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Monday, November 23, 2009

Photo: After Acai, What Is Amazon's Next "Cinderella Fruit"?


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The crisp, neon yellow aguaje palm fruit, covered in maroon scales, tastes like carrots but packs three times the vitamin-A punch.

The fruit is crucial to the Peruvian Amazons economy. As logging and other pressures rise across the region, experts say its important to understand the Amazons wealth of diversity, not just the value of its timber. But sustainable harvesting of fruit trees is necessary for aguaje to nourish local economies and buyers abroad without harming forests.

Photograph by Nigel Smith