BIODIVERSITY PRODUCTS
Maya nut
Queen of natural nutrition
People
Maya Nut is one of the few, if
not the only, 100% women’s
product currently on the
market.
Planet
Maya Nut can help
communities produce food
and earn income while at the
same time protecting soil,
water and biodiversity!
Empowerment
The Maya nut seed has the
potential to become one
of the most economically
important non-timber forest
products in the world.
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Maya Nut
Introduction
Maya Nut, also known as Masica, Guaimaro, Breadnut,
Ramon, Ojoche, Capomo, Ojushte, Mojote, Huje, Taju, Sande,
Manchinga, Ujuxte and many other names, is a delicious and
highly nutritious rainforest tree seed. It grows on large tropical
rainforest trees native to Latin America and the Caribbean.
Once abundant throughout Central America and the main
source of food for the Mayans, it is now endangered and even
already extinct in parts of its range, due to logging and land
conversion for food, pasture and biofuels.
Due to its incredible nutritional qualities, it is very wholesome
for vegetarians, pregnant women, infants, malnourished
children and the elderly. Maya Nut is very high in tryptophan,
the precursor to serotonin, which makes it a very relaxing food
with potential to help alleviate stress and insomnia. Maya Nut
can be used in a wide variety of recipes in either a fresh or a Maya Nut can be used in
dried, roasted form.
a wide variety of recipes
The fresh seed can be stewed and tastes like mashed potatoes. in either a fresh or a
It can be used to make tamales, tortillas, burgers, sauces,
dried, roasted form.
puree and soups.
The dried, roasted seed tastes like chocolate or coffee and can
be used to make cake, cookies, cereal, hot and cold drinks,
pancakes or pudding and many other mouth watering dishes.
Because it contains very little fat, once dried, Maya Nut seed
can be stored for up to 5 years, making it an excellent food for
regions with drought and food insecurity.
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Maya Nut
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Background
Maya Nut (Brosimum alicastrum) is in the fig family (Moraceae).
It was the staple food for pre Hispanic cultures throughout the
neo-tropics, who protected it as a source of food. Also the nut
attracted their favorite game species (deer, wild pigs, large
forest rodents). In recent history thousands of villages survived
drought, war and famine by eating Maya Nut when no other
food was available. It is truly a “lifesaving” tree.
The nut provides more
nutrition than common staple
foods (rice, corn, wheat,
beans), making it a good
addition to the diets of lowincome rural families.
Unfortunately, knowledge about Maya Nut has fallen to near
zero as globalization, export crops, and deforestation negatively
influenced indigenous culture and the forests that sustain these
people. Loss of this indigenous knowledge led local people to
cut down Maya Nut trees for firewood and construction, and
to burn Maya Nut forests to plant crops. The tree is in danger
of extinction in much of its range, which threatens the food
security of both human and animal populations. Creating a
market for Maya Nut seeds in the countries where it is native
can reverse this trend by adding value to Maya Nut forests.
Maya Nut is an ideal staple and famine food due to its abundance,
ease of harvest and processing, and its exceptional storage,
nutritional, and culinary qualities. Female trees can produce 50
to 300 kg of food/year, which can be easily and quickly harvested
from the ground during the two-month fruiting season. Maya
Nut tolerates dry, rocky, shallow and infertile soils, making it
apt for reforestation in degraded sites and in areas predicted to
experience climate change-induced drought. Once established,
Maya Nut plantations require little care and no inputs.
A ten-year old plantation can produce 6-10 tons of food/ha/
year. When dried, the nut can be stored for five years, making it
an excellent option for food-insecure families. Maya Nut forests
provide four to six times more calories, ten times more protein,
and 100 times more micronutrients per hectare than corn.
Facts
Name of product: Maya Nut
Name of species and ecosystem: Brosimum alicastrum; tropical forest
Product location: Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua,
El Salvador, Costa Rica
Global distribution: Tropical Forests of Central
America, Jamaica, Cuba
and
South
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Maya Nut
Who is harvesting the Maya Nut
and brings it to the market?
