Integrated governance framework for the sustainable Brazil nut (Bertholletia excelsa) value chain in the Brazilian Amazon rainforestAbstract
The Brazil nut (Bertholletia excelsa) is one of the most important non-timber forest products of the Amazon, linking forest conservation with the livelihoods of extractivist communities, playing a key role in income generation for extractivist communities and in the environmental conservation of forests. However, the literature on its production chain remains fragmented, addressing isolated dimensions such as management, innovation, logistics, and markets, without integrating governance, sustainability, and value addition into a systemic framework. This study addresses this fragmentation by proposing an integrated governance model for the Brazil nut chain, based on a systematic literature review (SLR) that analyzed 35 studies published between 2020 and 2026. The hybrid analysis (deductive and inductive) allowed the identification of recurring patterns of structural bottlenecks, coordination asymmetries, and upgrading opportunities. The developed model is structured around four interdependent pillars: sustainable management, technological innovation and product diversification, governance structures and social inclusion, and market access and certifications. Instead of sectoral approaches, the framework proposes these pillars as interconnected dimensions within a systemic governance architecture, aiming to overcome coordination failures and increase value capture in socio-biodiversity systems. The proposed framework contributes to understanding how governance arrangements can support the ecological sustainability, conservation, and long-term resilience of socio-biodiversity systems.
Keywords:
Brazil nut (Bertholletia excelsa); non-timber forest products; Amazon rainforest; socio-biodiversity; forest bioeconomy
Resumo
A castanha-do-brasil (Bertholletia excelsa) é um dos mais importantes produtos florestais não madeireiros da Amazônia, conectando a conservação das florestas aos meios de subsistência das comunidades extrativistas, desempenhando papel relevante na geração de renda dessas populações e na conservação ambiental dos ecossistemas florestais. No entanto, a literatura sobre sua cadeia produtiva permanece fragmentada, abordando de forma isolada dimensões como manejo, inovação, logística e mercado, sem integrar governança, sustentabilidade e agregação de valor em um arcabouço sistêmico. Este estudo responde a essa fragmentação ao propor um modelo integrado de governança para a cadeia da castanha-do-brasil, baseado em uma revisão sistemática da literatura (RSL) que analisou 35 estudos publicados entre 2020 e 2026. A análise híbrida (dedutiva e indutiva) permitiu identificar padrões recorrentes de gargalos estruturais, assimetrias de coordenação e oportunidades de upgrading. O modelo desenvolvido estrutura-se em quatro pilares interdependentes: manejo sustentável, inovação tecnológica e diversificação produtiva, estruturas de governança e inclusão social, e acesso a mercados e certificações. Em vez de abordagens setoriais, o framework propõe esses pilares como dimensões interconectadas dentro de uma arquitetura sistêmica de governança, visando superar falhas de coordenação e ampliar a captura de valor em sistemas de sociobiodiversidade. O framework proposto contribui para a compreensão de como arranjos de governança podem apoiar a sustentabilidade ecológica, a conservação e a resiliência de longo prazo dos sistemas de sociobiodiversidade.
Palavras-chave:
castanha-do-brasil (Bertholletia excelsa); produtos florestais não madeireiros; floresta Amazônica; sociobiodiversidade; bioeconomia florestal
1. Introduction
The Brazil nut tree (Bertholletia excelsa) produces one of the most widely distributed non-timber forest products (NTFPs) in the Amazon rainforest, supporting extractivist livelihoods while contributing to forest conservation through sustainable resource use (Queiroz et al., 2022; Waldhoff et al., 2022). Harvested predominantly in remote forest territories characterized by dispersed populations, limited infrastructure, and strong dependence on natural resource-based activities, Brazil nut extraction constitutes a central economic strategy for thousands of Amazonian families. Income generation derived from this activity has been associated with the maintenance of standing forests, linking socio-biodiversity production systems to conservation-oriented economic activities in tropical regions (Fonseca et al., 2021).
