Fruits of the Wild
Brazil nut is a cornerstone sustainable enterprise of the Kayapo, because of its abundance and forest ecology combined with reliable domestic markets for Brazil nuts in the food industry.
Fruits of the wild
These delicious nutritious nuts generate equitably distributed annual income for Kayapo communities. Every family or person may choose to collect and sell nuts; an activity that has always been practiced by the Kayapo and so fits well with Kayapo culture and worldview. Each year during the fruiting season of the Brazil nut tree from December to March in the rainy season, Kayapo families spread out through the forest and camp near concentrations of huge Brazil nut trees.
Locating Brazil nut groves, navigating often long distances through forest and harvesting the nuts relies on knowledge and skills passed down for generations. Brazil nuts come packed like orange slices in hard wooden pods weighing up to six pounds that grow on some of the tallest trees in the forest-which makes it dangerous to spend time under massive Brazil nut trees during the fruiting season. Harvesters remove the fallen pods to places away from under the canopy of a Brazil nut tree where they break open the pods and remove the seeds (nuts) inside -an operation performed deftly with precise machete blows. The forest camps of Brazil nut harvesters are an opportunity for transmission of knowledge from old to young and, therefore, contribute to preservation and promotion of indigenous values and culture.
“I will plant Brazil nut seedlings that will grow and give fruit. When I die, my children, my grandchildren, and the grandchildren of my grandchildren are going to be able to see them grow. When I no longer exist they will remember that I planted these Brazil nut trees with my own hands for them to break open and eat the nuts.”
Kayapo harvesters also act as seed disperses for the Brazil nut tree because they too are able to open the hard seed casings and a certain number of nuts fall out of the baskets along forest trails when they are being transported. Perhaps the greatest service the Kayapo perform for the mighty Brazil nut tree is protection of their primary forest habitat with their co-evolved animal vectors intact.
A pillar of the rainforest ecology
The Brazil nut tree relies on specific species of large bee for pollination; bees that survive only in undisturbed primary forest. Without the bee there can be no pollination and therefore no fruit production; and without primary forest there are no bees. Therefore the Brazil nut is perhaps the only non-timber product from tropical forest that has never been domesticated and relies totally on primary forest for its existence.
The Brazil nut (PI’Y in Kayapo) beautifully illustrates the co-evolutionary dependence of tree regeneration and animals; a co-dependent relationship that predominates in all tropical forests. It appears that the Brazil nut tree co-evolved with the agouti -or an agouti ancestor -a large forest floor rodent related to the guinea pig. The agouti is for all intents and purposes the only animal in the forest able to open the pods which it does by gnawing a hole in the outer casing to release the trove of richly nutritious seeds inside. Similar to the North American or European squirrel, the agouti is a scatter hoarder that buries some nuts for a rainy day. With the hard pod protecting the nuts until an agouti happens by, the Brazil nut tree ensures that some of its nuts escape non-scatter hoarding seed predators, and; that some nuts will be dispersed and buried away from under the shade of the mother tree in places where they will have a chance to catch a few rays of light and grow.
A blueprint for sustainable development
Brazil nut is a perfect blueprint for sustainable development: it can only be harvested from primary forest and generates sustainable and equitably distributed income for the communities that protect it. The defense of the forest, the well-being of the people, and the preservation of their culture are linked to a single economic activity. That’s sustainability in a nutshell.
Kayapo Brazil nut and cumaru seed enterprises are examples that demonstrate sustainable income generation for forest communities is possible.
These enterprises may not generate the same order of profit as goldmining or logging; but unlike these industrial activities that ultimately enrich only a few while forever destroying the incalculable benefits of natural forest including sustainable development opportunity for local people; sustainable enterprise development benefits many over the long-term.