• Highlights

• The study shows physical and monetary evolution of 10 wild-harvested and cultivated products, between 2006 and 2016, still on an experimental basis: acai berry (wild-harvested and cultivated), coagulated latex (wild-harvested and cultivated), yerba mate (wild-harvested and cultivated), heart of palm (wild-harvested and cultivated), Brazil nut, pequi (fruit and nut), babassu, carnauba (wax and powder) jaborandi and piassava.
• This work aims at assessing the extension of environmental contribution to economic activity and the impact the use of these resources has on nature. Data is part of the IBGE’s System of Economic Accounts, in accordance with recommendations form the United Nations Organization (UN).
• The Amazon and the Cerrado are the biomes with the biggest variety of non-wood forest products analyzed.
• Pequi nut (-73%) and extracted coagulated latex (-70%) recorded the biggest decreases in production. Main increases in output were recorded by wild-harvested acai (113%), cultivated yerba mate (45%) and wild-harvested yerba mate (51%) and cultivated heart of palm (60%).
• In the Atlantic rainforest biome, a highlight is the production of 347 thousand metric tons of wild-harvested yerba mate and, in the Amazon, wild harvesting of acai berry (215 thousand metric tons).
• With significant appreciation in the national and international market, acai had an increase of 113% in the wild-harvested amount, with a change from 101.3 thousand metric tons in 2006 to 215.4 thousand metric tons in 2016.
• In 2016, the value of provisioning services for wild-harvested acai was estimated at R$ 703.1 million. For cultivated acai, the figure was R$ 2 billion.

The IBGE has released today (15) the Ecosystem Accounts: Non-Wood Forest Products, experimental statistics with studies on physical and monetary evolution of production in each biome of Brazil, between 2006 and 2016. The publication has two sections with independent methodologies: one that analyzes non-wood forest production per biome and another one that presents an estimate of the value of provision for those products.

These statistics form the System of Environmental Economic Accounting, which follows recommendations from the United Nations (UN), by promoting integration of information between the economy and the environment. The study and its results are experimental classes since they are still in the testing and evaluation phase. The publication intends to include society in the process of development of those indicators, from the initial stages.

The survey presents a catalogue of physical and monetary provision for the most economically significant wild-harvested and cultivated products, per biome, from 2006 and 2016: acai berry (wild-harvested and cultivated), coagulated latex (wild-harvested and cultivated), yerba mate (wild-harvested and cultivated), heart of palm (wild-harvested and cultivated), Brazil nut, pequi (fruit and nut), babassu, carnauba (wax and powder) jaborandi an piassava.

From 2006 to 2016, the Quantity Index (QI) shows decrease in production of wild-harvested heart of palm (-34%), babassu (-47%), piassava (-44%), carnauba wax (-45%) and carnauba powder (-51%). The most significant decrease was that of pequi nut (-73%), followed by wild-harvested coagulated latex (-70%).

On the other hand, there was increase of production of wild-harvested acai berry (113%), biggest in the survey (8%), besides coagulated latex (8%), cultivated yerba mate (45%) and wild-harvestedyerba mate (51%), cultivated heart of palm (60%), Brazil nut (21%) and jaborandi (2%).

Replacement of wild-harvested products for cultivated ones is clear. Highlights are coagulated latex (with a 70% decrease of the wild-harvestedproduced and an 80% increase of the cultivated version) and heart of palm (a 34% decrease versus a 60% increase).