Following the decline of natural rubber markets in the early twentieth century, Brazil nut extraction became a persistent component of Amazonian regional economies and remains economically relevant across large portions of the Brazilian Legal Amazon (Mariosa et al., 2024). Widely distributed across the states of Acre, Amazonas, Pará, and Rondônia, as well as neighboring Amazonian countries such as Bolivia and Peru, Bertholletia excelsa sustains extensive extractive systems that underpin regional production networks (Baldoni et al., 2020; Gazzola et al., 2025). Its production chain encompasses extractive harvesting, primary processing, industrial transformation, and commercialization in domestic and international markets, including value-added derivatives such as oils, flours, and cosmetic inputs (Alves and Silva, 2023; Carvalho et al., 2026; Phanord et al., 2026).
At the regional scale, Brazil nut production represents a relevant economic activity within forest-based territories. According to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE, 2025), the states of Amazonas, Acre, and Pará jointly accounted for approximately 80% of national production in 2023. These indicators suggest increasing organizational structuring within the value chain, reflecting the articulation between extractive production systems, cooperative arrangements, and public policy initiatives aimed at strengthening processing capacity, market integration, and value addition in socio-biodiversity economies (Souza et al., 2023a; Silva et al., 2025a).
Non-timber forest products such as Brazil nuts, açaí, and natural rubber continue to structure economic activities in forested regions where alternative land-use expansion is frequently associated with increased deforestation risks (Afonso et al., 2022). Forest-based value chains may therefore create opportunities to align income generation with conservation objectives. However, the realization of these outcomes depends on institutional arrangements capable of coordinating production, processing, and commercialization activities across territorially dispersed actors (Boyapati and Muthukumarappan, 2025). In this sense, socio-biodiversity value chains operate not merely as market mechanisms but as governance-dependent systems through which territorial development pathways may be reinforced or constrained (Rosenfeld et al., 2024).
Structural constraints continue to shape the performance and value distribution of the Brazil nut production chain. Logistical limitations, technological gaps, uneven access to infrastructure, and fragmented institutional arrangements affect operational efficiency and restrict value capture, particularly among extractivist producers positioned upstream in the chain (Souza et al., 2023b; Clement et al., 2024). These conditions are consistent with coordination asymmetries reported in forest-based value chains, where dispersed production systems and limited institutional articulation tend to constrain collective upgrading processes.
In this context, governance refers to the institutional arrangements and coordination mechanisms through which activities are organized and economic value is generated and distributed among actors (Schimetka and Ingram, 2024). In socio-biodiversity systems characterized by territorial dispersion and multi-actor participation, governance structures influence access to markets, technological diffusion, and upgrading opportunities available to primary producers (Pinsky et al., 2024). Cooperative organizations operate as coordination mechanisms capable of reducing transaction costs, strengthening bargaining capacity, and enabling investments in processing infrastructure and technical training (Nascimento et al., 2024; Mariosa et al., 2024).
However, existing studies on the Brazil nut production chain predominantly examine isolated dimensions, including logistics, contamination control, cooperative organization, technological innovation, or market access. Such approaches limit analytical integration across ecological, institutional, technological, and market processes (Castro et al., 2026). Consequently, the literature lacks an integrated analytical framework capable of addressing coordination failures and systemic upgrading within a unified governance perspective.
In response to this limitation, this study proposes an integrated governance framework for the Brazil nut value chain based on a systematic literature review (SLR) synthesizing recent scientific evidence across Amazonian contexts. By articulating sustainable forest management, technological innovation, institutional coordination, and market access within an interdependent analytical architecture, the proposed framework seeks to support improved value distribution and long-term resilience in forest-based socio-biodiversity systems.
To operationalize this analytical approach, the remainder of the article presents the methodological procedures adopted in the SLR, detailing the criteria for evidence selection, screening, and thematic analysis. The results and discussion sections subsequently examine recurrent structural constraints, governance asymmetries, and upgrading pathways identified across the reviewed studies, which provide the empirical foundation for the development of the proposed integrated management model. The article concludes by discussing the theoretical contributions and practical implications of the framework for governance and upgrading in forest-based socio-biodiversity value chains.
