Growth and survival of the Mayan palm Chamaedorea hooperiana in two villages of Los Tuxtlas Biosphere Reserve, Veracruz, Mexico: a comparison between primary and secondary forests

In the Los Tuxtlas Biosphere Reserve, Veracruz, Mexico, managers and farmers of two communities have promoted the cultivation of Chamaedorea hooperiana amid primary forest (P-F) on the assumption that this would provide viable economic income while contributing to forest sustainability. The aim of this study was to test whether or not C. hooperiana is able to grow in P-F without canopy management, and to compare its growth pattern to the one observed in secondary forest (S-F) (acahual) managed by farmers. The performance of C. hooperiana was evaluated for nearly a thousand days in patches of forest from two communal lands dedicated to palm extraction. The results indicate that the palms grew four to five times faster in the S-F than in the P-F, although the number of leaves was only about one-and-a-half times greater. Also, a different growth pattern was detected at each site in terms of plant height and length of leaves, i.e., allometric growth was negative in the P-F (the length of leaves increased more slowly than the height of the palms) and positive in the S-F (length of leaves increased faster than the height of the palms). It was concluded that although C. hooperiana may be defined as a shade-tolerant plant species growing best under intermediate light, seedlings will not grow under a closed canopy of P-F, except at those gaps with enough light. Growing the Mayan palm under S-F opens up the possibility of rehabilitating deforested areas.