COMGABIL (Cooperativa Mixta El Guayabo) is a local The women’s committee of
cooperative dedicated to managing more than 1,500 ha of
tropical rainforest and marketing Maya Nut and other forest the cooperative distributes
products in a sustainable way.
knowledge about the Maya
With the help of the GIZ (Gesellschaft fuer Internationale Nut in Honduras.
Zusammenarbeit), Maya Nut Institute, Natural History Museum
of London, and the Honduran Department of Forestry, the
Maya Nut producers of COMGABIL are developing sustainable
harvest guidelines for Maya Nut, which will serve as the basis
for new legislation governing sustainable harvest quotas for
this increasingly important non-timber forest product.
COMGABIL has introduced the Maya Nut in the Honduran
market with very positive results. At this point, demand
exceeds supply in Honduras, creating a unique opportunity to
integrate producers from the department of Choluteca, where
promising Maya Nut forests have been identified.
COMGABIL and Maya Nut Institute have trained other
communities in and around the Rio Platano Biosphere Reserve
and other parts of Honduras and have been responsible for
the markedly increased consumption of Maya Nut in Honduran
communities from 2% to 83%.
Regional cooperation between
women producer cooperatives
Fortunately, the women cooperative in Honduras are not the
only ones harvesting this beautiful fruit. More than 400 rural
and indigenous women have formed 20 different autonomous
businesses to produce and market Maya Nut products and to
teach workshops to other women in Guatemala, Honduras.
Mexico and Nicaragua. Below you find an overview with the
details of the different Maya Nut producer organizations.
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The big driver behind the formation of the different women
groups is the Maya Nut Institute. In 2001 Erika Vohman founded
a non-profit public charity named Maya Nut Institute with the
mission to “ find balance between people, food and forests” by
teaching rural communities about the value of Maya Nut for
food, fodder, ecosystem services and income. As a result Maya
Nut is one of the few, if not the only, 100% women’s product
currently on the market.
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Maya Nut
These women enjoy improved incomes and an opportunity to
contribute to the family economy. More important, however, is
the impact on their self-esteem and status in the family and
community. Maya Nut institute works with women because they
are a critical link between the family and the environment, and
because they are responsible for the health of the family.
Healthy families are better able to care for the environment
because they can make sound decisions based on logic, rather
than desperate decisions based on immediate need for food,
medicine or school materials.
The empowerment of women means that lasting change is
happening and that these women can now take charge of their
lives and work productively and effectively to improve the
well-being, health and incomes of their families.
Maya Nut producers in Central America make every effort to
support each other and to ensure consistency of supply to
buyers. For example, in El Salvador, PrOjushte is a producer
group working in Plan de Amayo Protected Area in the
department of Sonsonate. PrOjushte supplies Maya Nut to
local and international NGOs who are incorporating it into rural
school lunch programs to improve child health and nutrition
and to motivate community based reforestation of Maya Nut.
When PrOjushte can’t meet demand, they obtain Maya Nut from
other producer groups in Nicaragua. In Guatemala, CODEMUR
will purchase Maya Nut from other parts of Guatemala, but
unfortunately, they don’t always pay a fair price. The Maya
Nut Institute is working to establish “minimum fair prices” for
green, dried and processed Maya Nut in each producing country
to ensure fair trade principles are met.
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Maya Nut
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Overview Maya Nut female producer groups
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Name of Group
Country/Region
Number of
Producers
Legal Status
Actual
production
(in lb)
Potential
production
(in lb)
Alimentos NutriNaturales,
S.A.
Guatemala/Reserv
a Biosphere Maya
56
Community based
organization
1000
40000
Muralla de Leon
Guatemala, RBM,
Macanche
Association
1500
1500
CODEMUR-Comité para el
Desarrollo de la Mujer Rural
Guatemala/Costa
sur
13
Association
5000
10000
APOCHE-Asociacion de
Productoras de Ojoche
Nicaragua/Chinan
dega norte
127
Association
3000
20000
Flor de Ojoche
Nicaragua/Comple
jo Volcánico
16
Work in progress
1000
25000
Empresa Fémina
Productoras de Masica
Honduras/Biosphe
re Río Plátano
14
Association
2500
50000
Pisba Waihka
Honduras/Mosquiti
a
30
Cooperative
1500
-
Ojushte, S.A.
