IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolec/v134y2017icp186-197.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Is It Possible to Make Rubber Extraction Ecologically and Economically Viable in the Amazon? The Southern Acre and Chico Mendes Reserve Case Study

Author

Listed:
  • Jaramillo-Giraldo, Carolina
  • Soares Filho, Britaldo
  • Carvalho Ribeiro, Sónia M.
  • Gonçalves, Rivadalve Coelho

Abstract

Rubber extraction in the Amazon faces enormous ecological and economic challenges. We modeled the ecology (tree density and forest yields) and the production chain, including rents of the three major rubber products: Pressed Virgin Rubber (PVR), Liquid Latex (LL), and Liquid Smoked Sheet (LSS) from native forests and from plantations in Southern Acre, including the emblematic Chico Mendes Reserve. Our estimates show that, in native forests, tree density ranges from 0 to 4trees/ha (average=1.67trees/ha), while productivity varies from 1 to 3l/tree/year (average=2.26l/tree/year) with yields between 1 and 6l/ha/year. Our model estimates a potential annual production of 890tons of dry rubber in the 2.5millionha of forests of Southern Acre (average=0.36kg/ha/year). Rubber extraction in native forests is not economically viable without government subsidies. Mean Equivalent Annual Annuity (EAA) for LL is US$ 3.24ha/year in a scenario with subsidies and of 75% of potential annual harvest. LSS from plantations reaches an EAA of US$ 270ha/year if costs of formation are subsidized. Public subsidies or Payments for Ecosystem Services are essential to sustain, at least temporally, rubber tapper identity – an important Cultural Ecosystem Service of the Amazon.

