Use of Amazonian floodplain trees

Use of Amazonian floodplain trees

 

Amazonian floodplain trees are used for a variety of purposes. Easy access to floodplain forests, the variety of timber and non-timber forest products (NTFPs), and especially the low cost of timber harvesting, processing and transport lead to an intense use of many floodplain tree species. Quantitative inventories in várzea forests indicate that up to 70% of all tree species are useful to the floodplain inhabitants and/or extractors. In Brazilian Amazonia, quantitative most important use category is timber for the construction of homes, boats, and floating houses, followed by phyto-medical extracts from trees, and edible fruits. Other uses each derived by few or even a single tree species might be of some economic importance when extraction occurs next to the markets. Although timber from up to 70 different várzea tree species is used for different purposes, timber extraction concentrates on comparatively few species. Most timber species occur in the high-várzea, and some of them already disappeared from local markets due to overexploitation. While the net present values of timber are easy to quantify, the value of some NTFPs to the inhabitants is indirect and difficult to measure. The importance of NTFPs is still under-represented in sustainable forest management planning.