Importance of the Non-wood Products Market for the Socio-economic Development of the Maceió Municipality, Brazil

Abstract

The scarcity of information on the socioeconomic of non-wood forest products in Maceio acts as an obstacle to forest conservation and also to the development of market. In this way, the aim of this work was to evaluate the non-wood forest products (NWFPs) market in the municipality of Maceió, AL. The study was carried out in NWFP stores in the city of Maceió, AL, Brazil, between September and October 2018. Data were collected through a semi-structured questionnaire containing 9 closed questions and 11 open questions, totaling 20 questions, which were analyzed in a descriptive way and statistics. Among the interviews, there was a predominance of the female gender in the market (78%). In which, the most cited species were cinnamon (Cinnamomum verum) with 88.89%; aroeira (Schinus terebinthifolius) with 66.67%; followed by barbatimao (Stryphnodendron barbatimam Mart.) cited 66.67%. The boldo (Peumus boldus) was cited 55.56%; followed by rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis), clove (Syzygium aromaticum) and laurel (Laurus nobilis), which presented 44.44% of the citations. It can be seen that 65% of products fall under the category of medicinal use, 15% in the category of food use and 10% are used as cosmetics. Among the most used parts, it was observed that the majority of the products are leaves (36.9%) and barks (32.6%). When questioned about the origin of their products, 77.7% of those interviewed said they bought them for resale. The other 22.3% claimed that in addition to buying them, they also collect them. This trade has proven very effective, due to its great potential for social inclusion and economic incentive in the municipality.