Baobab trees amoung rice paddies in Madagascar. (Photo by R. Butler)
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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.
A comprehensive look at the use of animals in Brazilian medicine
PROVIDERS OF GENETIC DIVERSITY
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.
Grains: Savings from Genetic Resources
Loss of livestock breeds put food supplies at risk in poor countries
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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.
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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.
Review questions:
- Why is genetic diversity important for agriculture?
[print version | spanish
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CONTENTS
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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
INTERACT
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Recent news
Black Swans and bottom-up environmental action
(02/08/2012) The defining events shaping the modern world - economic, social, environmental, progressive and disruptive - are frequently characterized as "Black
Swans."The Black Swan term and theory were characterized
by author and analyst Nassim Nicholas Taleb who explains, "What we call here a Black Swan (and capitalize it) is an event with the following three
attributes. First, it is an outlier, as it lies outside the realm of regular expectations, because nothing in the past can convincingly point to its
possibility. Second, it carries an extreme impact. Third, in spite of its outlier status, human nature makes us concoct explanations for its occurrence
after the fact, making it explainable and predictable." Taleb identifies the emergence of the internet, the attacks of September 11, 2001, the
popularity of Facebook, stock market crashes, the success of Harry Potter, and World War I as among Black Swan events.
Teaching Sustainability/Teaching Sustainably: Book Review
(02/07/2012) In Teaching Sustainability/Teaching Sustainably, Danielle Lake writes the best sentence I have ever read summarizing sustainability: "Understanding sustainability as a wicked problem, and recognizing how an egoist ethic otherizes the environment and is thus in large part responsible for the abuses that have led to a number of current environmental and social problems, are central to the resolution of this pressing situation."
Eco-toilets help save hippos and birds in Kenya
(01/04/2012) It may appear unintuitive that special toilets could benefit hippos and other wetland species, but the Center for Rural Empowerment and the Environment (CREE) has proven the unique benefits of new toilets in the Dunga Wetlands on Lake Victoria's Kenyan side. By building ecologically-sanitary (eco-san) toilets, CREE has managed to alleviate some of the conflict that has cropped up between hippos and humans for space.
11 challenges facing 7 billion super-consumers
(10/31/2011) Perhaps the most disconcerting thing about Halloween this year is not the ghouls and goblins taking to the streets, but a baby born somewhere in the world. It's not the baby's or the parent's fault, of course, but this child will become a part of an artificial, but still important, milestone: according to the UN, the Earth's seventh billionth person will be born today. That's seven billion people who require, in the very least, freshwater, food, shelter, medicine, and education. In some parts of the world, they will also have a car, an iPod, a suburban house and yard, pets, computers, a lawn-mower, a microwave, and perhaps a swimming pool. Though rarely addressed directly in policy (and more often than not avoided in polite conversations), the issue of overpopulation is central to environmentally sustainability and human welfare.
Colombian president: no oil drilling in award-winning Seaflower marine reserve
(10/03/2011) Colombian president, Juan Manuel Santos, announced over the weekend that there will be no oil exploration in the award-winning Seaflower Biosphere Reserve and Marine Protected Area (MPA). Spreading over 65,000 square kilometers (6,500,000 hectares), Seaflower MPA is home to over a hundred coral species, over 400 fish, some 150 birds, four marine turtles species, and the magnificent mollusk, the queen conch (Strombus gigas).
More news on sustainable development
More rainforest news
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