Report on funding and investment opportunities for income generating activities that could complement strategies to halt environmental degradation in the greater Amazon Basin

This report summarizes the lessons learned from Cultural Survival's attempts to generate markets for Amazonian nontimber forest products. It identifies key research, institution building, production and processing constraints that must be addressed. These require funding if income generating efforts are to become part of overall solutions to saving the biological and cultural diversity of the Amazon. The major causes of environmental degradation, including Amazonian rainforest destruction, are population pressure, poverty, greed and ignorance. Scientists are coming to understand what forest residents have long known, namely that forests are capable of generating more income and employment than the same areas cleared for pasture or agriculture.