El
Salvador/Nacional
-
Community based
organization
500
2000
U' Yich O'ox
Mexico/Yucatan
6
Cooperative
-
0
El Color de la Tierra
Mexico/Jalisco
18
No legal status
-
0
Café de Mojo Ventanas
Mexico/Jalisco
13
Cooperative
-
1000
Productoras de la Region
Lacandona
Mexico/Chiapas
11
No legal status
-
-
ESPERANDO DATOS
Mexico/Veracruz
-
-
-
0
La Joya
El Salvador, ANP
La Joya
6
No
1000
1000
11
(men and
women)
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Maya Nut
The Maya Nut Institute’s
methodology
The methodology of the Maya Nut Institute is based on the
principles of action learning and appropriate technology.
Through one-day workshops in rural communities, they teach
rural women and girls about the recipes, nutrition, processing,
and marketing of Maya Nut.
Ideal conditions for women’s Maya Nut businesses include:
• A community in extreme poverty (<$500/year average
income)
• Proximity of Maya Nut trees, estimate at least 5 mature
female trees/producer= approximately $150/year income
per producer
• Permissive husbands who let their wives work
• Presence of at least one entrepreneurial woman
• Proximity to public transportation or at least a road within
2km of the producers’ community
A lot of the women consume the Maya Nut in their own
households as well. The most popular way of eating it is as
a cold drink, similar to chocolate milk, made with roasted
ground Maya Nut, milk, water and sugar.. yummmyyyy
Maya Nut harvest’s sustainable
impact on tropical forests
Maya Nut is harvested from
primary forest, making it a
symbol of successful forest
Maya Nut is the seed of Brosimum alicastrum, a large tropical
rainforest tree that belongs to the fig family. The tree can reach conservation and carbon
up to 45 meters in height.
sequestration.
Besides being a super food for humans, Maya Nut is also an
important food for animals and is an excellent alternative to
pasture in the tropics. Maya Nut is a wild-harvested forest
product, which grows in naturally fertile rainforest soils and is
naturally organic because no chemicals, fertilizers or pesticides
are needed.
It is extremely high in fiber, calcium, and potassium and is high
in folate, iron, zinc, protein and vitamins A and B. Moreover it is
very high in antioxidants and has a neutral glycemic response.
It is free of aflatoxins and ochratoxins.
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BIODIVERSITY PRODUCTS
Maya Nut
Maya Nut tolerates marginal soils and is very drought resistant,
making it an excellent species for reforestation in degraded
sites. Once established it requires no maintenance or inputs
and a Maya Nut tree will produce food and provide ecosystem
services for over 150 years.
One maya nut tree can
produce up to 180 kgs of
food per year.
Maya Nut is nutritionally comparable to amaranth, quinoa and
soy, and was a staple food for the pre-Columbian Maya and
other indigenous groups in Mesoamerica. The seed is wildharvested by hand from the ground from natural forest and
is sun dried and processed using no chemicals and causing no
damage to the tree or the environment.
Maya Nut leaves are excellent fodder for cows and goats,
providing a sustainable alternative to pasture in the tropics.
Maya Nut is a keystone species in neo-tropical lowland
ecosystems, as it is the preferred food source for over 85%
of neo-tropical birds and wildlife. Healthy Maya Nut forests
are ideal for subsistence hunting and ecotourism as well as
providing a refuge for tropical biodiversity.
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Since Maya Nut trees require several years to become
productive, a cost-benefit analysis of Maya Nut reforestation in
Central America (Equilibirum Fund 2010) showed that the cost
to establish the first hectare of trees is $3,277 and $1,696 for
each additional hectare. If this forest is managed by a family or
community to produce Maya Nut flour, the forest will pay of the
initial investment in reforestation and processing equipment
purchase, yielding a net income of $3,804 in the seventh
year. By year 10, if managed for processed, ground Maya Nut
production, the forest will generate $15,417/ha/yr.
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Maya Nut
Who is buying and who should be
buying the Maya nut?
While the market is still very young and small, there is a lot of
potential for Maya Nut to become a widely traded new super
food, particularly in the face of climate change, which is having
an increasingly negative effect on corn and other annual crop
production.
