INTRODUCTION
The Challenge of Sustainable Forest Use
1. Tea, Camellia sinensis (L.) Kuntze, for example, typically grown in plantations, also occurs wild as large, scattered forest trees in northern Myanmar.
2. Rattans are a group of approximately six hundred species and thirteen genera of climbing, spiny palms native to the tropical forests of Asia, Africa, and Australasia; the stems are used for making furniture and handicrafts. Rattan collecting is an important part of the livelihoods of many rural communities, as I discuss in Chapter 14.
3. For other approaches see M. N. Alexiades, C. M. Peters, S. A. Laird, C. Lopez-Binnquist, and P. Negreros-Castillo, “The Missing Skill Set in Community Management of Tropical Forests,” Conservation Biology 27 (2013): 635–637; C. M. Peters, M. N. Alexiades, and S. A. Laird, “Indigenous Communities: Train Local Experts to Help Conserve Forests,” Nature 481 (2012): 443; C. M. Peters, The Ecology and Management of Non-Timber Tropical Forest Resources (Washington, D.C.: World Bank, 1996); and C. M. Peters, Sustainable Harvest of Non-Timber Plant Resources in Tropical Moist Forests: An Ecological Primer (Washington, D.C.: Biodiversity Support Program, 1994).
The Ramón Tree and the Maya
1. Chicleros are people who climb chicle, Manilkara zapota (L.) P. Royen, trees and tap them for latex, which was traditionally used for making chewing gum.
2. Full name: Brosimum alicastrum Sw. (Moraceae). Throughout, I shall give only the binomial in the text and supply the full scientific name in the notes.
3. See C. M. Peters and E. Pardo-Tejeda, “Brosimum alicastrum: Uses and Potential in Mexico,” Economic Botany 36 (1983): 166–175.
4. El Tajin was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1992.
5. See the image accompanying Chapter 11 of a forester installing a growth band.
6. This type of breeding system is termed gynodioecious. The population has female and hermaphroditic trees; the male condition is derived from hermaphroditic trees. See C. M. Peters, “Plant Demography and the Management of Tropical Forest Resources: A Case Study of Brosimum alicastrum in Mexico,” in Rain Forest Regeneration and Management, ed. A. Gomez-Pompa, T. Whitmore, and M. Hadley (Carnforth: Parthenon, 1991), 265–272.
7. I discuss this in C. M. Peters, “Observations on Maya Subsistence and the Ecology of a Tropical Tree,” American Antiquity 48 (1983): 610–615; and C. M. Peters, “Pre-Columbian Silviculture and Indigenous Management of Neotropical Forests,” in Imperfect Balance: Landscape Transformations in the Pre-Columbian Americas, ed. D. Lentz (New York: Columbia University Press, 2000), 203–224.
8. Tikal is located in the Petén Basin of northern Guatemala. Population estimates for Tikal range from ten thousand to ninety thousand inhabitants; the ruins have been completely mapped, and there appear to be over three thousand structures.
9. Tree species with male and female flowers on the same individual are called monoecious.
10. The “ecological niche” of a plant species can be defined in more than one way, but it is frequently described as the combined abiotic (that is, through nutrients, water, and light) and biotic (by means of predators, pollinators, and pathogens) conditions that allow a particular species to grow and reproduce. That tropical forests contain so many different types of plants would suggest that these habitats offer an abundance of niches for species to exploit.
TWO
Mexican Bark Paper
1. At its peak, Tenochtitlán, which was conquered by Hernán Cortés in 1521, was the largest city in the Americas.
2. See C. M. Peters, J. Rosenthal, and T. Urbina, “Otomi Bark Paper in Mexico: Commercialization of a Pre-Hispanic Technology,” Economic Botany 41 (1987): 423–432.
3. Full name: Trema micrantha (L.) Blume (Ulmaceae).
4. I used a replicated, factorial (2 x 4) experiment to examine the effect of type of covering and intensity of bark removal on bark regeneration. The experiment included two types of covering, aluminum foil and banana leaves, and four intensities of bark removal—20 percent, 40 percent, 60 percent, and 80 percent—and was replicated three times.
