Spatio-temporal patterns of Mauritia flexuosa fruit extraction in the Peruvian Amazon: Implications for conservation and sustainability

Abstract

In the Amazon Basin, some non-timber forest products (NTFPs), such as the ecologically and economically important palm Mauritia flexuosa, are extracted intensively and across large areas – the ecological effect of which is unclear. In this study, we sought to better understand the scale and scope of M. flexuosa fruit harvest in the Peruvian Amazon, the destructive harvest of which has caused conservation concern for decades, by collecting data on the amounts and origins of the fruit entering the city of Iquitos, Peru – making harvest patterns spatially and temporally explicit for the first time....