ENVIRONMENT:
Afro-Brazilian
Communities Recover
Juçara Palm
By Mario Osava*
ELDORADO, Brazil (Tierramérica)
- The juçara, a palm
tree in danger of
becoming extinct due to
over-exploitation of its
edible heart, is
beginning to recover
thanks to sustainable
management by the
Afro-Brazilian
communities of the
Atlantic tropical
forest, Brazil's most
deforested biome.
"I began cutting palm at
age seven with my
father, the first 'palmiteiro'
of Eldorado," says
Antonio Jorge, now 63,
and a student of social
sciences through a
university
distance-learning
programme.
"We did it out of
necessity and lack of
knowledge," he admits.
But, since 1990, he
said, they have been
planting juçara instead
of cutting it in order
to use only its edible
bud, the heart, or
palmito, which is in
high demand on the
market.
This turnaround occurred
in recent years in the
Brazilian communities
that descended from
African slaves in the
Ribeira river valley, a
basin of 28,306 square
kilometres between two
industrial cities in the
south, São Paulo and
Curitiba, and which
constitutes the largest
preserved area of the
Atlantic tropical
forest, a coastal
ecosystem that has
already lost 93 percent
of its tree cover.
These communities are
known as "quilombolas",
emerging from the former
"quilombos", enclaves of
blacks who escaped
slavery and fought for
their freedom in
centuries past.
A project of the
non-governmental
Socio-Environmental
Institute (ISA) buys
juçara seeds gathered by
the quilombolas at 1.87
dollars per kilogramme
for cultivation in their
own lands. ISA promotes
sustainable development
policies, working with
traditional communities
and defence of natural
resources in the Ribeira
valley.
In Ivaporunduva, the
oldest quilombo in the
valley, 13 youths and
adults climbed two hills
on Jun. 26 carrying
sacks full of seeds on
their backs to plant in
the forest. It was a "mutirão",
an indigenous word used
today to describe any
community effort that is
exceptional and
voluntary.
Planting has to take
place in forested areas
because the juçara,
whose scientific name is
Euterpe edulis martius,
needs shade in its early
lifetime, and patience,
because it takes about
eight years to produce
fruit and a good palm
heart.
Silvestre Rodrigues da
Silva, a 63-year-old
father of five,
contributed 250 kg of
seeds gathered by his
family for the "mutirão",
earning 468 dollars. He
was lucky to have
preserved hundreds of
palms near his house. "I
never imagined that
their seeds could
produce this money. For
me, the juçara was just
beauty and bird food,"
he said.
Some communities are
growing seedlings in
nurseries as another
source of income. They
are also discovering the
benefits of the fruit,
whose pulp has
nutritional value
similar to that of the
açaí, an Amazonian palm
of the same family that
has already conquered a
large market share as an
energy source.
The fruit "provides more
money than the palm
heart," says Da Silva,
based on a visit he made
to a pulp factory in
Sete Barras, a nearby
town. "If we bring
together all of the
palms available we could
have an industry too,"
he predicts.
In Ubatuba, a coastal
town in São Paulo state,
some 400 km from the
Ribeira valley, a
project of the Institute
of Permaculture and
Ecovillas of the
Atlantic Forest (IPEMA),
with quilombolas,
Indians and peasant
farmers, is already
producing a tonne of
juçara pulp with the
harvest begun in
February and slated to
end this month.
This first yield will
supply the care centres
of Ubatuba, according to
Cristina Reis, IPEMA's
agro-forestry education
coordinator. The
institute also helps
with juçara planting and
management plans. The
fruit's pulp has four
times more anthocyanine
-- an antioxidant
pigment -- than the açaí,
and thus has "strong
medicinal power" as well
as nutritional value,
she says.
In Ivaporunduva they can
also harvest enough
fruit to process the
pulp, says Renata
Barroso, who coordinates
the ISA juçara project.
But there is a lack of
tradition to make use of
the fruit, she admits.
"Before, we cut the palm
hearts a half-hour from
home, but today we have
to walk 14 hours to
reach the palm trees,"
says Jorge. To not waste
the trip, the palm
cutters also take down
young palms, extracting
small hearts for which
they earn much less,
says the member of the
Pedro Cubas quilombo.
Despite the adversities,
there are still those
who persist in this
illegal activity. If
caught, they could face
jail time.
The quilombolas and
other rural inhabitants
of the Ribeira valley
practice subsistence
agriculture and need the
income they get from
bananas, the leading
local crop, and from
hand crafts and from
jobs outside the
community, but they also
rely heavily on
government assistance.
The juçara could be an
additional source of
income, and making use
of its fruit also
promotes forest
conservation, says
Barroso.
The fruit "feeds a great
diversity of animals --
mammals, rodents and
mostly birds," which
makes this species "a
key to the biodiversity
of the Atlantic tropical
forest," according to
Barroso, a forestry
engineer who chose this
palm as the subject of
her master's thesis.
If the juçara
recuperates, its
management will be very
easy, so that there
could be a return to
sustainable extraction
of the palm heart to
meet the demands of the
market, believes Reis.
In several locations
around Brazil, including
the Ribeira valley,
farmers are planting "pupuña"
or "chontaduro" (Bactris
gasipaes) to harvest the
palm hearts.
"But a heart as
delicious as that of the
juçara cannot be found
anywhere in the world,"
says Jorge, repeating a
widespread opinion that
conspires against the
recovery of this palm
species.
(*Originally published
by Latin American
newspapers that are part
of the Tierramérica
network. Tierramérica is
a specialised news
service produced by IPS
with the backing of the
United Nations
Development Programme,
United Nations
Environment Programme
and the World Bank.)
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