Estudo sobre a cadeia produtiva da castanha (bertholletia excelsa bonpl.) na Reserva de Desenvolvimento Sustentável Piagaçu-Purus (AM)

Abstract

The history of occupation and economy of the Brazilian Amazon has a strong connection with the extraction of non-timber forest products (NTFP). Chestnut (Bertholletia excels Bonpl.) is the main NTFP and also important in feeding 55% of the Piagaçu-Purus Sustainable Development Reserve (RDS Piagaçu-Purus) communities. This study aims to describe the nut production chain in three communities of RDS Piagaçu-Purus, identifying the production processes and their main obstacles in order to identify limits and potentialities of the activity. To describe the workers' socioeconomics (age, income composition, nut extraction), the production system (time, distance, duration, beneficiation), and marketing (price, price determinants, sales unit and buyers) were made. interviews using a semistructured questionnaire in Family Production Units (UPF). To identify problems and potentialities of the local production chain, participatory methodologies were carried out through community meetings. Extractivism is considered a source of self-support as well as cultural for the populations living in these areas, and this extractive activity has been passed on for generations since the beginning of NTFP exploitation. Another fact observed was the inheritance of the old delivery system, given that the RDS is located in a remote area, making it difficult to acquire necessary goods as well as hindering the flow, which causes the loss of autonomy on the definition of the price of production. Brazil nut, making UPF dependent on “employers” (traders, airmen and bosses of the old local extractive system) and inserted into debt servitude.