Pine nut oil - an opportunity for the environment and for hundreds of rural Ecuadorian families in times of pandemic

Published 2020년 10월 13일

Tridge summary

Approximately 1,200 harvesting families in Ecuador's Manabí province are earning their livelihoods by harvesting pine nuts, a crop that grows in dry areas and is valued for its resilience. The seeds are sold to the Cooperative of Producers of Live Fences in Manabí (COOPROCERMA), which extracts pure vegetable oil (AVP) from the seeds for use as biofuel on Floreana Island in the Galápagos. The project, supported by the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), has become crucial for the families' economic stability, especially during the pandemic. The project also has environmental benefits, with each yard of pine nuts reducing 12Kg of CO2. The initiative is part of Ecuador's strategy to replace diesel with AVP to generate electricity on the Galapagos Floreana Island, aligning with the country's constitutional recognition of the right to nature and its Zero Fossil Fuels initiative in the Galapagos.

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Original content

Between March and June, approximately 1,200 harvesting families from rural areas in the province of Manabí, on the southern coast of Ecuador, travel more than 12,700 kilometers of pine nut hedges to harvest their seeds. The pine nut is a perennial shrub that grows in dry Ecuadorian areas and whose adaptability to extreme conditions of climate and soil makes it very valuable as a cultivation alternative for farming families in vulnerable places. After the harvest, the seeds are sold at about 56 supply centers for the members of the Cooperative of Producers of Live Fences in Manabí (COOPROCERMA), where they are responsible for harvesting and producing pure vegetable oil of pine nuts (AVP), which is then used as biofuel for generating clean electricity on the Floreana Island in the Galápagos. It is a project promoted by the Ministry of Energy and Non-Renewable Natural Resources of Ecuador and supported, since 2008, by the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture ...

Source: Portal Do Agronegocio