Palms as key swamp forest resources in Amazonia

Native palms are present in all wetland forests in the Amazon basin. They provide many useful products, and have a significant place in the daily life of most inhabitants of Amazonia. Only a few species, however, have economic potential as edible fruit, oil, palm heart for canning, fiber, and starch, or constitute a gene resource that could be tapped for genetic improvement of cultivated or promising native species. The species of economic importance, mainly Euterpe oleracea, E. precatoria, Jessenia bataua, and Mauritia flexuosa, are not equally distributed in wetland forest ecosystems. They form dense and extensive populations in the seasonal swamp forests of upland valleys, and on swampy areas which are permanently flooded by standing water in the floodplain of the main rivers. In both cases, the soils are unsuitable for agriculture. The management of native palms in these swamp forests could provide several products, such as oil or starch, which at present are obtained from deforested areas of the uplands. In this way, it could contribute to limiting the destruction of species-rich terra-firme forests.