ABSTRACT
Brazil has the second-largest forest area in the world. The country’s natural forests provide an excellent opportunity to develop the bioeconomy through extracting, trading, and processing non-timber forest products (NTFPs). In this chapter, we examine national data, over a 12-year period (2008–2019), on volumes and values of the ten most promising NTFPs and analyse the economic, social, cultural, and environmental aspects of NTFP production in Brazil to understand the potential for developing the bioeconomy. Five food products (açaí, yerba mate, Brazil nut, pequi, and araucaria seed) and carnauba powder showed increasing value to producers while four other products (hevea latex, babassu almond, carnauba wax, and piassaba fibre) showed the opposite trend. We conclude that despite these products’ productive and economic potentials, creating an appropriate environment with financial incentives and investments in research and development of technologies for NTFP harvesting, processing, and commercialisation, is necessary to enhance and realise their contribution to the forest-based bioeconomy.
