RIO DE JANEIRO ¨C Alongside the Brazilian Amazon¡¯s vast soy and cattle ranching economy ¡ª a major driver of deforestation ¡ª sits an older, more sustainable system of families and cooperatives producing forest products including the palm fruit acai, rubber and pharmaceutical ingredients.
That ¡°bioeconomy,¡± with its legions of small producers, including Indigenous communities, receives just a fraction of the flood of investment pouring into expanding soy and cattle.
As Brazil tries to protect its fast-vanishing rainforest, reduce inequality and build a more sustainable economy, finding ways to shift investment toward expanding the bioeconomy may be the best chance to protect the Amazon and its people, experts say.
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