Bolivia: Amazon nuts at exploitative prices

Bolivia is the world's leading exporter of the shelled Brazil nut, a nutritious food source that grows abundantly in the country's Amazon rainforest region. But in this tropical paradise, many of the nut-gatherers live in hellish conditions. Bolivians simply call the Bertholletia excelsa a "castaña" (a catch-all name for "nut"). Globally, it is known as the Brazil nut or the Pará nut, while in South America it has many other local and traditional names. It is a food rich in selenium and other minerals, as well as proteins, carbohydrates and oils, and represents 30 percent of the Amazon forest revenues in the northern Bolivian provinces of Pando and Beni, bordering Brazil. In fact, nut-gathering is the main local economic activity, following the decline of natural latex extraction from the jungle's rubber trees in the mid-1980s. But the competitive price of Brazil nuts from Bolivia brings with it a heavy component of exploitation of poor families, including children and adolescents, warns a study by the Center for Labor and Agrarian Development Studies (CEDLA), sponsored by the Ministry of Labor, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), and the Dutch development organization Hivos.