2. Material and Methods
The methodological design was structured as a SLR to identify and synthesize scientific evidence related to governance, sustainability, and innovation dynamics within the Brazil nut production chain. The review process followed systematic review principles adapted from PRISMA-oriented screening procedures and the methodological recommendations proposed by Shaffril et al. (2021), ensuring procedural transparency and consistency. Particular emphasis was placed on identifying governance arrangements, coordination asymmetries, and upgrading constraints affecting the Brazil nut value chain.
The SLR process was organized into six sequential stages designed to ensure systematic identification and synthesis of evidence relevant to governance coordination and upgrading dynamics within the Brazil nut value chain, as systematized in Figure 1.
The search was conducted in three international and regional databases: Scielo, Web of Science, and Scopus, selected for their complementary coverage of peer-reviewed publications in Portuguese and English. The review encompassed studies published between 2020 and 2026, prioritizing recent advances in governance, bioeconomy, and upgrading dynamics within Amazonian socio-biodiversity systems. This temporal scope was adopted to capture current coordination challenges, institutional arrangements, and innovation strategies associated with ongoing transformations in forest-based value chains. Boolean operators and structured keyword combinations were applied to balance retrieval sensitivity and thematic specificity.
The primary descriptor “Brazil nut” and its scientific denomination “Bertholletia excelsa” were combined with terms related to governance, sustainability, value chain dynamics, innovation, and territorial development. The search strings included combinations such as (“Brazil nut” OR “Bertholletia excelsa”) AND (sustainability OR governance OR “value chain” OR “supply chain” OR management OR innovation), as well as territorial filters including Amazon, Acre, and Northern Brazil. Searches were performed in titles, abstracts, and keywords fields. To account for structural differences among databases, syntax and field parameters were adapted to the indexing architecture of each platform, ensuring consistency and comparability of results.
Inclusion criteria were defined to select peer-reviewed articles published in Portuguese or English, available in full text, and directly related to governance, sustainability, innovation, or value chain dynamics within the Brazil nut production chain. Studies were included provided they presented explicit research designs, transparent data collection and interpretation procedures, coherence between objectives, methods, and conclusions, and sufficient empirical or conceptual detail to support meaningful synthesis. Methodological robustness was assessed qualitatively through criteria of consistency, transparency, and thematic relevance commonly adopted in exploratory systematic reviews in the social and environmental sciences. Exclusion criteria comprised duplicate records, studies not directly addressing the Brazil nut production chain, publications lacking sufficient methodological transparency, and articles whose scope did not substantively engage with the thematic dimensions under investigation.
The screening process was conducted independently by two reviewers who assessed titles and abstracts based on predefined criteria. Potentially eligible studies were subsequently subjected to full-text analysis. Disagreements were resolved through discussion, with the involvement of a third reviewer when necessary to ensure analytical consistency and minimize selection bias.
2.1. Data analysis
Data extraction followed a structured and pre-defined protocol to ensure transparency and traceability. Bibliographic and substantive information, including publication year, database source, study objectives, methodological approach, principal findings, and identified knowledge gaps, was systematically recorded in a standardized Excel matrix.
The qualitative synthesis was conducted through a hybrid deductive–inductive thematic analysis, combining theory-driven and data-driven coding procedures (Proudfoot, 2023). Deductive coding was initially guided by four analytical domains derived from the research objective and conceptual framework: sustainable management, technological innovation, governance, and market access. Subsequently, inductive coding allowed emergent subthemes and cross-cutting patterns to arise from the empirical material, enabling refinement of categories and identification of structural bottlenecks.
NVivo 15 (Lumivero) was employed as a systematic coding support tool to enhance data organization, pattern comparison, and category consolidation. Coding decisions, category adjustments, and thematic integration were discussed among the authors to ensure interpretative consistency.
2.2. Development of the integrated management model
The integrated management model was constructed through an iterative synthesis of the evidence identified in the SLR, following established procedures for conceptual model development grounded in literature-based abstraction (Jaakkola, 2020). The analytical process systematically compared coded thematic recurrences, structural bottlenecks, governance asymmetries, and upgrading dynamics across the selected studies to identify underlying systemic constraints affecting the Brazil nut value chain.
