MEETING BRAZIL NUTS IN THE RAINFOREST
Many years ago, I spent several months volunteering with an ecotourism operation in the Peruvian Amazon. When I wasn't helping around the lodge, I spent a great deal of my time exploring the forest.
There were the main trails used by guests and guides that I got to know quite quickly. I was always curious to explore more. A smaller trail would branch off from a larger one. Then a smaller trail would peel away from that. Eventually I would find myself following what barely seemed to qualify as a trail at all: a narrow path disappearing into an ocean of green.
And very often, that tiny path that appeared to meander gently without direction turned out to have a very clear destination. It would lead to a small but noticeable clearing containing a towering Brazil nut tree
Even in a forest filled with giants, Brazil nut trees command attention. They can reach heights of over 50 metres, with massive trunks rising almost impossibly straight from the forest floor. Around the base of the tree lay dozens of old Brazil nut fruits, scattered among the leaf litter like a battlefield of decomposing cannonballs.
The fruits themselves are remarkable. Each is a hard, woody sphere roughly the size of a coconut and packed with seeds, (aka the Brazil nuts we know). The shell is astonishingly tough. In the wild, very few animals can break into it.
The best known is the agouti, a small rainforest rodent that is considerably more attractive than most rodents. Agoutis possess one very useful feature: extraordinarily strong, ever-growing teeth. They are among the few animals capable of gnawing through the shell and reaching the nutritious seeds inside.
In doing so, they perform a vital role in the rainforest ecosystem. Some seeds are eaten immediately. Others are buried and forgotten, giving new Brazil nut trees the chance to grow. A bit like the role squirrels play in northern European woodlands.
I was also fascinated to learn that every tree "belonged", in a sense, to a family. The Brazil nut trees in that area were leased to local families, who had rights to harvest the crop each year. During the fruiting season they would make journeys into the forest to collect the nuts and transport them out to the nearest town for processing.
It is not a casual undertaking. The nuts are heavy and in order to get to them you have to get through the protection of the. cannonball-like pod
And then there's the issue of gravity.
When the fruits are ready, they fall from the canopy. A Brazil nut fruit can weigh around two kilograms, and it may be dropping from more than 50 metres above the ground. The result is effectively a wooden cannonball falling from the height of a fifteen-storey building. You do not want to be standing directly beneath it as it falls,
As a young, idealistic and enthusiastic woman passionate about ecology, my time in Peru was magical. And the story of the Brazil nut tree and how they are harvested stood out as an example of completely environmentally sound resource harvesting. It also changed forever my appreciation of a handful of Brazil nuts.