The high economic value and consumer demand, abundance,
productivity, distribution, ease of harvest and processing,
good nutritional and culinary qualities, provision of marketable
ecosystem services including carbon sequestration, and
protection of soil, watersheds and biodiversity are all factors
that contribute to the possibility to become one of the most
economically important non-timber forest products in the world.
The Maya Nut could be used for baking mixes, nutritional
supplement, natural drink mixes (natural cocoa or ovaltine type
drink), caffeine-free chocolate/coffee drinks and ice cream. The
high fiber makes it good for the elderly, or people just seeking
to include more fiber in their diets, the high tryptophan content
carries potential as a bedtime drink or food for children.
If managed correctly, consumer demand for Maya Nut
could slow and eventually reverse deforestation, loss of
biodiversity, poverty, food insecurity and malnutrition
created by conventional cropping systems in Central
America and Mexico.
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Contact
Organization
Maya Nut Institute
Contact person
Erika Vohman
E-mail
[email protected]
Website
www.mayanutinstitute.org
Telephone
970-275-4065
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Annex 1
Maya Nut
Healthy Kids, Healthy Forest
The Maya Nut Institute in partnership with Alimentos NutriNaturales, BanRural, Rainforest Alliance, the Guatemalan
Ministry of Education and the Guatemalan Ministry of
Agriculture started the Healthy Kids, Healthy Forests Program
in September 2008. Since then they have provided Maya
Nut school lunches to more than 11,000 children in Mexico,
Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador.
The Healthy Kids, Healthy Forests campaign promotes local
production and consumption of Maya Nut to help solve
malnutrition and economic crises in Mesoamerica and the
Caribbean, where nearly 50% of rural children under five
years old are chronically malnourished and under 10% of
rural women work outside the home.
The kids love the Maya Nut and the parents love that their
children were eating healthy lunches at school. As a result of
this program, the Guatemalan Ministry of the Environment
financed the planting of 250,000 new Maya Nut seedlings in
the region.
These seedlings will one day provide over 3 million pounds
of food per year for these communities, representing a longterm solution to problems of malnutrition and food insecurity
in the region, in addition to the environmental services they
provide (protection of soils and watersheds, biodiversity,
mitigation of climate change...)
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BIODIVERSITY PRODUCTS
Annex 2
Maya Nut
Maya Nut recipes
If you like to experience
what kind of delicious
sweets you can cook with
the Maya Nut, try to make
one of the recipes below.
Brown Sugar
Cookies
2 cups flour
1/2 cup Maya nut
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 sticks butter (16 Tbs.),
room temperature
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
Preheat oven to 300°. In a large bowl or in the bowl of a stand
mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat sugar with
butter till fluffy, add vanilla. In a medium bowl, sift together
the remaining dry ingredients. Combine with butter. Using
your hands shape into a disc. Refrigerate dough till hard.
Cut cookies and bake 7 minutes, turning the sheet halfway
through. Let cool 5 minutes on sheet pan. Makes 24 – 36
small cookies.
Coconut Cake
1 3/4 cups flour
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup Maya nut
3 Tbs. cocoa
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3 eggs
1/2 cup safflower oil
(or vegetable oil)
1 can coconut milk (14 fl. oz.)
1/2 cup flaked coconut,
fresh or dried
3/4 cup chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 325°. Butter and flour a bunt cake pan. In
a medium bowl, sift together flour, brown sugar, Maya nut,
cocoa, baking soda, and salt. In a large bowl or in the bowl of
a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix together
eggs, oil, and coconut milk until incorporated, about 30
seconds. Gradually add dry ingredients to the wet, mix until
just combined. Add flaked coconut and chocolate chips and
mix till just combined. Pour into prepared pan. Bake until a
toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean,
about 40 minutes. Let cool for 15 minutes, then turn over onto
a wire cooling rack and remove from pan. Meanwhile make
the glaze. For a loaf pan, bake at 350° for 45 to 55 minutes.
In a small bowl whisk together sugar, milk, vanilla, and salt.
Glaze Set the cake on top of the rack over a sheet of waxed paper.
3/4 cup powdered sugar Generously brush the warm cake with the glaze. Let glaze
1 Tbs. cold milk, or water harden. Serves 8 to 10.
1/2 tsp vanilla
pinch salt
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