Management of Non-Timber forest resources: TUCUMA (Astrocaryum aculeatum)

The method for the management of the species “Tucuma” (Astrocaryum aculeatum) was created in a participative process, allowing fusion of traditional knowledge (of the Apurina community) with technical expertise (of the researchers of PESACRE - Agriculture and Forestry Systems Research and Extension Group of Acre)

The management plan has been submitted to the Brazilian environmental authority IBAMA for approval.
Click here for the complete version of the management plan (portugese, 439 KB, PDF format. If you do not have it installed jet, please download Acrobat Reader).

Note some of the main points of the plan:

Inventory and mapping
An inventory of all of the individuals of the species to be explored was made.
Groups of twenty productive individuals, connected by a small passageways were defined as “pricks”. Sets of several pricks are connected by paths. Each individual of a prick received an aluminum badge with its ordinal number (from 1 to 20).
This way, twenty pricks were created with twenty productive individuals each, summing up four hundred individuals to be managed.
The georeferencing was carried out by the researchers of PESACRE, who read the geographical coordinates of each of the selected individuals with GPS devices.
Using satellite images, schematic maps were created that indicate numbering, grouping and location of the groups of pricks.

Monitoring
For monitoring the structure of the species, a sample unit in shape of a cross was developed. The dimensions of the unit were based on the radius of dispersal of a productive individual. This monitoring activity is considered a “thermometer” for the environmental viability of the process.

The individuals were divided into four size-classes, being category I the smallest without trunk and category IV the productive individuals.
The procreation of the species can be monitored by analyzing the graphics of the structure of the population.

Remedial treatment
If the analysis of the graphics indicates a harsh drop referring to the total of individuals necessary for the perpetuation of the species (especially class I), remedial treatment should be implemented like, for example replanting of the tucuma seedlings from within a radius of three meters from the mother-plant.