Through this process, four interdependent structural pillars were delineated: sustainable management, technological innovation and product diversification, governance structures and social inclusion, and market access and quality certifications. Each pillar corresponds to a structural dimension of the value chain (ecological, technological, institutional, and market-oriented), reflecting the multi-level nature of sustainability and upgrading challenges in forest-based production systems.
The pillars were not predefined as fixed analytical categories, but derived from thematic convergence, functional interdependence, and their structural influence on upgrading capacity within the value chain. Alternative categorizations were initially considered, including separating technological upgrading from value addition and distinguishing institutional governance from collective organization. However, iterative synthesis revealed strong analytical interdependence among these dimensions, supporting their consolidation into four integrated pillars.
Divergences across studies were interpreted primarily as expressions of territorial heterogeneity, institutional variability, and differences in production scale. The resulting model constitutes a structured and territorially adaptable analytical framework whose applicability requires empirical testing in future research.
3. Results
The systematic search conducted across SciELO, Web of Science, and Scopus resulted in 423 initial records. After removing 162 duplicates and excluding publications outside the defined temporal, linguistic, and accessibility criteria, 209 records remained for title and abstract screening. Following the application of predefined inclusion criteria, 72 studies advanced to full-text review. After in-depth assessment of methodological rigor and thematic alignment, 35 peer-reviewed articles constituted the final analytical corpus of this study.
The recurrence and thematic convergence of governance-related constraints, upgrading dynamics, and sustainability challenges across the selected studies enabled analytical saturation of the core dimensions underpinning the integrated governance framework. Figure 2 illustrates the systematic selection process, detailing the sequential filtering stages and the application of predefined eligibility and exclusion criteria.
The final corpus reveals a thematically convergent yet analytically fragmented body of literature. While the reviewed studies collectively address key dimensions of the Brazil nut production chain, including technological upgrading, cooperative organization, governance arrangements, market behavior, and socioecological resilience, most contributions remain confined to specific functional or regional analyses. Even studies adopting systemic perspectives tend to focus on isolated dimensions without articulating technological, institutional, environmental, and market components within a unified governance framework. This structural segmentation reinforces the gap identified in the introduction and substantiates the need for an integrated management model capable of coordinating multi-level upgrading processes.
Table 1 synthesizes the analytical convergence identified across the reviewed studies, organizing recurrent governance constraints, upgrading dynamics, and structural bottlenecks into four interrelated analytical domains within the Brazil nut value chain.
Cross-comparative analysis of thematic recurrences, structural bottlenecks, and governance constraints identified across the reviewed studies enabled the delineation of four structurally interconnected analytical domains within the Brazil nut value chain. These domains represent recurring coordination logics shaping value distribution, innovation diffusion, and systemic upgrading processes in forest-based socio-biodiversity systems, reinforcing integrated approaches to Amazonian bioeconomic chains (Castro et al., 2026). As analytically derived dimensions grounded in convergent empirical evidence, they explain how governance conditions influence the performance, resilience, and upgrading capacity of the Brazil nut production system.
The Sustainable Management and Environmental Preservation pillar addresses ecological constraints and long-term productivity risks that condition value chain stability. Empirical evidence indicates that regeneration practices, adaptive forest management, resource reutilization and valorization strategies enhance ecological resilience and resource efficiency while safeguarding ecosystem services (Teixeira Alves et al., 2023; Leal Filho et al., 2025). This pillar therefore provides the biophysical foundation upon which subsequent upgrading processes depend.
The Technological Innovation and Product Diversification pillar responds to limited value capture associated with primary extraction by promoting functional and process upgrading. Studies documenting derivative products and value-added applications illustrate how technological capacity expansion broadens market segments and increases economic densification within the chain (Santos et al., 2023; Lemos and Feltes, 2025; Silva et al., 2024).
The Governance Structures and Social Inclusion pillar targets coordination failures and power asymmetries that constrain collective upgrading. Cooperative arrangements and supportive public policies strengthen institutional articulation, enhance bargaining capacity, and reduce intermediary dependence (Mariosa et al., 2024). Governance thus operates as a structural enabler of systemic upgrading.
