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Article: Harvest may be too heavy to last.(Brazil Nut Loss Looms)
- Article from:
- Science News
- Article date:
- December 20, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 Science Service, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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What are now rich forest areas for harvesting Brazil nuts might wane into an impoverished old age unless harvesters change their ways, warns a large international group of scientists.
Brazil nuts alone among internationally traded seed crops come entirely from wild collections in the forest, rather than from farms. Conservationists have praised nut collection as a model for generating income from a tropical forest without destroying it.
That happy view may need rethinking, according to Carlos A. Peres of the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England, and his 16 colleagues. An analysis of tree ages in 23 spots in lowland Amazonia suggests that ...