Estrutura populacional e comercialização do óleo de andiroba (Campa guianensis Aubl.) em área de assentamento no município de Santarém, Estado do Pará.

Abstract

The Forest vegetation can represent a potential factor for the economy of agriculturist in rural settlements. Ifthe forest areas are well managed they can produce timber and non-timber products for long periods as subsistence production as well as large scale commercial production. The stock of the forest products must be evaluated by using forest inventories data from those areas. Furthermore, studies on market and chain of custody, mainly for the non-timber products must be performed in order to suggest about the economical viability. Trees of Carapa guianensis are among the main Amazonian trees with potential multiple uses, including timber products and seeds for oil production. Santo Antonio Community is among the 28 communities that compose the Moju I and II Settlement in the municipality of Santarém, State of Para. That community has got a sustainable forest management plan that is being applied by a forest enterprise for harvesting timber, but it also extracts Carapa oil in a small scale. The present study evaluated the use of C. guianensis for income generation in the Santo Antonio Community and the oil market in the municipality of Satarém in the West of Para State. The results showed that the species has a number of trees enough to be managed for timber as well as for oil production. Nowadays the oil production is not an economically feasible activity but if the production scale will increase using the present tree stock existing in the forest so the activity can be feasible resulting on income generation for the community. The timber harvest can generate incomes for the community but the oil production can bring more profits. The sale of the oil produced by the community is not feasible economically because of the high production costs and the low price for selling in the Santarém market. Moreover, even if the oil production scale increases the local market will not be able to receive the product mainly because of the market in Santarém receives oil from other regions paying prices lower than that proposed by the Santo Antonio Community. In spite ofthis the management ofthe species for non-timber products must have priority over other activities in the community because of the conservation of the natural resources and the income generation. But the community must look for other markets where a higher production can be sold.