**1. Introduction**

*Bertholletia excelsa* Bonpl. (Brazil nut tree) is one of the most prominent species of the Amazon forests. It has called the attention to human populations since early occupation by the first Amerindians to the present day [1], since scientific evidence suggests that some dense *B. excelsa* stands have anthropogenic origins [2]. Its seeds are widely consumed and highly valued in regional, national and international markets. It is of great economic importance, especially across Brazil, Bolivia, and Peru [3, 4], being a source of income for thousands of local communities, as indigenous, riverine, and "*quilombola*" communities [5]. Brazil nuts are the only internationally marketed seed product collected exclusively from old-growth tropical forests [6, 7].

Management of Brazil nut groves is seen as an important strategy for forest conservation and local development [3, 6, 8, 9].

Brazil nut economic importance gained greater dimensions with the crisis in the natural rubber economy, starting from the 1930s. Commercialization of Brazil nuts was structured on the same basis as the commercialization of natural rubber, following the logic of the "*aviamento*," where the commercial relationship is based on the exchange of products, without the flow of money. In this system, extractivists provide products such as rubber and Brazil nuts to the "bosses," who, in return, provide basic subsistence products. Historically, in this exchange relationship, extractivists ended up indebted, characterizing themselves as social groups devoid of economic strength and political insertion, and presenting themselves as fragilely organized and distant from decision-making centers [10].

Most extractive forest products undergo economic cycles marked by three phases: growth in volumes extracted due to the awakening of economic interest; the limit of supply capacity in view of available stocks; and the decline in extraction with the start of commercial substitute plantations [11]. The commercial collection of nuts, through extractivism, has lasted for more than a century, making it an exception to this typical cycle of forest extractives. Between 1998 and 2017, Brazil nut production fluctuated between 23,000 tons and 42,000 tons per year, strongly linked to natural variation of annual fruit production and individual tree productivity [12]. Despite the high intensity of fruit collection, Brazil nut collection does not jeopardize the natural regeneration and maintenance of it populations [13]. Its total production has been increasing year after year, jumping from R\$ 9.6 million in 1998 to R\$ 105 million in 2017 [14].

The large number of people involved in collecting Brazil nuts and their economic importance underscore the need to unveil the impacts of this activity on the livelihoods of Amazonian extractivists. This chapter aims to present socioeconomic and cultural characteristics of Brazil nut collectors from three different regional contexts in the Brazilian Amazon, depicting their production systems and identifying individual perceptions about the effects of this activity on their livelihoods and on the conservation of forest ecosystems.

### **2. Extractivism of Brazil nut as a livelihood for Amazonian peoples**

#### **2.1 Methodology**

The study was carried out in the Brazilian Amazon, in the municipalities of Almeirim, Manicoré and Cotriguaçu, in the states of Pará (PA), Amazonas (AM), and Mato Grosso (MT), respectively (**Figure 1**). The choice was due to the possibility of access to Brazil nut collectors, made possible through partnerships with local institutions. Data collection was carried out through in-depth interviews [15] with Brazil nut collectors, either men, women or young people directly involved in the activity.

In order to identify possible differences of livelihood outcomes, data collection was stratified in relation to their market-oriented organization levels: (i) collectors selling directly to middlemen, called informal; (ii) collectors organized in local associations; and (iii) collectors organized in local and regional cooperatives. In the municipality of Almeirim-PA, community associations have played an important role in organizing the collective commercialization of nuts, at the same time, many collectors still sell directly to middlemen. In Manicoré-AM, the collectors interviewed are part of a cooperative called Cooperativa Verde de Manicoré (COVEMA). In Cotriguaçu, the study included

Bertholletia excelsa*: Key Species for Sustainable Livelihoods and Forest Conservation DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109775*

**Figure 1.** *Location of the target cities of the surveys.*

producers organized in the Associação dos Coletores de Castanha-do-brasil do PA Juruena (ACCPAJ), as well as indigenous people of the Rikbaktsa ethnic group from the Terra Indígena do Escondido, who sell nuts informally, although starting a formal association. In total, 119 collectors (n) were interviewed, of which 50 (42%) trade with middlemen, 39 (32.8%) trade through associations, and 30 (25.2%) through cooperatives.

Interviews were composed of two parts. The first part was designed to characterize the socioeconomic context of producers and their production and marketing systems. The second part aimed at identifying collectors' individual perceptions of the effects of extractive activities on their livelihood capitals, for which indicators related to five capitals (human, social, physical, financial, and natural) were developed based on the Sustainable Livelihood Framework [16, 17].

In addition to Brazil nut collectors, key informants were interviewed, such as members of the board of directors of community associations, community leaders, and/or former members of the community. These interviews were designed to raise general aspects of the communities in relation to their infrastructure, access to public services, population, main economic activities, collective institutions engaged in community organization, and a brief historical view.

Contextual data and overall information collected from key informants were analyzed using descriptive statistics and exploratory data analysis with graphical representations of the results and cross-referencing techniques. Interviews on collectors' individual perceptions of the effects of extractive activity on their livelihood capitals were analyzed using the "sustainable livelihoods approach" [16–18]. Each indicator was assessed through open-ended questions, from which the answers were subsequently categorized. The focus was on the impacts of each production stage until the commercialization. The answers translate the interviewees' perceptions of the existence, nature, and intensity of impacts on livelihood capital, being represented by ordinal scores as very negative (0), negative (0.25), neutral (0.5), positive (0.75), and very positive (1).

For each interview, a value was determined for each capital based on the simple arithmetic average of the indicators (questions) referring to that capital. From the value of each interview, the value of capital was determined, separating each of the situations studied. The averages referring to each indicator and each capital were compared using non-parametric statistics, as the Kruskal-Wallis followed by Wilcoxon Two-Sample Test, using R computation environment [19].