5. A cork borer was used to collect samples of the bark and the trunk of the harvest trees. These samples were then thinly sliced with a microtome, mounted on slides, and examined under a microscope.
THREE
Camu-camu
1. Myrciaria dubia (Kunth) McVaugh (Myrtaceae) is a shrub or small tree native to western Amazonia, and it is a common component of riparian vegetation along the Nanay, Napo, Ucayali, Marañon, and Tigre Rivers in Peruvian Amazonia.
2. At the time this research was done, the city of Iquitos was located on the left bank of the Amazon River and had a bustling port where the riverboats would dock and unload their freight. There is still a bustling port, but it is no longer located on the left bank of the Amazon River. The rivers in Amazonia move around a lot.
3. Chaucheros carry cargo to and from the riverboats. Using only a tumpline, they carry motorcycles, fifty-five-gallon drums, gunnysacks full of rice, and baskets of camu-camu fruit up and down the riverbank at the port in Iquitos.
4. Oxbow lakes are U-shaped bodies of water that are formed when the wide meander of a river is cut off. River meanders carve out soil on the outside of the curve and deposit soil on the inside of the curve. In time, the river will cut completely through the curve, forming a straight channel and leaving the curve behind as an isolated lake. Oxbow lakes are called cochas in Peruvian Amazonia.
5. The fieldwork described in this chapter was conducted at Sahua cocha.
6. The fruits of camu-camu are an important food source for many species of fish, including the commercially valuable gamitana (Colossoma macropomum G. Cuvier).
7. We published them in C. M. Peters and E. J. Hammond, “Fruits from the Flooded Forests of Peruvian Amazonia: Yield Estimates for Natural Populations of Three Promising Species,” Advances in Economic Botany 8 (1990): 159–176.
8. See M. P. Martin, C. M. Peters, and M. S. Ashton, “Revisiting Camu-camu (Myrciaria dubia): Twenty-Seven Years of Fruit Collection and Flooding at an Oxbow Lake in Peruvian Amazonia,” Economic Botany 68 (2014): 169–176.
9. Full name: Eugenia inundata D.C. (Myrtaceae).
FOUR
Fruits from the Amazon Floodplain
1. Full name: Grias peruviana Miers (Lecythidaceae).
2. Color, origin, and sediment load are used to classify the different types of rivers in Amazonia. Whitewater rivers, like the Amazon and the Ucayali, are full of suspended sediments that are brought down from the surrounding mountains. Clearwater rivers, like the Xingu and Tapajos, have a bluish color and carry few sediments because of their origins in ancient rock formations like the Guyana Shield that no longer erode. Blackwater rivers, like the Rio Negro, are extremely low in sediments, dissolved nutrients, and bacteria—a bit like distilled water—and the pH of the water is acidic. These rivers have their origins in lowland tropical forests.
3. I used matrix models, computer simulations, and eigen values often when I first started working in tropical forests. I eventually reached a point of diminishing returns, scarce computer facilities, and questionable utility.
4. Full name: Mauritia flexuosa L.f. (Arecaceae)
5. See C. M. Peters, “The Ecology and Economics of Oligarchic Forests,” Advances in Economic Botany 9 (1992): 15–22.
6. See C. Padoch, “Aguaje (Mauritia flexuosa L.f.) in the Economy of Iquitos, Peru,” Advances in Economic Botany 6 (1988): 214–224.
7. This breeding system, which is exhibited by a relatively small percentage of tropical tree species, is called dioecy.
8. Full name: Euterpe oleracea Mart. (Areceaceae).
9. Full name: Euterpe precatoria Mart. (Arecaceae).
10. Recall that meristems are undifferentiated tissues in plants that divide and give rise to various organs. The apical meristem gives rise to leaves, flowers, and new shoot tissue, while lateral meristems, like the vascular cambium described in Chapter 2, give rise to the xylem and phloem that allow a plant to grow in diameter. Palms possess only a single apical meristem and do not grow in diameter.
11. An oligarchic forest dominated by a single species is sometimes referred to as a monospecific forest.
12. Full name: Spondias mombin L. (Anacardiaceae).
13. Materos are specifically locals who can identify the trees in the forest. Some Amazonian materos can also identify the trees by their scientific names.
