Illegal Palm Heart (Geonoma edulis) Harvest in Costa Rican National Parks: Patterns of Consumption and Extraction 1 OLIVIA SYLVESTER * ,2 AND GERARDO AVALOS 2,3 2 Escuela de Biología, Universidad de Costa Rica, 2060 San Pedro, San José, Costa Rica; e-mail: avalos@fieldstudies.org 3 The School for Field Studies, Center for Sustainable Development Studies, 10 Federal St., Salem, MA 01970, USA *Corresponding author; e-mail: livsylvester@gmail.com Illegal Palm Heart (Geonoma edulis) Harvest in Costa Rican National Parks: Patterns of Consumption and Extraction. Illegal extraction of non-timber forest products in the tropics is widespread, and many protected areas face the challenge of balancing conservation needs with cultural practices related to the use and extraction of animals and plants. We studied the illegal wild palm heart extraction of Geonoma edulis, locally known as súrtuba, in Volcán Poás and Braulio Carrillo National Parks in Costa Rica. Through 96 questionnaires administered in three communities bordering these national parks, and by semistructured interviews with poachers and park managers, this study examined extraction and consumption motives, patterns, and frequencies. This palm is sought out by the communities for use during Holy Week to satisfy cultural traditions, for its associated nutritive value, and because of its unique bitter flavor, not comparable to domesticated palm heart. Whereas the majority of the respondents consume it during Holy Week (55.2%), a substantial number (27.1%) consume G. edulis palm heart at least once a month. The majority extract once a year (58%); however, a minority (2.1%) rely on G. edulis for economic subsistence. This accounts for 72.6% of the reported extraction (over 4,500 palms per year) and is supplying a year-round market for nontraditional use. Our results show that what most likely began as a cultural tradition has become an uncontrolled, nontra- ditional source of income. Additional efforts should determine the feasibility of limited extrac- tion outside protected areas to satisfy traditional use. Such an effort entails the decentralization of biodiversity policies and innovative methods to implement protective measures, as well as incentives for community involvement in the management of this palm heart species. Key Words: Illegal extraction; park-people interactions; NTFPs; palm heart; Geonoma edulis; Costa Rica. Introduction The use of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) by rural communities is currently receiving signifi- cant attention from the scientific community. NTFPs can provide substantial income to local economies, and their use can also serve as a stimulus to improve protected area management (Huang and Long 2007; Moegenburg and Levey 2002; Muñiz- Merit et al. 1996). Increased demand for NTFPs is congruent with an increase in rural population size, combined with shrinking forest cover and changes in traditional patterns of land use (Sirén 2006). In some cases, the latter has resulted in indiscriminant resource exploitation, undermining long-term con- servation goals (Galetti and Fernández 1998). Throughout the 20th century, conservation poli- cies have been based on the coerced exclusion of rural communities from protected areas, even though those communities traditionally depended upon them (Brown 2002). Many rural communi- ties are excluded from decision-making processes in the management of protected areas, and thus have not been able to directly benefit from conservation (Brown 2002). Furthermore, when traditional or cultural land use is restricted, antagonistic feelings by local communities towards conservation policies Economic Botany, 63(2), 2009, pp. 179–189. © 2009, by The New York Botanical Garden Press, Bronx, NY 10458-5126 U.S.A. 1 Received 2 September 2008; accepted 16 March 2009; published online 6 May 2009.