The Market Access and Quality Certifications pillar addresses competitive pressures and informational asymmetries in global markets. Certification schemes, traceability mechanisms, and sustainability branding enhance credibility and enable integration into higher-value market segments (Ribeiro et al., 2023; Rosenfeld et al., 2024; Boyapati and Muthukumarappan, 2025). Market integration thereby converts ecological and technological gains into distributive outcomes (Krainovic et al., 2025).
These pillars operate interdependently. Ecological sustainability underpins technological upgrading; innovation requires institutional coordination for diffusion; and market positioning depends on demonstrable sustainability and governance credibility. Their interaction constitutes a systemic governance architecture designed to mitigate structural fragmentation, asymmetries, and upgrading constraints within the Brazil nut production chain. By articulating ecological management, technological upgrading, governance coordination, and market access, the proposed framework addresses limitations observed in prior studies that examine these dimensions as analytically disconnected processes.
3.1. Systemic architecture of the integrated management model
The integrated management model is structured as a systemic architecture composed of four interdependent pillars: Sustainable Management and Environmental Preservation, Technological Innovation and Product Diversification, Governance Structures and Social Inclusion, and Market Access and Quality Certifications. The model builds upon the convergent evidence identified in the SLR and follows established principles of conceptual abstraction and model development (Jaakkola, 2020). By integrating ecological, technological, institutional, and market dimensions within a unified structure, the model advances a governance-oriented framework that addresses upgrading processes traditionally examined as separate domains in the literature.
These pillars are not conceived as isolated intervention areas but as mutually reinforcing domains addressing ecological, technological, institutional, and market-level constraints within the Brazil nut production chain. Their configuration reflects governance challenges associated with territorially dispersed Amazonian forest-based systems characterized by infrastructural constraints, ecological variability, and multi-scalar institutional dependence.
Figure 3 conceptualizes this integrated architecture, highlighting the systemic interactions and upgrading dynamics embedded within the model.
Conceptual configuration of the integrated governance model for the Brazil nut production chain.
Each pillar synthesizes recurrent patterns identified in the SLR and translates dispersed empirical insights into analytically integrated intervention domains. Sustainable Management and Environmental Preservation establishes the ecological preconditions for long-term productivity by mitigating environmental degradation risks and ensuring resource regeneration. The incorporation of geospatial monitoring tools, technical training for extractivists, and the productive reuse of residues, such as shell conversion into activated charcoal, illustrate mechanisms through which ecological stability and resource efficiency can be enhanced simultaneously.
The Technological Innovation and Product Diversification pillar addresses the limited value capture associated with primary extraction. By fostering product and process upgrading through functional foods, cosmetic inputs, and improved processing technologies, this domain expands the economic density of the chain. Research and development initiatives serve as diffusion mechanisms, facilitating the adaptation of innovations to local production realities.
Governance Structures and Social Inclusion target coordination failures and power asymmetries. Cooperative arrangements, associative models, and supportive public policies reduce intermediary dependence, improve bargaining capacity, and enhance logistical articulation. Governance thus functions as an institutional integrator, enabling technological and ecological gains to translate into distributive improvements and social inclusion.
The Market Access and Quality Certifications pillar mitigates market barriers and informational asymmetries. Certification schemes, traceability systems, and sustainability branding strengthen credibility and allow access to high-value markets. This domain converts ecological compliance and technological upgrading into competitive advantage.
The model does not prescribe a rigid sequential implementation, but operates through mutually reinforcing interactions among interdependent pillars. Sustainable management supports long-term productivity and ecological credibility, conditioning market access and certification opportunities, while expanded market integration may increase value capture and investment capacity, strengthening technological upgrading and collective governance arrangements.
Governance structures, in turn, mediate the diffusion of innovations, coordination of sustainability practices, and articulation among actors across the value chain. These reciprocal dynamics generate adaptive feedback loops through which ecological resilience, institutional coordination, and economic upgrading become progressively interconnected within the socio-biodiversity system.
