Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Demography of Oenocarpus bataua and implications for sustainable harvest of its fruit in western Amazon

  • Original article
  • Published:
Population Ecology

Abstract

Oenocarpus bataua is the seventh most abundant tree in the Amazon and one of the most used palms in the region. The main resource obtained from the species is the fruits that are harvested from wild populations for human consumption. Across its distribution area adults are most frequently felled to obtain the racemes, which may affect the palm’s populations. In this paper we studied the demography of two populations of Oenocarpus bataua to assess the harvest potential of its fruits and the density variation in different habitats in the western Amazon to estimate fruit yields in different forest types. Non-inundated lands held the greatest densities with an average of 11 adults ha−1 (0–132 adults ha−1). The population finite growth rate (λ) in Amacayacu, Colombia, was 0.9103 because of slow growth and low survival of stemless individuals and low recruitment. On the contrary, in Yasuní, Ecuador, we found a growing population with λ = 1.0368. According to our simulations, adult felling reduced transient population growth (λ t ) in both populations, especially when harvest was frequent even at low intensities. In Amacayacu a simulated harvest of 60 % year−1 of the fruits by climbing did not modify λ t substantially, while in Yasuní, a regime of 80 % of annual harvest did not diminish λ t below one and the initial number of adults. The results help to understand the demography of useful palms and to address sustainable management. For instance high yields can be obtained by shifting to non-destructive harvest techniques that can meet the increasing demand and maintain the populations.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Anderson-Teixeira KJ, Davies SJ, Bennett AC, Gonzalez-Akre EB, Muller-Landau HC, Joseph Wright S, Abu-Salim K, Almeyda-Zambrano AM, Alonso A, Baltzer JL, Basset Y, Bourg NA, Broadbent EN, Brockelman WY, Bunyavejchewin S, Burslem DFRP, Butt N, Cao M, Cardenas D, Chuyong GB, Clay K, Cordell S, Dattaraja H, Deng X, Detto M, Du X, Duque A, Erikson D, Ewango C, Fischer GA, Fletcher C, Foster RB, Giardina CP, Gilbert GS, Gunatilleke N, Gunatilleke S, Hao Z, Hargrove WW, Hart TB, Hau BCH, He F, Hoffman FM, Howe RW, Hubbell SP, Inmannarahari FM, Jansen PA, Jiang M, Johnson DJ, Kanzaki M, Kassim AR, Kenfack A, Kibet S, Kinnaird MF, Korte L, Kral K, Kumar J, Larson AJ, Li Y, Li X, Liu S, Lum SKY, Lutz JA, Ma K, Maddalena DM, Makana JR, Malhi Y, Marthews T, serudin RM, Mcmahon SM, McShea WJ, Memiaghe H, Mi X, Mizuno T, Morecroft M, Myers JA, Novotny V, De Oliveira AA, Ong PS, Orwig DA, Oserta R, Den Ouden J, Parker GG, Phillips RP, Sack L, Sainge MN, Sang W, Sri-Ngernyuang K, Sukumar R, Sun F, Sungpalee, Suresh HS, Tan S, Thomas SC, Thomas DW, Thompson J, Turner BL, Uriarte M, Valencia R, Vallejo MI, Vicentini A, Vraka T, Wang X, Wang X, Weiblen G, Wolf A, Yap S (2015) CTFS-ForestGEO: a worldwide network monitoring forests in an era of global change. Glob Change Biol 21:528–549

  • Balick MJ (1986) Systematics and economic botany of the Oenocarpus—Jessenia (Palmae) complex. Advances in Economic Botany 3. The New York Botanical Gardener, New York

  • Balslev H (2011) Palm harvest impacts in north-western South America. Bot Rev 77:370–380

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Balslev H, Eiserhardt W, Kristiansen T, Pedersen D, Grandez C (2010) Palms and palm communities in the upper Ucayali river valley—a little known region in the Amazon basin. Palms 54:57–72

