Hidalgo Pizango, CG, Honorio Coronado, EN, del Águila-Pasquel, J et al. (20 more authors) (2022) Sustainable palm fruit harvesting as a pathway to conserve Amazon peatland forests. Nature Sustainability, 5 (6). pp. 479-487. ISSN 2398-9629
Abstract
Sustainable management of intact tropical peatlands is crucial for climate change mitigation, for biodiversity conservation and to support the livelihoods of local communities. Here, we explore whether sustainable fruit harvesting from Mauritia flexuosa palms could support these linked goals by increasing fruit production and incomes across the 2.8 million hectares of the most carbon-dense ecosystem in Amazonia: the lowland peatlands of northeastern Peru. M. flexuosa is dioecious, and fruits are typically harvested by felling female palms; the proportion of female palms therefore provides a good indicator of the health of a stand. Across 93 widely distributed sites, we found that the proportion of female palms increases with travel time to the urban market, and overall, fruit harvesting has halved the current potential production and income from this resource. However, significantly more female palms are found where fruit are harvested by climbing. We estimate that region-wide uptake of climbing could eventually increase potential fruit production by 51% and increase its gross value to US$62 ± 28.2 million yr–1. These findings demonstrate the high cost of unsustainable resource extraction in Neotropical forests and outline a practical path to conserve and sustainably exploit one of the most carbon-rich landscapes on the planet.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited. This is an author produced version of an article published in Nature Sustainability. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Geography (Leeds) > Centre for Spatial Analysis & Policy (Leeds) The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Geography (Leeds) > Ecology & Global Change (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number Met Office BZL8 Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation Grant 5349 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 05 Apr 2022 13:10 |
Last Modified: | 04 Oct 2022 00:13 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Nature Research |
Identification Number: | 10.1038/s41893-022-00858-z |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:185402 |