Monitoring mechanisms may include indicators related to income distribution, waste reduction, product diversification, and formal market integration. Pilot applications can serve as adaptive learning environments, allowing contextual calibration of the model across different territorial settings.
By articulating ecological stability, technological upgrading, institutional coordination, and market integration within a unified governance architecture, the proposed framework addresses structural fragmentation in forest-based value chains and conceptualizes socio-biodiversity upgrading as a territorially conditioned and governance-dependent process. Within this perspective, upgrading capacity results from systemic alignment across interdependent ecological, institutional, technological, and market domains operating under heterogeneous socio-ecological and infrastructural conditions, repositioning governance as a central mechanism linking ecological resilience, value addition, and long-term territorial sustainability.
4. Discussion
The proposed integrated model reframes the Brazil nut value chain as a multifunctional socio-ecological system rather than a mere extractive commodity structure. Empirical evidence from diverse Amazonian contexts (Araujo et al., 2024; Garrett et al., 2024; Rodrigues et al., 2024) indicates that coordinated investments in physical infrastructure, collective organizational capacity, and technological upgrading enhance value capture and socio-ecological resilience, generating long-term economic, social, and environmental returns that may offset short-term implementation costs.
Sustainable management constitutes a structural precondition for upgrading. Practices such as the expanded identification of productive trees and vine removal have been shown to increase productivity while preserving ecological integrity (Medeiros et al., 2024). In the Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve, participatory sustainability indicators have enabled adaptive management responses to environmental variability (Fonseca et al., 2021), illustrating how ecological monitoring strengthens long-term system viability. However, scaling such practices requires institutional alignment extending beyond localized initiatives, reinforcing the argument that ecological sustainability in forest-based economies depends on coordinated governance instead of isolated technical interventions.
Technological diversification constitutes a pathway for functional upgrading by expanding the range of activities performed within forest-based production systems. Studies on residue valorization for activated charcoal production (Souza and Silva, 2021; Teixeira Alves et al., 2023) and the development of value-added products such as functional foods and oils (Santos et al., 2023; Lemos and Feltes, 2025) indicate concrete opportunities for economic densification along the value chain.
Persistent structural bottlenecks related to post-harvest handling, storage, and transport infrastructure continue to constrain innovation diffusion and product quality assurance within the Brazil nut value chain. These limitations are particularly pronounced in remote territories, where inadequate drying and storage conditions increase exposure to sanitary risks such as aflatoxin contamination (Araujo et al., 2024; Krainovic et al., 2025; Socreppa et al., 2025).
Governance remains central to overcoming coordination failures. Cooperative arrangements in the state of Amazonas, particularly within agro-industrial cooperatives operating in interior municipalities, demonstrate improvements in bargaining capacity and market articulation, reducing dependency on intermediaries (Mariosa et al., 2024; Phanord et al., 2026). Evidence from socio-biodiversity chains in the Brazilian Amazon further indicates that experimental and collaborative governance mechanisms strengthen collective action capacity and enhance producers’ access to differentiated markets (Pinsky et al., 2024). Nevertheless, internal management challenges and fragmented public policies continue to constrain systemic integration, reinforcing patterns of partial articulation previously identified in the literature.
Within forest-based bioeconomy systems, market access strategies such as organic and fair-trade certification play a central role in enhancing credibility and facilitating entry into demanding markets. Bolivia’s experience (Boyapati and Muthukumarappan, 2025; Rosenfeld et al., 2026) illustrates how coordinated institutional strategies can reposition producers within global value chains. Certification costs, regulatory complexity, and compliance requirements, however, may reproduce structural inequalities, particularly among producers lacking cooperative organization or institutional support.
Territorial heterogeneity across the Amazon further complicates the implementation of upgrading strategies within forest-based value chains. Variations in forest density, climatic conditions, and logistical accessibility (Clement et al., 2024; Silva et al., 2025b) shape differential production capacities and influence the feasibility of technological and organizational upgrading. These dynamics reinforce the need for territorially calibrated governance frameworks capable of accommodating regional disparities and moving beyond standardized intervention models that overlook socio-ecological and infrastructural asymmetries.