14. Full name: Genipa americana L. (Rubiaceae).
15. C. M. Peters, A. H. Gentry, and R. O. Mendelsohn, “Valuation of an Amazonian Rainforest,” Nature 339 (1989): 655–656.
16. See New York Times, July 4, 1989, and Washington Post, June 28, 1989; the front page of the Post, below the fold, has a photo of a local harvester in his canoe with a load of camu-camu fruit (see Chapter 3).
FIVE
Forest Fruits of Borneo
1. Full name: Shorea atrinervosa Sym. (Dipterocarpaceae)
2. My results are published in C. M. Peters, “Illipe Nuts (Shorea spp.) in West Kalimantan: Use, Ecology, and Management Potential of an Important Forest Resource,” in Borneo in Transition: People, Forests, Conservation, and Development, ed. C. Padoch and N. Peluso (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), 230–243.
3. This number may change; not all the collections from the site have been positively identified even now.
4. The oleo-resin produced by several genera of trees in Southeast Asia is known as damar. The dried exudate is a valuable source of varnish and caulking. Indigenous communities in Borneo and the Malay Peninsula harvest it by climbing the trees and cutting small pyramidal holes or boxes at various heights along the trunk. In response to the wounding, the tree starts to exude oleo-resin, which collects at the bottom of the boxes; a bush knife is used to scrape out the material. The flow usually stops after a couple of days, when the cells become clogged with dried resin. To start the resin flowing again, twigs and dried leaves are used to make a small fire in each box. A large buttressed damar tree dotted with dozens of little fires burning along its trunk is an unforgettable sight. This method of tapping plant resins is known as boxing and firing.
5. The best bush knives, I am told, are forged from the leaf springs of a Toyota Land Cruiser.
6. Full names: A. heterophyllus Lam.; A. altilis (Parkinson) Fosberg; Artocarpus integer Merr.; Mangifera spp. (Anacardiaceae); Nephelium spp. (Sapindaceae); Parkia speciosa Hassk. (Fabacaeae); Durio zibethinus Rumph. ex Murray (Malvaceae); Garcinia mangostana L. (Guttiferae); Salacca zalacca (Gaertn.) Voss (Arecaceae); and Baccaurea spp. (Euphorbiaceae).
7. If I remember correctly, Christine Padoch said this.
8. A becak has two wheels in front and one in the back. The driver sits in the back and the passengers sit in the front. Two or three adults, and an almost inexhaustible number of children, can cram into the front seat of a becak.
9. Full name: Eonycteris spelaea Dobson (Pteropodidae).
10. Full name: Sonneratia alba Sm. (Lythraceae).
11. Full name: Lansium domesticum Correa (Melicaeae).
12. Botanically, the fleshy covering surrounding the seed is known as an aril. The edible parts of a rambutan, mangosteen, and durian fruit are also arils.
13. My description of the agroforestry system developed in Punggur for use in peat soils is based on data collected by Elysa Hammond.
14. The rice is transplanted twice to produce a seedling with a long root system. A two-meter-long dibble stick is used to punch a hole through the peat so that the roots of the rice seedling make contact with the mineral soil.
SIX
Homemade Dayak Forests
1. The official language of Indonesia, a variant of Malay, is Bahasa Indonesia. Since Indonesia is the fourth-most populous country in the world, and most Indonesians speak Bahasa, it is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world. An additional seven hundred or so indigenous languages are spoken throughout the Indonesian archipelago.
2. Full name: Arenga pinnata (Wurmb.) Murr. (Arecaceae).
3. The Dipterocarpaceae is a dominant family of tropical trees in Southeast Asia comprising seventeen genera and about five hundred species. Dipterocarps are trees that belong to the family Dipterocarpaceae.
4. Full name: Eusideroxylon zwageri Teijsm. & Binn. (Lauraceae).
5. The villages, shown in parentheses, contained different Dayak groups: Selako (Bagak Sahwa), Tara’n (Tae), Iban (Empaik and Tematu), and Kenyah (Ensibau).
6. These exchanges were conducted in Bahasa, or were translated from the local Dayak language by bilingual field assistants.
