Ecological Economics 31 1999 439 – 448
ANALYSIS
Enriching the rainforest with native fruit trees: an ecological and economic analysis in Los Tuxtlas Veracruz, Mexico
Martin Ricker
a,
, Robert O. Mendelsohn
b
, Douglas C. Daly
c
, Guillermo A
´ ngeles
d
a
Jardı´n Bota´nico del Instituto de Biologı´a, Uni6ersidad Nacional Auto´noma de Me´xico, Apartado postal
70
-
614
, Delegacio´n Coyoaca´n, D.F.
04510
, Mexico
b
School of Forestry and En6ironmental Studies, Yale Uni6ersity,
360
Prospect Street, New Ha6en CT
06511
, USA
c
The New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, New York, NY
10458
-
5126
, USA
d
Estacio´n de Biologı´a
‘
Los Tuxtlas
’
, Uni6ersidad Nacional Auto´noma de Me´xico, Apartado postal
94
, San Andre´s Tuxtla, Veracruz
95700
, Mexico Received 23 October 1998; received in revised form 14 June 1999; accepted 14 June 1999
Abstract
Tropical forests continue to be deforested because forest owners believe they can earn more income through land uses involving forest conversion. A case study in a Mexican rainforest revealed that enrichment planting with the
native tree species Pouteria sapota ‘mamey’ is a management approach that can increase the commercial value of the forest enough to compete with these destructive land uses. Depending on the land value, planting more than 40 – 200
seedlings per hectare into the natural forest is expected to have a higher net present value than one hectare of existing cattle pasture. To arrive at this conclusion, we were able to project long-term tree growth and fruit production from
a few years’ increment measurements, based on a new method for estimating ages of tropical trees without annual growth rings. This approach facilitates rather rapid cost-benefit analysis of tropical forest management with native
species. © 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords
:
Forest economics; Fruit trees; Pouteria sapota; Rainforest; Tree growth; Valuation www.elsevier.comlocateecolecon
1. Introduction
As tropical deforestation continues Dirzo and Garcı´a, 1991; Cairns et al., 1995, the future of
those tropical forests not under effective protec- tion of conservation units hinges on the applica-
tion of forest management strategies that can yield economic returns comparable if not superior
to destructive land uses. The implicit challenge is to develop and apply methods, both in economics
and in forest ecology, that potentiate cost-benefit
Corresponding author. Fax: + 52-5-6229046. E-mail address
:
mrickerservidor.unam.mx M. Ricker 0921-800999 - see front matter © 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 9 2 1 - 8 0 0 9 9 9 0 0 0 6 8 - 3
analyses in a relatively short time-frame. In the forest, this means being able to project long-term
production levels for a given management regime, founded on empirical data over only a few years.
Our study utilized this approach to calculate the commercial value of enrichment planting with
data collected over three years. Such enrichment planting consists of planting and managing com-
mercially valuable tree species inside the existing forest. The study was carried out in the rainforest
at the biological research station of the Universi- dad Nacional Auto´noma de Me´xico in Los Tuxt-
las Veracruz, Mexico, about 30 km from the city of San Andre´s Tuxtla for more information see
Ibarra-Manrı´quez et al., 1997. The employed tree species, Pouteria sapota Jacquin H.E. Moore
and Stearn ‘mamey’; Sapotaceae, is native to this forest but occurs naturally only in low densi-
ties of about one tree per hectare. Its sweet fruits of 200 to over 600 g are found in local markets in
southern Mexico, as well as in Mexico City’s supermarkets. The native range of P. sapota is
probably southern Mexico to Nicaragua Pen- nington, 1990, but it has been introduced in
Florida, the Caribbean, South America, and Southeast Asia Morton, 1987; Oyen, 1991.
The seedlings of P. sapota have their maximum growth rate in the forest understory. In an ecolog-
ical analysis, the optimal canopy openness during the first 2 years after germination and transplant-
ing was 60 Ricker, 1998. Furthermore, existing adult trees can produce high fruit yields both
inside and outside the forest environment. These ecological characteristics make the species suitable
for forest enrichment.
2. Methods and results
