Harvest of the PalmChamaedorea radicalis, Its Effects on Leaf Production, and Implications for Sustainable Management

Abstract

Abstract: Few studies have integrated local management strategies with ecological experiments to assess the harvest and management of nontimber forest products, even though nontimber forest resources are primarily managed by local communities. To understand the harvest and management of leaves from the understory palmChamaedorea radicalisMart. in the El Cielo Biosphere Reserve, Mexico, we documented local management practices and used this information to conduct an experiment to examine the effect of several leaf‐harvest regimes on leaf production, length, and yield. We interviewed palm harvesters to document harvest and management strategies and collected data on the number of leaves sold by 12 harvesters over 32 months to estimate the number of leaves harvested per year in the community of Alta Cima. In January 1999, we established 10 study plots (50 palms/plot; n= 500) to conduct our harvest experiment. Plots were divided into subplots of 10 palms each, and treatments were randomly assigned to subplots. The treatments were as follows: control, 1×/year, 2×/year, and 4×/year harvest, and a modified 4×/year harvest, during which one leaf at most was removed each time. Leaf production, length, and yield were recorded through August 2001. Palm harvesting was intense, with an average of 4000 leaves harvested per collector per month. Harvest resulted in a modest increase in leaf production; however, leaves produced in the harvest treatments were significantly shorter than those in the control. This reduction in leaf length led to a 41–68% decline in yield after 2 years because many leaves produced were too short to be marketable. This response suggests that leaf harvesting is not a stable source of income for communities in El Cielo. Because we tailored our experimental treatments to approximate current harvest practices and potentially acceptable alternatives, our results were directly relevant to communities and interpretable within the local context.