SEVEN
Sawmills and Sustainability in Papua New Guinea
1. Communities (ejidos) also own a large percentage of the tropical forests in Mexico.
2. Portable sawmills usually have a band saw, rather than a circular blade, which moves back and forth while the log stays in one place.
3. Full name: Metroxylon sagu Rottb. (Arecaceae).
4. This was during the early days of GPS, and the receivers were big and clunky and did not work very well under a closed canopy.
5. While the inventory work at Kikori was focused on timber species, other community forestry inventories that I have been involved with have also included palms, climbers, and selected species of medicinal plants.
6. Full names: Xylocarpus granatum J. Koenig (Meliaceae); Intsia bijuga (Colebr.) Kuntze (Fabaceae); Calophyllum papuanum Lauterb. (Calophyllaceae).
7. Several of the Kikori inventories involved our wading though water up to our chests while holding a clipboard with the field notes on top of our heads. While the water was somewhat refreshing because of the heat, I was always a little worried about what I couldn’t see and what I might be stepping on.
EIGHT
Collaborative Conservation in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest Reserve
1. Pit sawing involves positioning a log over a pit and using a long, two-handled crosscut saw to cut it into boards. One of the sawyers stands on top of the log, the other is down in the pit.
2. Full name: Gorilla beringei beringei Matschie (Hominidae).
3. Full name: Loxodonta africana Blumenbach (Elephantidae). This elephant is the largest living terrestrial animal.
4. Full names: Eleusina indica (L.) Gaertn. (Poaceae) and Plantago palmata Hook. f. (Plantaginaceae).
5. Full name: Loesneriella apocynoides (Welw. Ex Oliv.) J. Raynal (Celastraceae).
NINE
A Renewable Supply of Carving Wood
1. Full name: Bursera glabrifolia (H.B.K.) Engl. (Burseraceae).
2. See C. M. Peters, S. A. Purata, M. Chibnik, B. J. Brosi, A. M. López, and M. Ambrosio, “The Life and Times of Bursera glabrifolia (H.B.K.) Engl. in Mexico: A Parable for Ethnobotany,” Economic Botany 57 (2003): 431–441.
3. The forestry group was IXETO, the Union of Forestry Communities in Ixtlán-Etla Oaxaca.
4. Specific gravity is calculated by weighing a cubic centimeter of wood. Using this constant, an estimate of weight (grams or kilograms) can be converted to an estimate of volume (cubic centimeters or meters).
5. The stump is marked with a seal so that after the tree is felled, the stump carries the evidence that the tree was cut legally. A stump without a mark indicates that the tree was not supposed to be cut.
Caboclo Forestry in the Tapajós-Arapiuns Extractive Reserve
1. Full names: Bothrops spp. (Viperidae) and Boa constrictor L. (Boidae).
2. Full name: Chelonoidis denticulate L. (Testudinidae)
3. See D. G. McGrath, C. M. Peters, and A. Motes Bentes, “Community Forestry for Small-Scale Furniture Production in the Brazilian Amazon,” in Working Forests in the Neotropics, ed. D. Zarin, J. Alavalapatti, F. Putz, and M. Schmink (New York: Columbia University Press, 2004), 200–220.
ELEVEN
Measuring Tree Growth with Maya Foresters
1. See C. M. Peters, “Pre-Columbian Silviculture and Indigenous Management of Neotropical Forests,” in Imperfect Balance: Landscape Transformations in the Pre-Columbian Americas, ed. D. Lentz (New York: Columbia University Press, 2000), 203–224.
2. Full name: Swietenia macrophylla King (Meliaceae).
3. Full names: Manilkara sapota (L.) P. Royen (Sapotaceae) and Alouatta pigra Lawrence (Atelidae).
TWELVE
Managing Agave, Distilling Mescal
1. The reproductive strategy of producing flowers and fruits one time and then dying is known as monocarpy, or hapaxanthy (for palms), or semelparity.
2. Tropical dry forests occur in regions with a pronounced dry season and contain a large percentage of deciduous species. The tropical dry forests of Mexico are some of the most species-rich in the world.
