PLAYING WITH ASIMINA-TRILOBA (PAWPAW) - A SPECIES TO CONSIDER WHEN ENHANCING RIPARIAN FOREST BUFFER SYSTEMS WITH NON-TIMBER PRODUCTS

A dynamic model that depicts the growth, production and possible econo mical gains from Asimina triloba (pawpaw), a native North American fru it, is presented. Very few horticultural data exists on this species, calibration can only be done based on estimates and on educated ecolog ical sense. This fruit was selected to be modeled because it is native to the Eastern US and because very little is known about it. Perhaps, with the construction of a model some insight on its productivity can be obtained. The interest in this fruit stems from a deeper problem. As a consequence of the increased pollution in the Chesapeake Bay Wate rshed, different actions have been taken in order to control and resto re its environment. Among such actions, the building and maintenance o f riparian forest buffer strips has been suggested and enforced. Farme rs have been adamant about implementing these new approaches because l and would have to be taken out of production, thus incurring an econom ic loss. However, if the riparian forest buffer is enhanced with econo mically viable non timber species, profit could be made from the land. The authors suggest the use of pawpaws as one of many options to incl ude in the harvestable zone of the riparian forest buffer system. Thre e biological scenarios and four economical scenarios were tested in th e model. We observed that unless pawpaw harvesting associated wages ar e cut, or subsidies for the economical exploitation of pawpaw riparian buffer strips are generous, the financial viability of such buffer st rips using pawpaw as the harvestable species is reduced. In one of suc h scenarios, given a 5 ha pawpaw riparian buffer strip, where the farm er pays no wages, the pawpaw fruit is sold at $0.99 each, and the buff er is planted from new, the net present value of the buffer strip is $ 26396.60. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.