The Maya Nut Tree and Rainforest Conservation
Equilibrium Fund Empowers Local Women and Protects Their Environment
Apr 21, 2009
Combining ecosystem conservation with improving the health and wellbeing of rural Central American rainforest communities, the Equilibrium Fund reintroduces the Maya nut (Brosimum alicastrum) to the local diet. This in turn encourages reforestation with the native tree and protects rainforest ecosystems.
About the Equilibrium Fund
The Equilibrium Fund is the brainchild of Erika Vohman, who learned about the Maya nut while volunteering in Central America. Realizing the potential value of this native tree in reducing the incidence of malnutrition in impoverished communities, Vohman created this non-profit organization in 2001 to help spread the word about Maya nuts.
The Equilibrium Fund works in Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua and El Salvador, teaching local women to utilize the nuts of the native Maya nut tree as a food source for their families and their livestock. The organization helps fund replanting of Maya nut trees for this purpose. Once significant crops of Maya nuts are harvested the women can begin to produce Maya nut based food products as an income source.
The Maya Nut or Mayan Breadnut
An important food and beverage source in ancient Mayan culture, Maya nuts were a staple during years when other crops failed. They could be cooked like potatoes or mixed with corn to make tortillas. One dish still served by indigenous people, the one that Erika Vohman first sampled, is Maya nut soup.
As with many nuts, there is tremendous nutritional value in the Mayan breadnut. It is a good source of protein, which is often lacking in the diets of impoverished people. It also provides calcium, Vitamins A, C, E and several of the B vitamins and iron.
The Maya nut has also become popular as a base for caffeine free coffee alternatives. Some of the local women’s cooperatives developed with the aid of the Equilibrium Fund have begun exporting their Maya nuts to other countries for use in these drinks.
Equilibrium Fund's Healthy Kids Healthy Forests Program
The concept of the Healthy Kids Healthy Forests Program was to provide nutritious lunches for school children based on Maya nuts. The program was so popular with the kids, who loved the taste, and the parents, who were excited that their children were getting a good meal at school that the government of Guatemala funded the planting of 250,000 Maya nut seedlings. The project is now well on its way to becoming a completely Guatemalan run program.
Equilibrium Fund Reforestation and Carbon Offsets
The Equilibrium Fund has developed a true win-win program by recognizing the value of the Maya nut as a food source as well as a keystone species in the Central American rainforest.
Because the Maya nut trees are native to the local rainforests, they provide habitat and food for wildlife in addition to their value as a food source for people. Another way that the Equilibrium Fund is financing their reforestation efforts is by offering carbon offsets to those who help fund the Maya nut planting efforts.
As with other innovative ideas such as rainforest conservation concessions, the work of the Equilibrium Fund in combining the needs of the local population with ecosystem conservation provides a sensible long term method of protecting a critical environment.
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