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Integrating the
management of timber
and non-timber forest
products in the Amazon
Rural communities in the Amazon often rely
on forest products such as valuable Brazil nuts
for a significant proportion of their income.
Unfortunately, timber companies’ heavy
machinery tends to harvest indiscriminately,
failing to differentiate between timber species
and those that provide livelihoods for the
local people.
In recent years, CIFOR scientists have investigated
how best to integrate and balance the
management of timber and non-timber forest
products. In 2011, researchers focused on timber
and Brazil nuts – the region’s highest-value non-
timber forest product – in Peru and Bolivia.
‘The two countries present very different
situations,’ said CIFOR Principal Scientist Manuel
Guariguata. ‘The good news is that an integrated
resource management system will benefit both.’
In both Bolivia and Peru, timber and Brazil nuts
grow together in the forest. In Peru, forestry
laws have created separate timber and Brazil nut
concessions. Because the logging regulations
in the Brazil nut concessions were less stringent
than in the timber concessions, loggers moved
their operations there, threatening the Brazil nut
trees in the process and promoting unsustainable
harvesting of timber.
In Bolivia, communities hold broad rights over
their forests and there is no separation of Brazil
nut and timber production. CIFOR research
raised awareness about the need to harmonise
rules and regulations to better integrate the
harvesting of both timber and Brazil nuts in
small-scale forest management units, including
the strengthening of community participation.
It is hoped that CIFOR research will lead to
new policies and norms to integrate the
management of timber and Brazil nuts,
including the promotion of methods such as
low-impact extraction techniques and locally
developed silviculture, for the benefit of
different stakeholders.
© Ronald de Hommel