    Google Scholar 

  • Balslev H, Durán ZP, Pedersen D, Eiserhardt WL, Asturizaga AS, Paniagua-Zambrana N (2012) Subandean and adjacent lowland palm communities in Bolivia. Ecol Boliv 47:7–36

    Google Scholar 

  • Bates DM (1988) Utilization pools: a framework for comparing and evaluating the economic importance of palms. Adv Econ Bot 6:56–64

    Google Scholar 

  • Bernal R (1998) Demography of the vegetable ivory palm Phytelephas seemannii in Colombia and the impact of seed harvesting. J Appl Ecol 35:64–67

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bernal R, Torres MC, García N, Isaza C, Navarro J, Vallejo MI, Galeano G, Balslev H (2011) Palm management in South America. Bot Rev 77:607–646

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bodmer RE (1991) Strategies of seed dispersal and seed predation in Amazonian ungulates. Biotropica 23:255–261

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brokamp G, Valderrama N, Mittelbach M, Grandez CA, Barfod AS, Weigend M (2011) Trade in palm products in North-Western South America. Bot Rev 77:571–606

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cámara-Leret R, Paniagua-Zambrana N, Balslev H, Macía JM (2014) Ethnobotanical knowledge is vastly under-documented in northwestern South America. Plos One 9:e85794

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Caswell H (2001) Matrix population models—construction, analysis, and interpretation, 2nd edn. Sinauer Associates, Sunderland

    Google Scholar 

  • Cevallos D, Valencia R, Montúfar R (2013) Ungurahua. In: Valencia R, Montúfar R, Navarrete H, Balslev H (eds) Palmas ecuatorianas: biología y uso sostenible. Herbario QCA de la Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, Quito, pp 209–224 (in Spanish)

    Google Scholar 

  • Core Team R (2014) R: a language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna

    Google Scholar 

  • Corpoamazonia-Corporación para el Desarrollo Sostenible del Sur de la Amazonia (2010) Resolución 0727 del 19 de julio de 2010. Estatuto de Flora Silvestre—Aprovechamiento de productos forestales no maderables (PFNM); Corpoamazonia, Bogotá (in Spanish)

  • Da Silva JMC, Rylands AB, Da Fonseca GAB (2005) The Fate of the amazonian areas of endemism. Conserv Biol 19:689–694

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Easterling MR, Ellner SP, Dixon PM (2000) Size-specific sensitivity: applying a new structured population model. Ecology 81:694–708

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eiserhardt WL, Svenning JC, Kissling WD, Balslev H (2011) Geographical ecology of the palms (Arecaceae): determinants of diversity and distributions across spatial scales. Ann Bot-London 108:1391–1416

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ellner SP, Rees M (2006) Integral projection models for species with complex demography. Am Nat 167:410–428

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Espinoza JC, Ronchail J, Frappart F, Lavado W, Santini W, Guyot JL (2013) The major floods in the Amazonas river and tributaries (Western Amazon Basin) during the 1970–2012 period: a focus on the 2012 flood. J Hydrometeorol 14:1000–1008

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ferrer-Cervantes ME, Méndez-González ME, Quintana-Ascencio PF, Dorantes A, Dzib G, Durán R (2012) Population dynamics of the cactus Mammillaria gaumeri: an integral projection model approach. Popul Ecol 54:321–334

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Freckleton RP, Matos DM, Bovi MLA, Watkinson ER (2003) Predicting the impacts of harvesting using structured population models: the importance of density-dependence and timing of harvest for a tropical palm tree. J App Ecol 40:846–858

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Galeano G, Bernal R (2010) Palmas de Colombia. Guía de campo, 1st edn. Editorial Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá (in Spanish)

  • Groenendijk P, Eshete A, Sterck FJ, Zuidema PA, Bongers F (2012) Limitations to sustainable frankincense production: blocked regeneration, high adult mortality and declining populations. J Appl Ecol 49:164–173

