Financial Analysis of the Production of Cernambi in the Tapajós National Forest with the Green Value Tool

Abstract

The sale of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) by forest-dependent, traditional families in the Brazilian Amazon is an important source of family income. Cooperatives are increasingly supporting this activity through technical assistance and/or help accessing markets. Scarce information exists, however, on the costs and income generated from NTFP extraction for individual producers or for the support programs implemented by cooperatives. Nonetheless, this information is essential for operational planning and future decision making, as well as the financial sustainability of these activities. We present a financial analysis of the production of cernambi (coagulated natural rubber extracted from the tree species Hevea brasiliensis M. Arg.) by families living in and around the Tapajós National Forest in the western region of Pará state, and the sale of the rubber by the Tapajós National Forest Mixed Cooperative (Coomflona), which also provides technical assistance to the families. The analysis was carried out with an individual rubber tapper and members of the Coomflona cooperative based on a methodology developed specifically for use by community-based forest enterprises and their partner organizations. Our results show that the production of cernambi, at the time of the analysis, was profitable and constituted an important source of income for the producer family. However, the profitability of the producer depended on the support of Coomflona in the marketing and product collection stages – for which the profitability proved to be negative. The analysis allowed the evaluation of several alternative scenarios as well as the identification of production bottlenecks and a discussion of potential solutions.