Abstract
ABSTRACT Socio-economic aspects can limit the expansion of ecological restoration. One alternative to address this question is the development of restoration models that generate income to farmers in addition to the benefits from conservation itself. We designed and implemented the initiative "Sustenta A Mata," a project developed by The Nature Conservancy and supported by the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES), to generate economic and social benefits for the communities involved. This study aims to analyze the financial viability of the enrichment restoration initiative in forest remnants based on a 30 year projection. The project was implemented on 17 hectares of land that included timber and non-timber species with a focus on the Juçara Palm (Euterpe edulis Mart.) for the production of fruit. Estimated earnings come from both the production of timber and juçara fruits. We considered input, equipment and labor costs for implementation, maintenance, and harvesting. For the economic analysis we used the following criteria: Net Present Value (NPV); Return on Investment (ROI); Benefit/Cost Ratio (B/C), and Payback. From these indicators the following values were obtained as results: US$4,040.80 of NPV, 13 percent of ROI, 1.59 of B/C and a 13-year Payback. These positive results for the aforementioned indicators reveal that the use of the enrichment restoration initiatives utilized in this project may contribute to the economic viability of the endeavor, contributing to a greater sustainability in rural areas.
Highlights
Tropical forests have been razed worldwide and converted into pastures and other crop cultures because they’re regarded as economically unattractive
We designed and implemented the initiative “Sustenta A Mata,” a project developed by The Nature Conservancy and supported by the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES), to generate economic and social benefits for the communities involved
The project was implemented on 17 hectares of land that included timber and non-timber species with a focus on the Juçara Palm (Euterpe edulis Mart.) for the production of fruit
Summary
Tropical forests have been razed worldwide and converted into pastures and other crop cultures because they’re regarded as economically unattractive. Only around 12.5 percent of the original forest cover remains (SOS Mata Atlântica, 2015) In such a scenario, one needs to restore both the removed vegetation and those secondary forests too degraded for self-regeneration. The juçara palm tree is considered a key specie in the Atlantic Forest biome (Reis and Kageyama, 2000). It bears socio-economic significance as it is a traditional source of heartof-palm (‘palmito’) and its fruits have recently gain commercial value for the production of industrialized pulp (Favreto et al, 2010). The extraction of the palm fruits to make frozen creams from its pulp is a sustainable activity for it guarantees the maintenance of the individual palm tree and increases the species profitability (Modolo and Tucci, 2014)
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