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Henderson A, Galeano G, Bernal R (1995) Field guide to the tropical palms of the Americas. Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Google Scholar 

  • Isaza C (2013) Milpesos (Oenocarpus bataua). In: Bernal R, Galeano G (eds) Cosechar sin destruir. Aprovechamiento sostenible de palmas colombianas. Facultad de Ciencias-Instituto de Ciencias Naturales. Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá, pp 126–133 (in Spanish)

  • Kristiansen T, Svenning JC, Grández C, Salo J, Balslev H (2009) Commonness of Amazonian palm (Arecaceae) species: cross-scale links and potential determinants. Acta Oecol 35:554–562

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lewis SL, Brando PM, Phillips OL, van der Heijden GM, Nepstad D (2011) The 2010 amazon drought. Science 331:554

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Löfgren A (1995) Distribution patterns and population structure of an economically important Amazon palm, Jessenia bataua (Mart.) Burret ssp. bataua in Bolivia. Växtekologi 2:1–20

    Google Scholar 

  • Macía-Ruiz GC, Duque AJ, Cárdenas D, Maniguaje NL, Barreto JS (2011) Efectos de la sequía del 2010 en las tasas de mortalidad de árboles de un bosque de tierra firme en la Amazonia Colombiana. Revista Colombiana Amazónica 4(105):112 (in Spanish with English abstract)

    Google Scholar 

  • Marengo JA, Tomasella J, Alves LM, Soares WR, Rodriguez DA (2011) The drought of 2010 in the context of historical droughts in the Amazon region. Geophys Res Lett 38(12)

  • Martínez-Ballesté A, Martorell C, Martínez-Ramos M, Caballero C (2005) Applying retrospective demographic models to assess sustainable use: the Maya management of Xa’an palms. Ecol Soc 10:17

    Google Scholar 

  • Martorell C, Garcillán PP, Casillas F (2012) Ruderality in extreme-desert cacti? Population effects of chronic anthropogenic disturbance on Echinocereus lindsayi. Popul Ecol 54:335–346

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Merow C, Dahlgren JP, Metcalf CJE, Childs DZ, Evans MEK, Jongejans E, Record S, Rees M, Salguero-Gómez R, McMahon SM (2014) Advancing population ecology with integral projection models: a practical guide. Methods Ecol Evol 5:99–110

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miller C (2002) Fruit production of the ungurahua palm (Oenocarpus bataua subsp. bataua, Arecaceae) in an indigenous managed reserve. Econ Bot 56:165–176

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miranda J, Zenteno F, Nina H, Mercado J (2008) El Majo (Oenocarpus bataua): una alternativa de biocomercio en Bolivia. Ediciones TRÓPICO, La Paz (in Spanish)

    Google Scholar 

  • Miranda J, Moraes MR, Müller R (2009) Estructura poblacional, producción de frutos y uso tradicional de la palmera “majo” (Oenocarpus bataua Mart) en bosque montano (La Paz, Bolivia). Rev GAB 1:4–10 (in Spanish with English abstract)

    Google Scholar 

  • Montúfar R, Pinatud JC (2006) Variation in species composition, abundance and microhabitat preferences among western Amazonian terra firme palm communities. Bot J Linn Soc 151:127–140

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Montúfar R, Laffargue A, Pintaud JC, Hamon S, Avallone S, Dussert S (2010) Oenocarpus bataua Mart. (Arecaceae): rediscovering a source of high oleic vegetable oil from Amazonia. J Am Oil Chem Soc 87:167–172

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nazareno AG, dos Reis MS (2014) At risk of population decline? An ecological and genetic approach to the threatened palm species Butia eriospatha (Arecaceae) of Southern Brazil. J Hered 105:120–129

