Based on a Conservation International conference in Panama, Sustainable Harvest and Marketing of Rain Forest Products brings together the world's leading experts on rain forest development and sustainability.

Mark Plotkin is a renowned ethnobotanist and best-selling author of Tales of a Shaman’s Apprentice (in it’s 27th printing) and The Killers Within. For much of the past 30 years, he has worked with and learned from the ancient shamans in the rainforests of Central and South America, providing him with incomparable knowledge of healing plants and shamanic traditions. He formerly served as Research Associate in Ethnobotanical Conservation as the Botanical Museum of Harvard University, Director of Plant Conservation at the World Wildlife Fund and Vice President of Conservation International and Research Associate at the Department of Botany of the Smithsonian Institution. In Washington, D.C., Plotkin currently serves as President of the Amazon Conservation Team, a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting biological and cultural diversity of the tropical rain forest. Lisa Famolare is vice president of conservation policy and strategy Guianas and the Guianas regional program at Conservation International.
 
This book is based on papers presented at the conference on "The Sustainable Harvest and Marketing of Rain Forest Products", held in Panama City, Panama on June 20 to 21, 1991. This conference was coordinated by Conservation International (CI), a Washington, D.C., based nonprofit international environmental organization, with help from the Asociaci˜n Nacional para la Conservaci˜n de la Naturaleza (ANCON). Conservation International (CI) is a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to the conservation of tropical and temperate ecosystems and species that rely on these habitats for their survival.

• Contents 
• PREFACE
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
• Introduction
• I 
• CONSERVING ETHNOBOTANICAL INFORMATION
• 1 
• Ethnobotany and Technology in the Northwest Amazon: A Partnership
• Schultes, Richard E.
• 2 
• The Secrecy of Indian Ethnobotanical Data Banks
• Joly, Luz Graciela
• 3 
• Five Hundred Years of Tropical Jungle: Indigenous Heritage for the Benefit of Humanity
• Castillo, Geodisio
• 4 
• Ethnobotanical Contributions to the Tramil-Program in the Caribbean Basin: The Case of Honduras
• Lagos-Witte, Sonia
• 5 
• The Use and Cultural Significance of the Secondary Forest Among the Wayapi Indians
• Grenand, Pierre
• 6 
• The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta: A Case Study
• Mayr, Juan
• 7 
• Traditional Knowledge, Conservation, and “The Rain Forest Harvest”
• Posey, Darrell A.
• II 
• THE POTENTIAL OF NONTIMBER FOREST PRODUCTS
• 8 
• Tropical Botanical Extractives
• Duke, James A.
• 9 
• Lecythidaceae and Myristicaceae: Two Tropical Families Providing Important Secondary Forest Products
• Rotta, Constanza La
• 10 
• The History of Nontimber Forest Products from the Guianas
• DeFilipps, Robert A.
• 11 
• Nontimber Forest Products of the Peruvian Amazon
• Brack, Antonio
• 12 
• Products from the Tropical Rain Forests of Mexico: An Ethnoecological Approach
• Toledo, Victor M.
• Batis, Ana I.
• Becerra, Rosalba
• Martínez, Esteban
• Ramos, Clara H.
• 13 
• Nontimber Forest Products in the Petén, Guatemala: Why Extractive Reserves Are Critical for Both Conservation and Development
• Reining, Conrad
• Heinzman, Robert
• 14 
• The Sustainable Management of Nontimber Rain Forest Products in the Si-a-Paz Peace Park, Nicaragua
• Salick, Jan
• 15 
• New Nontimber Forest Products from Western South America
• Gentry, Alwyn
• 16 
• Native Plant Products from the Arid Neotropical Species: Assessing Benefits to Cultural, Environmental, and Genetic Diversity
• Nabhan, Gary Paul
• III 
• PALMS AND THEIR POTENTIAL
• 17 
• Babassu Palm Product Markets
• May, Peter H.
• 18 
• Nontimber Forest Products and Extractive Activities in the Middle Rio Negro Region, Brazil
• Lescure, Jean-Paul
• Emperaire, Laure
• Pinion, Florence
• Renault-Lescure, Odile
• 19 
• Colombian Palm Products
• Bernal, Rodrigo G.
• 20 
• The Economic Botany of Ecuadorean Palms
• Pedersen, Henrik B.
• Balslev, Henrik
• 21 
• The Jatata Project: The Pilot Experience of Chimane Empowerment
• Rioja, Guillermo
• 22 
• The Chimane Experience in Selling Jatata
• Añez, Jorge
• IV 
• PLANTS AS MEDICINES
• 23 
• Ethnopharmacognostic Study of Kuna Yala
• Gupta, Mahabir P.
• Jones, Ana
• Solís, Pablo
• Correa A., Mireya D.
• 24 
• Searching for Plants in Peasant Marketplaces
• Martin, Gary J.
• 25 
• The National Cancer Institute's Plant Collections Program: Update and Implications for Tropical Forests
• Daly, Douglas C.
• 26 
• Pharmaceutical Discovery, Ethnobotany, Tropical Forests, and Reciprocity: Integrating Indigenous Knowledge, Conservation, and Sustainable Development
• King, Steven R.
• V 
• REACHING INTERNATIONAL MARKETS
• 27 
• The Brazil Nut Industry—Past, Present, and Future
• Mori, Scott A.
• 28 
• Trouble in Paradise: Practical Obstacles to Nontimber Forestry in Latin America
• Pendelton, Linwood H.
• 29 
• The Tagua Initiative in Ecuador: A Community Approach to Tropical Rain Forest Conservation and Development
• Hidalgo, Rodrigo Calero
• 30 
• The Tagua Initiative: Building the Market for a Rain Forest Product
• Ziffer, Karen
• 31 
• Nontimber Forest Products from the Tropics: The European Perspective
• Niekisch, Manfred
• 32 
• Ethnobiology and U.S. Policy
• Moran, Katy
• 33 
• Some General Principles and Strategies for Developing Markets in North America and Europe for Nontimber Forest Products
• Clay, Jason
• Conclusions and Recommendations
• INDEX