Extraction and Tropical Rain Forest Conservation in Eastern Brazil

Abstract

Management and extraction of non-timber products represents an alternative to destructive exploitation of Latin America's tropical forests. Well adapted to subsistence level economies, extraction has nevertheless yet to prove itself ecologically sustainable when exposed to outside marked forces and economically competitive when confronted with more destructive land use. By means of a case study, this paper examine two objectives of the extraction option: (1) Can extraction remain economically competitive over the long term? and (2) Can management for extractive products contribute to the conservaton of tropical forest biodiversity?