. Many of these products are better suited to the tropical
environment and produce greater economic returns at less fiscal and environmental costs.
As discussed earlier, small farmers can be incorporated into the national economy and large-scale agricultural
production by the promotion of small agroforestry plots.
FOODS
There are countless rainforest products that can be harvested sustainably or at least used more efficiently in
the place of the existing products. The keys are to develop these products, bring them to market, and then actually sell them.
Cultivated Foods
Many of the foods we eat today have their origins in the rainforest, including the avocado, banana, Brazil nuts,
cassava/manioc, cashews, chocolate/cocoa, cinnamon, cloves, coconut, coffee, cola, corn/maize, eggplant, fig, ginger,
grapefruit, guava, herbal tea ingredients, jalapeno, lemon, mango, orange, papaya, peanut, pepper, pineapple, potato,
rice, squash, sugar cane, tomato, and vanilla. But there are still many more that have yet to be developed to their
fullest potential: of the 3,000 rainforest fruits, only 200 are regularly used.
Of the estimated 25,000 to 30,000 species of plants that have edible parts, only about 7,000 have been cultivated
or collected over history. Of these, only 20 species provide 90 percent of the food needs, while rice, wheat, and maize
make up more than 50 percent of cultivated foods. Tropical agriculture with conventional crops usually has proven to be
a failure because tropical forest lands are rife with pests, disease, poor soils, drought, and inconsistent rainfall.
Tropical agriculture based on these few crops rarely eases poverty for local people and does not generate a sustained
contribution to national income.
We need to experiment with other plants, especially those that would be better situated to cultivation in the tropics.
For example, the Buruti palm of the Amazon produces a vitamin-rich fruit with a bread-like pith, while two plants
from West Africa produce compounds thousands of times sweeter than sucrose and could be used as natural sweeteners.
Animal-based foods
Similarly, rainforest animals have great potential as semi-domesticated food animals for the tropics. These are
far better suited to the tropical climate and tropical ecosystems than domestic animals brought from more temperate
climates that are destructive of the rainforest lands and species. Using native animals means less environmental
impact, greater diversity of animal-based foods, and a far greater efficiency of production than cattle.
Tropical species with potential as sources of meat include Amazon river turtles (Podocnemus sp), which have long
been harvested (usually unsustainably) from their native habitat for their excellent meat. These turtles
can be easily cultivated in cement ponds located along the floodplains of tropical rivers and raised on aquatic
vegetation and fruit. The turtle produces 22,000 pounds of meat per acre (24,659 kg per hectare) more than 400
times the yield of cattle raised in pastures and in a far less costly manner to the environment.
The green iguana of Central and South America has been over-hunted for its chicken-like meat and is endangered
in some of its range. The iguana has great potential and is already being raised in farms in Central America. Iguanas
can be ten times as productive in terms of yield as cattle on the same land, reducing the need to clear additional
forest areas for pasture. The capybara (the world's largest rodent), chachalacas (like tropical chickens), and paca
(cat-sized rodents) are other New World mammals that could provide sources of tropical meat without major disruption
to the ecosystem. These are just a sampling (from the New World alone) of tropical species that could productively
replace temperate domestic animals in the tropics.
In 1994, wheat grew on 573 million acres (232 million ha) of land around the world. With an average of 2 million
stalks per hectare, the total number of individuals exceeds 464 trillion individuals. Clearly wheat is not an endangered
species, but because of selective breeding toward genetic uniformity, wheat has lost most of its populations and
hence its genetic variability. What is the recourse if a disease breaks out in this gargantuan monoculture? Most
likely scientists will scour the few wild places left on Earth for the remaining wild strains of wheat in hopes
of finding genetic traits that will offer resistance to the pest.
Rotten cacao pods in Sulawesi. Sulawesi is the world's third leading producer of cacao but its crop has been hard hit by cocoa pod borer and disease. Ongoing research on the Indonesian island is looking at ways to control these agricultural pathogens.
In addition to food, rainforests serve as reservoirs of genetic diversity. These wild species have traits that have been inadvertently removed by selective breeding, a process which selects traits based only on their utility to man. Thus domesticated plants and animals are more susceptible to pests
and disease. To protect domestic species from these hazards, they can be bred with wild species that still retain
traits protecting them from agricultural pests.
The most famous example of the value of wild gene pools comes from Asia in the 1970s when the rice crop was struck with grassy stunt virus, threatening the rice crop across
the continent. The International Rice Institute surveyed some 6,273 varieties of rice for attributes against grassy
stunt. Of this array, only one, inhabiting a small Indian valley slated to be cleared and developed, proved to
have the desired qualities. It was crossed with the predominant form of rice, creating a resistant hybrid, and
was subsequently bred across Asia. Had it not been for this tiny reservoir of diversity, Asia would have faced
a deadly human catastrophe. Today the ICCO (the International Cocoa Organization) is seeking out new strains of
cocoa in the Orinoco and Amazon rainforests. The ICCO is searching for varieties that will improve the yield and
resistance of commercially grown cocoa, which has a very narrow genetic base. For example, the entire cocoa agriculture
of Ghana, a major world cocoa producer, is derived from a single pod brought in the 1870s by a visiting blacksmith.
Africa's lions are disappearing
(3/25/2008) The lion is Africa's best known carnivore. Once widely abundant across the continent, recent surveys show that lion populations have plunged from over 100,000 individuals to around 23,000 over the past century. The reason? Lions are poisoned, shot, and speared by locals who see them as a threat to livestock. While lion populations in protected areas remain relatively healthy, conservationists say that without urgent measures, lions may disappear completely from unprotected areas. The Kilimanjaro Lion Conservation Project is working to avoid this fate by developing practical measures to encourage coexistence between people, livestock and predators. Key to the effort is reducing livestock losses to lions. Leela Hazzah, a field researcher with the project, says the "Lion Guardians" program at Mbirikani Ranch in Kenya has proved remarkably successful: not a single lion has been killed since its inception in November 2006. The program employs Maasai warriors to monitor lions and help local communities prevent attacks on livestock.
Half the Amazon rainforest will be lost within 20 years
(2/27/2008) More than half the Amazon rainforest will be damaged or destroyed within 20 years if deforestation, forest fires, and climate trends continue apace, warns a study published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. Reviewing recent trends in economic, ecological and climatic processes in Amazonia, Daniel Nepstad and colleagues forecast that 55 percent of Amazon forests will be "cleared, logged, damaged by drought, or burned" in the next 20 years. The damage will release 15-26 billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere, adding to a feedback cycle that will worsen both warming and forest degradation in the region. While the projections are bleak, the authors are hopeful that emerging trends could reduce the likelihood of a near-term die-back. These include the growing concern in commodity markets on the environmental performance of ranchers and farmers; greater investment in fire control mechanisms among owners of fire-sensitive investments; emergence of a carbon market for forest-based offsets; and the establishment of protected areas in regions where development is fast-expanding.
Carbon trading could protect forests, reduce rural poverty
(2/26/2008) Carbon trading from avoided deforestation (REDD) credits could yield billions of dollars for tropical countries, according to analysis by mongabay.com, a leading tropical forest web site.
