Chapter 1

Changing Policy Trends in the Emergence of Bolivia’s Brazil Nut Sector

Peter Cronkleton and Pablo Pacheco

INTRODUCTION

For more than a decade Brazil nuts (Bertholletia excelsa) have been one of Bolivia’s most important forest exports. Paradoxically, national policies and initiatives to support the management of Brazil nuts in Bolivia’s northern forests have generally taken a back seat to timber management and other economic development programmes. The Brazil nut sector emerged despite the lack of a clear policy framework defining access to the resource or specific guidelines for its management. In fact, those policies that most shaped Brazil nut production were not intended to address their management, but were instead linked to macroeconomic policy to promote non-traditional exports, to expand infrastructure, to increase Brazil nut processing capacity and to formalize property rights.

As the primary motor for economic activity in Bolivia’s northern Amazon, Brazil nuts are a resource that supports much of the population directly or indirectly. They are the most recent manifestation of an extractive economy based on the exploitation of NTFPs and subjected to extreme boom–bust cycles. Historically, the benefits of the extractive economy were highly concentrated and flowed out of the region, but there are now signs that more democratic and equitable forms of resource access and distri-bution may be developing. To ensure that such a trend can be sustained, the Brazil nut sector needs greater attention from policy-makers.

Compared to other types of land use, Brazil nut collection is relatively benign. However, improvements in terrestrial transportation networks that have contributed to the development of industrial processing capacity have also increased pressure and competition for control of the resource base. At the same time, ambiguous or contra-dictory policies have provided a weak regulatory framework to mediate the competing interests of stakeholders dependent on forests and others intent on forest transforma-tion. These disparate factors have placed this strategic resource base in a precarious position.

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Although Bolivia has never had a consistent, comprehensive policy strategy to guide Brazil nut management, use and trade, some of these issues have been dealt with in a piecemeal or peripheral fashion. A key factor in understanding shifts in Bolivia’s Brazil nut sector has been the lack of secure property rights in the Bolivian north. Some stakeholders have maintained strong de facto control over the resource base, but legally their claims remain ill-defined and, in recent decades, contested, and such conflict has shaped the actions and plans of forest stakeholders across the region. A second issue has been the absence of clear policies for guiding the management of this important NTFP. Historically, Bolivian forestry legislation has not addressed manage-ment practices or the regulation of access rights to Brazil nut resources in the forest. Bolivia has gained much attention for its progressive forestry legislation, but too little effort has been invested in trying to influence NTFP management, whether by main-taining benign practices, discouraging destructive ones or pursuing consistent efforts to promote NTFP management as an important strategy for regional livelihoods. Given the threats to this resource, which are likely to expand, it is important to examine how this robust Brazil nut sector developed, reconsider existing policy frameworks to iden-tify positive or negative influence, and define adjustments that could promote good management and maintain the economic and social contribution of the sector.

The chapter is divided into three sections. Part 1 reviews the characteristics of the Brazil nut sector, the resource itself and the key stakeholders. Part 2 traces the history of the extractive forest economy in northern Bolivia and the emergence of Brazil nuts as a key resource. It illustrates how the development of the sector through the 20th century maintained earlier patterns and power relations, and how the few policy inter-ventions by the state allowed benefits to be concentrated in the hands of a few. Part 3 examines major policy shifts in the mid-1990s that changed the playing field by recog-nizing the access and property rights of rural peoples and further consolidated the Brazil nut sector. In the conclusion, the authors offer recommendations for policies and actions to better support the Brazil nut sector and its stakeholders in the face of new frontier challenges.

PART 1: BRAZIL NUT PRODUCTION IN BOLIVIA

Importance of the Brazil nut economy

Bolivia’s northern Amazon, a region that includes the department of Pando and the provinces of Iturralde (department of La Paz) and Vaca Diez (department of Beni), is covered by approximately nine million hectares of Brazil-nut-rich forest. Brazil nuts have been called the ‘single most important pillar of the regional economy’ (Stoian, 2000, p284) forming the basis for employment and livelihoods for most residents. It is estimated that the Brazil nut sector generates approximately 22,000 direct and indi-rect jobs1 (Bojanic, 2001). Approximately 6000 peasant and indigenous households in agro-extractive communities depend on Brazil nut extraction as their main source of income (Stoian, 2000). In fact, for many rural and urban families in the region, the income generated during the Brazil nut harvest provides most of the cash they

CHANGING POLICY TRENDS IN THE EMERGENCE OF BOLIVIA’S BRAZIL NUT SECTOR 17

will have throughout the year. Thousands of migrant labourers (about 5500 people) move seasonally between rural forest estates (barracas) and the region’s urban centres (mainly Riberalta) to work in large, capital-intensive Brazil nut processing plants. These factories provide seasonal employment for approximately 8500 people (Stoian, 2004). Finally, there are extensive networks of intermediaries who organize labour groups to collect the nuts in the barracas and transport nuts from the forests to urban processing plants.

Brazil nut export values have become a key segment of Bolivia’s forest sector, along with timber products. In 2005, shelled and unshelled Brazil nuts were Bolivia’s most important forest export, worth almost US$74 million, practically 45 per cent of the value of all forest-related exports, while unprocessed and semi-processed wood accounted for just over 19 per cent of the total, with manufactured wood products at 31 per cent (Cámara Forestal, 2006). In the first five years of this century, Bolivia accounted for over 50 per cent of the world’s Brazil nut exports – or over 70 per cent of processed, shelled nuts (FAOSTAT, 2007). In fact, Bolivia has led the world in the export of shelled nuts since 1992 (Stoian, 2000).

Recently international Brazil nut prices have increased dramatically, with local prices paid to producers in Bolivia jumping from around US$6 per barrica (a 66kg bag used as the traditional measure) during the 2002 harvest to around US$35 a barrica in 2004, and remaining above US$25 since then. This increase in price has meant more income for regional stakeholders, but it has also brought more competition for control of access to the resource.

Source: Public domain base map from University of Texas Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection, www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/cia08/bolivia_sm_2008.gif, modifications by Elizabeth Skinner.

Figure 1.1 Bolivia’s northern Amazon region

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Biophysical and ecological characteristics

Brazil nut trees are found throughout the Amazon, but occur in greater concentrations in Brazil, Bolivia and Peru. They grow across Bolivia’s northern Amazon, although 80 per cent of the country’s production comes from the department of Pando (Cámara Forestal, 2006). The Brazil nut tree is a rainforest giant reaching heights of nearly 60m and diameters of over 2m and can live for more than 1000 years (Ortiz, 2002). In Bolivian forests there are about one to five trees per hectare (DHV, 1993). Virtually all

Source: Kristen Evans.

Figure 1.2 Woman breaking Brazil nut fruits to extract nuts