Sustainable crop, forest reclamation
In Brazil, peach palm planted for heart-of-palm production is a sustainable monoculture. It can be cultivated and harvested in the long term without compromising tree survival. This cultivation is regarded as a valuable solution to replace the almost extinct species Juçara (Euterpe edulis) because of the intensive cuttings which have been done in the Atlantic Forest without replanting (Marañhao, 2012).
Waste production and recycling
During the processing of heart-of-palm, the palm peach stems are derinded and this operation was reported to produce 48% rind residues at the factory. The disposal of residues may be an issue for the environment. Recent work suggests to chop the rinds at the factory to transfom them into natural fertilizer, animal feed, and raw material for the furniture and handicraft industry. In small factories, the sheath can be directly fed to cows (Varella et al., 2021).