Venture capitalism for a tropical forest: cocoa in the Mata Atlântica
By turning a cocoa-growing tradition into an “eco-business,”farmers and investors could help save the Brazilian AtlanticForest, one of the most biologically diverse and endangered forest biomes in the world. Such an effort could also increase rural employment and help build an economy that can sustain the forest instead of destroying it. The Atlantic Forest extends along most of Brazil’s coast and is the third largest biome in the country. Although it is not as well known as that other great Brazilian forest, the Amazon,it is far more endangered. Only about 7 percent of the AtlanticForest remains in its original state.Cocoa is the basic ingredient of chocolate. It comes from the seeds of a small, tropical rainforest tree, the cacao. Cocoa Is of interest to conservation because it is a relatively high-value crop, and because the cacao tree tolerates shade. These qual-ities allow cocoa to be grown profitably under forest canopy;in effect, cocoa can help pay for rainforest conservation.Cocoa is already a major crop in the northern part of theAtlantic Forest biome, primarily in the state of Bahia. MostBrazilian cocoa is grown under native forest canopy, in an agroforestry system known as cabruca. Cabruca is hardly virgin for-est—its understory consists mostly of cacao trees and its overstory has been extensively thinned. But its value for con-servation is now considerable because so little undisturbed for-est remains. Cabruca has become, by default, the dominant forest type within the Bahian cocoa belt.But for several reasons, the cabruca system is in decline. Relatively few forest saplings are coming up in the cabrucapatches, so the native forest overstory is not regenerating.And some farmers are growing their cocoa outside cabruca or abandoning the crop altogether. If it continues, the decline of cabruca would greatly diminish the prospects for saving the northern portion of the Atlantic Forest.We argue that the cabruca system should be revived, butin a form better suited to current conditions. Our strategy,which we call “forest cocoa,” is designed to promote a set of ecological and social goals. Its ecological aims are to ensure that the cabruca patches are regenerating, to eliminate the use of disruptive agricultural chemicals, and to contribute to forest restoration within the cocoa belt. Its social aim is to help create a stronger—and greener—rural economy. Forest cocoa would build employment through local cocoa processing; it would also encourage the development of other forms of eco-commerce, such as forest restoration and ecotourism.Forest cocoa would have a political goal as well: its mar-keting would be designed to create an international consumer constituency for the forest. That constituency could become a donor base for restoring, not just cabruca, but the AtlanticForest as a whole.
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | biblioteca |
| Language: | eng |
| Published: |
Massachusetts (EUA): Worldwatch Institute,
2003
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| Subjects: | THEOBROMA CACAO, INVERSIONES, NECESIDADES DE LUZ, RENDIMIENTO, CUBIERTA DE COPAS, AGRICULTURA ORGÁNICA, MERCADEO, |
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