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Organization of American States—OAS (2005) Amazon river basin: Integrated and sustainable management of transboundary water resources in the Amazon River Basin. Available via Water project series No. 8. https://www.oas.org/dsd/Events/english/Documents/OSDE_8Amazon.pdf. Accessed 28 Sep 2014

  • Peralta C, Tonore C, Miranda J (2010) Potencial natural y económico del majo (Oenocarpus bataua) en el norte amazónico y la región de Guanay (La Paz) en Bolivia. Technical paper. Universidad Autonóma de Beni, Bolivia (in Spanish)

  • Peters CM (1996) Sustainable harvest of non-timber plant resources in tropical moist forest: an ecological primer. Biodiversity Support Program, Washington DC

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Peters CM, Balick MJ, Kahn F, Anderson AB (1989) Oligarchic forests of economic plants in Amazonia: utilization and conservation of an important tropical resource. Conserv Biol 3:341–349

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pinard MA, Putz FE (1992) Population matrix models and palm resource management. Bull Instr Fr études andines 21:637–649

    Google Scholar 

  • República de Bolivia (2006) Norma Técnica para Aprovechamiento Comercial Sostenible de Recursos Forestales No Maderables en Bosques y Tierras Forestales Naturales. Resolución ministerial 22, Ministerio de Desarrollo Sostenible, La Paz (in Spanish)

  • República del Ecuador (2009) Texto Unificado de la Legislación Ambiental Secundaria en Ecuador (TULAS). Libro IV de la biodiversidad, Ministerio del Ambiente, Quito (in Spanish)

    Google Scholar 

  • República del Perú (2001) Ley Forestal y de Fauna Silvestre. Decreto Supremo 014-2001-AG de agosto 4. Congreso de la República del Perú, Lima (in Spanish)

  • Rocha E (2004) Potencial ecológico para o manejo de frutos de açaizero (Euterpe precatoria Mart.) em áreas extrativistas no Acre, Brazil. Acta Amaz 34:237–250 (in Portuguese with English abstract)

    Google Scholar 

  • Rojas RR, Correa A, Serna-Sánchez E (2008) Sombra de semillas, supervivencia de plántulas y distribución espacial de Oenocarpus bataua (Arecaceae) en un bosque de los Andes colombianos. Actualidades Biologicas 30:125–135 (in Spanish with English abstract)

    Google Scholar 

  • Svenning JC (1999) Recruitment of tall arborescent palms in the Yasuní National Park, Amazonian Ecuador: are large treefall gaps important? J Trop Ecol 15:355–366

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Svenning JC (2001) On the role of microenvironmental heterogeneity in the ecology and diversification of neotropical rain-forest palms (Arecaceae). Bot Rev 67:1–53

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ter Steege N, Pitman NCA, Sabatier D, Baraloto C, Salomão RP, Guevara JE, Phillips OL, Castilho CV, Magnusson WE, Molino JF, Monteagudo A, Núñez-Vargas P, Montero JC, Feldpausch TR, Honorio Coronado E, Killeen TJ, Mostacedo B, Vásquez R, Assis RL, Terborgh J, Wittmann F, Andrade A, Laurance WF, Laurance SGW, Marimon BS, Marimon Jr BH, Guimarães-Vieira IC, Leão Amaral I, Brienen R, Castellanos H, Cárdenas López D, Duivenvoorden JF, Mogollón HF, de Almeida Matos DF, Dávila N, García-Villacorta R, Stevenson PR, Costa F, Emilio T, Levis C, Schietti J, Souza P, Alonso A, Dallmeier T, Duque Montoya AJ, Fernandez Piedade MT, Araujo-Murakami A, Arroyo L, Gribel R, Fine PVA, Peres CA, Toledo M, Aymard GA, Baker TR, Cerón C, Ángel J, Henkel TW, Maas P, Petronelli P, Stropp J, Zartman CE, Daly D, Neill D, Silveira M, Ríos Paredes M, Chave J, Lima Filho D de A, Møller Jørgensen P, Fuentes A, Schöngart J, Cornejo Valverde F, Di Fiore A, Jiménez EM, Peñuela Mora MC, Phillips JF, Rivas G, van Andel T, von Hildebrand P, Hoffman B, Zent EL, Malhi Y, Prieto A, Rudas A, Ruschell AR, Silva N, Vos V, Zent S, Oliveira AA, Cano Schutz A, Gonzales T, Nascimento MT, Ramírez-Angulo H, Sierra R, Tirado M, Umaña Medina MN, van der Heijden G, Vela CIA, Vilanova Torre E, Vriesendorp C, Wang O, Young KR, Baider C, Balslev H, Ferreira C, Mesones I, Torres-Lezama A, Urrego Giraldo LE, Zagt R, Alexiades MN, Hernández L, Huamantupa-Chuquimaco I, Milliken W, Palacios Cuenca W, Paulette D, Valderrama Sandoval E, Valenzuela-Gamarra L, Dexter KG, Feeley K, López-González G, Silman MR (2013) Hyperdominance in the Amazonian Tree Flora. Science 342: 1243092

