Albemarle to produce renewable base oil

Abstract

The Tamaulipan thornscrub is the subtropical, semi-arid vegetation that covers the Gulf coastal plain of northeastern Mexico. Leguminous trees and shrubs constitute one-third of the diverse woody flora, which is exploited by the rural population for extensive grazing of livestock, fuelwood and timber for fencing and construction. Cutting intensity and extent of browsing damage to 53 woody species was assessed in 40 sites stratified according to habitat in the region of Linares, Nuevo León. Principal uses of the timber were identified in interviews with campesinos.Unarmed shrubs and trees such as Bernardia myricaefolia, Amyris texana, Citharexylum berlandieri and Helietta parvifolia were most heavily browsed: H. parvifolia, Condalia hookeri, Pithecellobium pallens, Cordia boissieri and Prosopis laevigata were the most frequently cut trees. Helietta parvifolia, a non-legume, was the most important multipurpose tree in the region, and three legumes — Pithecellobium ebano (tree), Acacia berlandieri and Eysenhardtia polystachya (shrubs) — provided both browse and timber or fuelwood. The most heavily exploited and highly valued timber species had dark, hard wood and were slower-growing than the high-yielding legumes commonly associated with multipurpose trees and shrubs in the semi-arid tropics.Sustainable, managed silvopastoral and agroforestry systems based on the indigenous forage, timber and fuelwood trees and shrubs need to be developed in the Tamaulipan thornscrub if traditional land-use practices are to be improved and the excessive exploitation and overgrazing of dwindling plant resources are to be reversed. More information is required regarding the response of valuable woody species to browsing and cutting, their ease of propagation, and their capacity to increase on landscapes where less desirable elements have been selectively removed.