Suggested Citation

  • Jaramillo-Giraldo, Carolina & Soares Filho, Britaldo & Carvalho Ribeiro, Sónia M. & Gonçalves, Rivadalve Coelho, 2017. "Is It Possible to Make Rubber Extraction Ecologically and Economically Viable in the Amazon? The Southern Acre and Chico Mendes Reserve Case Study," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 186-197.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:134:y:2017:i:c:p:186-197
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2016.12.035
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800916300507
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2016.12.035?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bauch, Simone C. & Sills, Erin O. & Pattanayak, Subhrendu K., 2014. "Have We Managed to Integrate Conservation and Development? ICDP Impacts in the Brazilian Amazon," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 64(S1), pages 135-148.
    2. Delang, Claudio O., 2006. "Not just minor forest products: The economic rationale for the consumption of wild food plants by subsistence farmers," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(1), pages 64-73, August.
    3. Maes, Joachim & Egoh, Benis & Willemen, Louise & Liquete, Camino & Vihervaara, Petteri & Schägner, Jan Philipp & Grizzetti, Bruna & Drakou, Evangelia G. & Notte, Alessandra La & Zulian, Grazia & Boura, 2012. "Mapping ecosystem services for policy support and decision making in the European Union," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 31-39.
    4. Morsello, Carla & Delgado, Juliana Aparecida da Silva & Fonseca-Morello, Thiago & Brites, Alice Dantas, 2014. "Does trading non-timber forest products drive specialisation in products gathered for consumption? Evidence from the Brazilian Amazon," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 140-149.
    5. Morsello, Carla, 2006. "Company-community non-timber forest product deals in the Brazilian Amazon: A review of opportunities and problems," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 8(4), pages 485-494, June.
    6. Albers, H.J. & Robinson, E.J.Z., 2013. "A review of the spatial economics of non-timber forest product extraction: Implications for policy," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 87-95.
    7. Shone, Bryan M. & Caviglia-Harris, Jill L., 2006. "Quantifying and comparing the value of non-timber forest products in the Amazon," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(2), pages 249-267, June.
    8. Baddeley, Adrian & Turner, Rolf, 2005. "spatstat: An R Package for Analyzing Spatial Point Patterns," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 12(i06).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Min, Shi & Huang, Jikun & Waibel, Hermann & Yang, Xueqing & Cadisch, Georg, 2019. "Rubber Boom, Land Use Change and the Implications for Carbon Balances in Xishuangbanna, Southwest China," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 57-67.
    2. Carvalho Ribeiro, Sónia M. & Soares Filho, Britaldo & Leles Costa, William & Bachi, Laura & Ribeiro de Oliveira, Amanda & Bilotta, Patricia & Saadi, Allaoua & Lopes, Elaine & O'Riordan, Tim & Lôbo Pen, 2018. "Can multifunctional livelihoods including recreational ecosystem services (RES) and non timber forest products (NTFP) maintain biodiverse forests in the Brazilian Amazon?," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 31(PC), pages 517-526.
    3. Carvalho Ribeiro, Sónia & Soares Filho, Britaldo & Cesalpino, Tiago & Araújo, Alessandra & Teixeira, Marina & Cardoso, Jussara & Figueiras, Danilo & Nunes, Felipe & Rajão, Raoni, 2024. "Bioeconomic markets based on the use of native species (NS) in Brazil," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 218(C).
    4. Rosenfeld, Tomas & Pokorny, Benno & Marcovitch, Jacques & Poschen, Peter, 2024. "BIOECONOMY based on non-timber forest products for development and forest conservation - untapped potential or false hope? A systematic review for the BRAZILIAN amazon," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Aghane Antunes & Cynthia S. Simmons & Joao Paulo Veiga, 2021. "Non-Timber Forest Products and the Cosmetic Industry: An Econometric Assessment of Contributions to Income in the Brazilian Amazon," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-16, June.
    2. Carvalho Ribeiro, Sónia M. & Soares Filho, Britaldo & Leles Costa, William & Bachi, Laura & Ribeiro de Oliveira, Amanda & Bilotta, Patricia & Saadi, Allaoua & Lopes, Elaine & O'Riordan, Tim & Lôbo Pen, 2018. "Can multifunctional livelihoods including recreational ecosystem services (RES) and non timber forest products (NTFP) maintain biodiverse forests in the Brazilian Amazon?," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 31(PC), pages 517-526.
    3. Fu, Yongneng & Chen, Jin & Guo, Huijun & Chen, Aiguo & Cui, Jingyun & Hu, Huabin, 2009. "The role of non-timber forest products during agroecosystem shift in Xishuangbanna, southwestern China," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(1), pages 18-25, January.
    4. Croitoru, Lelia, 2007. "Valuing the non-timber forest products in the Mediterranean region," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(4), pages 768-775, September.
    5. Toshiya Matsuura & Ken Sugimura & Asako Miyamoto & Nobuhiko Tanaka, 2013. "Knowledge-Based Estimation of Edible Fern Harvesting Sites in Mountainous Communities of Northeastern Japan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(1), pages 1-18, December.
    6. Brites, Alice Dantas & Morsello, Carla, 2018. "Effects of Economic Dependence and Cooperative Behavior Over Participation in Monitoring the Impacts of Natural Resource Trade," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 365-372.
    7. Rosenfeld, Tomas & Pokorny, Benno & Marcovitch, Jacques & Poschen, Peter, 2024. "BIOECONOMY based on non-timber forest products for development and forest conservation - untapped potential or false hope? A systematic review for the BRAZILIAN amazon," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    8. Arii, Ken & Caspersen, John P. & Jones, Trevor A. & Thomas, Sean C., 2008. "A selection harvesting algorithm for use in spatially explicit individual-based forest simulation models," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 211(3), pages 251-266.
    9. Drakou, E.G. & Crossman, N.D. & Willemen, L. & Burkhard, B. & Palomo, I. & Maes, J. & Peedell, S., 2015. "A visualization and data-sharing tool for ecosystem service maps: Lessons learnt, challenges and the way forward," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 13(C), pages 134-140.
    10. Alessio D’Auria & Pasquale De Toro & Nicola Fierro & Elisa Montone, 2018. "Integration between GIS and Multi-Criteria Analysis for Ecosystem Services Assessment: A Methodological Proposal for the National Park of Cilento, Vallo di Diano and Alburni (Italy)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-25, September.
    11. Grazia Zulian & Joachim Maes & Maria Luisa Paracchini, 2013. "Linking Land Cover Data and Crop Yields for Mapping and Assessment of Pollination Services in Europe," Land, MDPI, vol. 2(3), pages 1-21, September.
    12. Mugido, Worship & Shackleton, Charlie M., 2019. "The contribution of NTFPS to rural livelihoods in different agro-ecological zones of South Africa," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    13. Jiao Jieying & Hu Guanyu & Yan Jun, 2021. "A Bayesian marked spatial point processes model for basketball shot chart," Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports, De Gruyter, vol. 17(2), pages 77-90, June.
    14. Veerkamp, Clara J. & Schipper, Aafke M. & Hedlund, Katarina & Lazarova, Tanya & Nordin, Amanda & Hanson, Helena I., 2021. "A review of studies assessing ecosystem services provided by urban green and blue infrastructure," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    15. Frank Davenport, 2017. "Estimating standard errors in spatial panel models with time varying spatial correlation," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 96, pages 155-177, March.
    16. Porro, Roberto & Lopez-Feldman, Alejandro & Vela-Alvarado, Jorge W., 2015. "Forest use and agriculture in Ucayali, Peru: Livelihood strategies, poverty and wealth in an Amazon frontier," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 47-56.
    17. Leandro, Camila & Jay-Robert, Pierre & Mériguet, Bruno & Houard, Xavier & Renner, Ian W., 2020. "Is my sdm good enough? insights from a citizen science dataset in a point process modeling framework," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 438(C).
    18. González-García, Alberto & Palomo, Ignacio & González, José A. & López, César A. & Montes, Carlos, 2020. "Quantifying spatial supply-demand mismatches in ecosystem services provides insights for land-use planning," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    19. Ruas, Sara & Finn, John A. & Moran, James & Carlier, Julien & Doyle, Marie & Ó hUallacháin, Daire, 2024. "Estimated distribution of high nature value forest in the Republic of Ireland," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    20. Pelletier, Marie-Chantale & Heagney, Elizabeth & Kovač, Mladen, 2021. "Valuing recreational services: A review of methods with application to New South Wales National Parks," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:134:y:2017:i:c:p:186-197. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolecon .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.