Challenges and Perspectives of Pinhão Production Considering the Dimensions of Sustainability: A Study in a City in Southern Brazil

Introduction

The production chains of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) have been operating in Brazil for centuries since the commercialization of the so-called drogas do sertão [drugs of the sertão], which were commodities consisting of plants and spices grown in the region. These production chains were pointed out by Fausto (2006) as one of the productive clusters of Colonial Brazil in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. While gold was produced in Minas Gerais State and sugar in the mills of northeastern Brazil, the Amazon region was dedicated to harvesting non-timber forest products.

It is estimated that the Jesuit priests obtained revenues exceeding 2 million pounds sterling selling NTFPs to all of Europe in the seventeenth century (Fausto, 2006). In fact, the occupation of Brazil was strongly motivated by the search for the so-called spices widely found in the Indies in the period preceding the colonization of Brazil. According to Schwarcz and Starling (2015), in one of the expeditions in search of these products, the Portuguese ‘accidentally’ came across Brazil; therefore, the exploitation of NTFPs is closely associated with the country’s history.

The Amazon biome was protected from deforestation mainly because the Portuguese wanted to exploit the so-called drogas do sertão, such as the Brazil nut (Bertholletia excelsa) and cacao (Theobroma cacao), the so-called NTFPs, products whose production demands the conservation of tree species. In other Brazilian territories, such as the south, the native vegetation slowly began being substituted by fields for livestock production. It is estimated that today there are 2–4% of the original Atlantic Forest (Guerra et al., 2002), while there is still at least 80% of the Amazon biome (INPE, 2020). Hence, it is not an exaggeration to say that stimulating the production of NTFPs can contribute to preserving native biomes, as has occurred since the colonization of Brazil in the Amazon region.

The pinhão is a type of NTFP commonly found in southern Brazil. The annual productivity of this product has varied considerably in recent decades, ranging from 4,396 tons in 2003 to 5,715 tons in 2010. As of 2010, production has risen, reaching 9,638 tons in 2012 (IBGE, 2017). In addition to these numbers, the sociocultural importance of NTFPs in general and pinhão in particular is a recurring agenda as many people who collect these products accumulate knowledge about the local flora and collection activities. This is especially true in communities where NTFP production is carried out in groups and taught since childhood (Barbosa et al., 2020, Silva-Jean et al., 2022; 2017; 2020).

Therefore, it is possible to note social, economic, and environmental aspects in pinhão production, inducing an analysis of its production chain in light of sustainability as a broad terminology, as per the definition by Sachs (2007). The concept of sustainability has been discussed and rediscussed numerous times; one of the most debated definitions in the literature is undoubtedly that of Ignacy Sachs, who conceptualizes sustainability as a guiding principle based on eight dimensions: social, economic, ecological, environmental, spatial, cultural, territorial, and political (Sachs, 2007). Throughout this text, these dimensions will be deepened.

The production chains of NTFPs, as a sequence of activities that involve a set of actors, have been reported as an important ally in this process of search for sustainability defined by Ignacy Sachs, that is, in the following aspects: social, cultural, ecological, environmental, territorial, economic, and political (Pedrozo et al., 2011; Silva-Jean et al., 2022; Barbosa et al., 2020).