We are interested in joining or co-developing a transnational consortium investigating how forest environmental attributes—including biomass, carbon stocks and biodiversity—can support value creation, equitable benefit distribution and forest conservation.

Our particular interest lies in understanding how different governance arrangements, traceability systems and market incentives influence the conservation trajectories of forest territories supplying non-timber forest products (NTFPs). We seek to connect spatially explicit environmental evidence with value-chain analysis, examining when and how environmental value translates into benefits for forest-dependent communities and measurable conservation outcomes.

Building on our research on the Brazil nut (Bertholletia excelsa) value chain and the NEWCast project, we could contribute through:

Forest biomass and carbon assessment: field inventories, biomass and carbon data, and tree-growth information where relevant to the research questions.

Spatial analysis and field validation: linking forest condition, harvesting areas and product origin across different territorial and governance contexts.

Traceability, origin and quality: evaluating how product differentiation and environmental information can support market access and value creation.

Governance and benefit distribution: jointly analysing management rules, collective organisation, commercial relationships, implementation costs and benefits for producers.

Participatory research: co-designing and evaluating indicators, tools and recommendations with community organisations and other value-chain actors.

We would welcome responsibility for coordinating the Brazilian research component and leading or co-leading an international work package connecting territorial governance, traceability and conservation outcomes.

We seek complementary partners in environmental economics, ecosystem-service valuation, forest biodiversity, Earth observation, institutional analysis and market research. We are particularly interested in comparative research across tropical and European forest contexts, using shared questions and harmonised methods.

Participation, field sites and access to existing data would be subject to funding eligibility, institutional agreements and applicable community consent and data-governance arrangements.

Embrapa is a Brazilian public agricultural research corporation. The prospective contribution would be coordinated by Embrapa Environment, drawing on complementary expertise from Embrapa research units and collaborators.

Patricia da Costa is a researcher in natural resource management and conservation and leads NEWCast, a project developing technological solutions to strengthen the Brazil nut value chain. Her research connects forest ecology and management, biomass and carbon, product quality and origin, traceability, and the sustainable use of Amazonian forest resources.