  • Ticktin T (2004) The ecological implications of harvesting non-timber forest products. J Appl Ecol 41:11–21

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vallejo MI, Galeano G, Bernal R, Zuidema PA (2014) The fate of populations of Euterpe oleracea harvested for palm heart in Colombia. Forest Ecol Manag 318:274–284

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vasquez R, Gentry AH (1989) Use and misuse of forest-harvested fruits in the Iquitos Area. Conserv Biol 3:350–361

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Zuidema PA, Boot RGA (2000) Demographic constraints to sustainable palm heart extraction from a sub-canopy palm in Bolivia. In: Zuidema PA (ed) Demography of exploited tree species in the Bolivian Amazon. Scientific series 2, PROMAB, Riberalta, Bolivia, pp 54–79

Download references

Acknowledgments

We especially thank the community of San Martín de Amacayacu. We are grateful to Rodrigo Bernal for advice. We thank Yisela Figueroa, Jaime Navarro, María Fernanda González, David Jiménez, Carolina Amorocho, Luis Alberto Núñez, Tarek Milleron, Angel Pijachi, Javier Carreño, Rodrigo Cámara-Leret, Samira Kolyaie, Marco Girardello and Marco Antonio Romero. Financial support from the program Generación del Bicentenario de Formación doctoral “Francisco José de Caldas” de Colciencias, División de Investigación sede Bogotá (DIB) of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia (cod. 14756), the EU-FP7-PALMS project (No. 212631), the International Foundation for Science—OPCW partnership programme (cod. 5129-1), Fundación para el Avance de la Ciencia y la Tecnología del Banco de la República (cod. 3065), and Coimbra Group scholarship, Programme for Young Professors and Researchers from Latin American Universities.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Ecología y Recursos Naturales, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Circuito Exterior S/N, Cd. Universitaria, 04510, México, DF, Mexico

    Carlos Martorell

  2. Instituto de Ciencias Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá, Colombia

    Carolina Isaza & Gloria Galeano

  3. Laboratorio de Ecología de Plantas, Escuela de Ciencias Biológicas, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Ecuador, Quito, Ecuador

    Daniela Cevallos & Renato Valencia

  4. Ecoinformatics and Biodiversity, Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark

    Henrik Balslev

Authors
  1. Carolina Isaza
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Carlos Martorell
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Daniela Cevallos
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Gloria Galeano
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Renato Valencia
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Henrik Balslev
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Carlos Martorell.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary material 1 (PDF 1770 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Isaza, C., Martorell, C., Cevallos, D. et al. Demography of Oenocarpus bataua and implications for sustainable harvest of its fruit in western Amazon. Popul Ecol 58, 463–476 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10144-016-0543-4

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10144-016-0543-4

Keywords

Search

Navigation