Such heterogeneity indicates that upgrading processes in socio-biodiversity value chains are not determined solely by technological or market factors but depend fundamentally on governance arrangements capable of coordinating geographically dispersed actors operating under heterogeneous ecological, infrastructural, and institutional conditions (Castro et al., 2026; Phanord et al., 2026; Rosenfeld et al., 2026). This reinforces the relevance of governance-centered analytical approaches capable of integrating territorial variability into value chain upgrading strategies, as operationalized in the integrated management model proposed in this study.
Across analytical domains, the evidence suggests that upgrading constraints in forest-based value chains should be interpreted less as sectoral inefficiencies and more as manifestations of systemic governance misalignment across ecological, technological, and market domains. Fragmented policy interventions, weak horizontal articulation among producers, and insufficient integration between ecological management, technological upgrading, and market strategies constitute structurally interconnected coordination failures within forest-based value chains.
These dynamics affect not only value distribution and innovation diffusion, but also forest regeneration, ecosystem stability, and long-term socio-ecological resilience (Pinsky et al., 2024; Schimetka and Ingram, 2024). The integrated management model contributes by conceptualizing these domains as co-evolving components of a unified governance architecture, aligning sustainable resource management with value chain upgrading and biodiversity conservation. While conceptually grounded in cross-regional evidence, the framework requires empirical testing in specific territorial contexts to assess its adaptive capacity and operational effectiveness.
In contrast to sectoral and issue-specific approaches that examine ecological management, innovation, institutional coordination, and commercialization as analytically separate dimensions, the proposed framework reconceptualizes socio-biodiversity upgrading as a multi-level and governance-dependent process shaped by the interaction among interdependent ecological, technological, institutional, and market conditions. By shifting the analytical focus from isolated bottlenecks to systemic coordination mechanisms, the model advances a governance-oriented perspective on forest-based value chains in which governance operates as the integrative condition linking ecological resilience, technological upgrading, value addition, and long-term territorial sustainability.
5. Conclusion
The Brazil nut production chain occupies a strategic position within Amazonian socio-biodiversity systems, simultaneously generating income, preserving forest ecosystems, and supporting traditional livelihoods. As demonstrated throughout this study, however, structural fragmentation, coordination failures, and asymmetries in value capture continue to constrain its transformative potential.
This research contributes by proposing an integrated management framework grounded in systematic evidence synthesis, articulating ecological sustainability, technological upgrading, institutional coordination, and market integration within a unified governance architecture. By moving beyond approaches that treat environmental management, innovation, and commercialization as isolated intervention domains, the model conceptualizes upgrading as a systemic and multi-level process dependent on the alignment of interdependent structural pillars.
Structured around Sustainable Management and Environmental Preservation, Technological Innovation and Product Diversification, Governance Structures and Social Inclusion, and Market Access and Quality Certifications, the framework responds directly to recurrent bottlenecks identified in the literature. In doing so, it advances a governance-oriented analytical perspective on forest-based value chains and contributes to ongoing debates on socio-biodiversity upgrading and territorial development.
Although derived from cross-regional empirical evidence synthesized through a systematic literature review, the framework remains analytical in nature. Its practical applicability depends on context-specific adaptation and empirical validation. Future research should therefore prioritize pilot implementations in extractive territories to assess adaptive capacity, distributive outcomes, and long-term system resilience. The evaluation of indicators such as income distribution, waste reduction, value addition, and formal market integration will be essential for operational refinement.
Beyond the Brazil nut value chain, the analytical architecture proposed here may inform governance strategies for other Amazonian non-timber forest product systems, including açaí and natural rubber, where similar coordination asymmetries and upgrading constraints persist. By emphasizing systemic coordination and integrated intervention logics, the model contributes to advancing governance approaches capable of aligning environmental conservation with economic valorization in forest-based bioeconomy contexts.
Acknowledgements
The authors declare that there are no acknowledgments to report.
Data Availability Statement
The entire dataset supporting the results of this study was published in the article itself.
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