3. Tequila is made from Agave tequilana F.A.C. Weber (Asparagaceae).
4. Agave cupreata Trel. & Berger (Asparagaceae).
5. The scientific name for calabash is Crescentia cujete L. (Bignonianceae).
6. The National Crusade Against Hunger is a program sponsored by the Mexican government to reduce hunger and alleviate poverty in rural areas. Nestlé and PepsiCo are the major multinational supporters of the initiative.
Landscape Dynamics in Southwestern China
1. Numerous Miao rebellions occurred during the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1644–1912) dynasties.
2. Full name: Cunninghamia lanceolata (Lamb.) Hook (Cupressaceae).
3. See Z. Lu, C. Peters, M. Ashton, J. Feng, and D. Xue, “The Effect of Forest Tenure on Forest Composition in a Miao Area of Guizhou, China,” Mountain Research and Development 36 (2016): 193–202.
4. Full name: Pinus massoniana Lamb. (Pinaceae).
FOURTEEN
The World of Rattan
1. Some of my results are published in C. M. Peters and W. Giesen, “Balancing Supply and Demand: A Case Study of Rattan,” Borneo Research Bulletin 31 (2001): 138–149; C. M. Peters, A. Henderson, U Myint Maung, U Saw Lwin, U Tin Maung Ohn, U Kyaw Lwin, and U Tun Shaung, “The Rattan Trade of Northern Myanmar: Species, Supplies, and Sustainability,” Economic Botany 61 (2007): 3–13; and A. Henderson, C. M. Peters, U Myint Maung, U Saw Lwin, U Tin Maung Ohn, U Kyaw Lwin, and U Tun Shaung, “Palms of the Ledo Road, Myanmar,” Palms 49 (2005): 115–121.
2. A reasonable estimate would be a growth estimate with a standard error of less than 10 percent of the mean value. The sample size needed to achieve this level of precision is determined by a statistical procedure that uses the properties of the variance and mean of the larger data set to estimate the statistical efficacy of progressively smaller sample sizes.
3. During his term as director of the Song Thanh Nature Reserve, Tran Van Thu was pursuing a masters degree at the College of Agriculture and Forestry at Hue University. Because of his close involvement with the rattan work at Song Thanh, he decided to develop a plan for the management and conservation of rattans in the reserve as his thesis project. We awarded him a small student fellowship, and he successfully defended his thesis in early 2012. I believe this was the first formal management plan for rattan—based on voucher specimens, inventory data, and growth studies—ever developed for a protected area in Vietnam. His thesis was the first step toward turning theory into practice.
4. The results were published in C. M. Peters, B. Thammavong, B. Mekaloun, N. Phearoom, O. Ratanak, and T. Ledecq, “Growth of Wild Rattans in Cambodia and Laos: Implications for Management,” Forest Ecology and Management 306 (2013): 23–30.
5. The new species included two from Cambodia, Calamus mellitus Henderson & Khou Eang Hourt, sp. nov. and Calamus kampucheansis Henderson & Khou Eang Hourt, sp. nov., and one from Laos and Vietnam, Korthalsia minor Henderson & N.Q. Dung, sp. nov.
6. C. M. Peters and A. Henderson, Systematics, Ecology, and Management of Rattans in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam: The Biological Bases of Sustainable Use (Hanoi: Worldwide Fund for Nature, IKEA, and the New York Botanical Garden, 2014).
7. The forests received both Chain-of-Custody and Forest Certification on over 1,100 hectares of community forest from the Forest Stewardship Council.
FIFTEEN
Community Forestry in Myanmar
1. Under the direction of U.S. General Joseph Stillwell, the Western Allies built the Ledo Road during World War II as a primary supply route to China. The road traverses the entire Hukaung Valley; it is now passable by truck only during the dry season.
2. We made base camps at mile 7, mile 15, and mile 21 along the Ledo Road.
3. Full name: Livistonia jenkinsiana Griff (Arecaceae).
4. Calamus nambariensis Becc. (Arecaceae).
5. According to the Myanmar Vacant, Fallow, and Virgin Lands Management Law of 2012, the forests surrounding this village are classified as virgin land.
6. Full name: Hoolock leuconedys Groves (Hylobatidae).