A new project in Peru's Madre de Dios region is exploring how an overlooked by-product of Amazon nut production can be transformed into clean energy while supporting a more resilient forest economy.  
 
Diana Miranda, Project Lead and Technical Advisor for Learning, Monitoring, and Evaluation at the Wyss Academy for Nature, explains how this circular approach could reduce waste, strengthen local livelihoods, and create new opportunities for sustainable forest conservation. 

We chose this project name together with our partner ASCART because the project is all about finding ways to address some of the key challenges faced by Amazon nut harvesters. We are seeking ways to modernize the operations of Amazon nut concessionaires, providing them renewable energy options and technologies which can lower their costs. 
 
The idea is to utilize a waste product that already exists in the Amazon nut value chain, the nut shells, to generate clean energy, reduce production costs, and create better conditions for harvesting associations to sustain their activities and conserve their concessions. 
 
In simple terms, the project wants to demonstrate that a waste product from the Amazon nut grove can become an opportunity: to produce more efficiently, reduce impacts, and strengthen an economy that depends on the standing forest. 

Organic Amazon nut waste, or biomass, undergoes a preparation process before being converted into energy. First, the shell is dried and subjected to pyrolysis (heating under controlled conditions with low oxygen), which transforms it into biochar. This product has multiple potential uses: it can be applied as a soil amendment in nurseries, agroforestry systems, or restoration processes for degraded areas. 

For this Transformation Fund pilot project, however, the biochar follows a different path: it undergoes a second process, gasification, which releases a synthesis gas (syngas). This gas is what is ultimately used to generate electricity. 

The interesting thing about this process is that the Amazon nutshell, usually seen as disposable waste, is transformed into a source of clean energy. Thus, the project explores how to give a second life to this material within a circular system. 

Last year, together with ASCART and RONAP, we conducted a participatory baseline study on the Amazon nut value chain. This research helped us better understand the profile of nut harvesters in the province of Tambopata, a population with an average age of 54 to 62 and more than 37 years of experience in the activity. This highlights both the deep knowledge and expertise that exist within the sector, as well as the growing need for generational renewal. 

The study also revealed significant infrastructure and logistical challenges they face, particularly in the Tambopata National Reserve. There, concessionaires produce on average half the number of barricas (barrels) compared to their peers along the highway corridor and spend considerably more time and effort transporting their product to collection points. 
 
At the same time, and together with the harvesters, we identified opportunities to improve waste utilization and energy systems linked to processing: the Amazon nutshell, which is currently discarded at the plant after shelling, has the potential to become a clean energy source. Meanwhile, river transport, key to moving production from remote areas in the Amazon, could benefit from more efficient energy solutions that are less dependent on fossil fuels. 

These findings led us to develop the project, driven by the belief that a circular approach can help strengthen local livelihoods while supporting forest conservation. 

Since we started working in Madre de Dios, we have built a strong relationship with ASCART based on trust and collaboration. They are one of the organizations best positioned to help drive positive change in the Amazon nut value chain, which makes them an ideal partner for this project. 

ASCART operates within the buffer zone of the Tambopata National Reserve and faces unique challenges in gathering, pod-breaking, transporting, and processing Amazon nuts. Routine power outages, for example, can compromise an entire batch during multi-day drying cycles. In addition, the association has a contracted power demand of 70 kW, compared to an actual demand of just 13 kW. This gap represents a recurring financial cost, regardless of any new technological investment. 

On the other hand, ASCART already has direct experience with clean energy: between 2021 and 2023, it was the recipient and host entity of state funding to implement a clean energy system based on Amazon nut waste installed right in its own processing plant. 

The system was successfully built and demonstrated, and equipment ownership was transferred to the cooperative at the close of the project. This means ASCART is not starting from scratch: it possesses already upgraded electrical infrastructure, installed physical capital, and a working community that is trained and committed to the energy innovation agenda, conditions that few other Amazon nut organizations in the region can offer. 

Territorially, this is a project with potential scalability. Today, ASCART's processing plant has a high energy requirement, not only for drying but also for other processes, including the conditions under which the women of the association perform the shelling process. 

In this first exploratory phase, we have identified that their energy improvement needs are increasingly necessary for them to grow. And we can extrapolate this to the energy situation of the Amazon in general. The rainforest suffers from poor energy quality; there are constant blackouts. But, on the other hand, it is a natural producer of biomass. So, there is a win-win situation: we have both the demand and the supply, which is why we believe this pilot has enormous potential to scale up. 

We believe so. For harvesting families, this project could become one of the first successful examples of how Amazon nut shells can be transformed into energy, turning a waste product that is currently discarded into a valuable resource. 

There is significant potential behind this idea: if the model works with associations like ASCART, we could explore how to bring it to other actors in the territory. In a next stage, we would also like to work with indigenous nut-harvesting communities to demonstrate that transforming shells into energy can be adapted to different productive and organizational contexts, not just the cooperative model. 

What is particularly exciting is that we would not just be talking about a technical improvement, but about a different way of approaching the value chain itself: using waste from the Amazon nut system to generate energy, reduce operating costs, and strengthen an economy that depends directly on the health of the forest. 

The Amazon nut tree is an indicator of forest health; it tells us whether the forest is well conserved. At the same time, because Amazon nuts have market value, they create a tangible incentive for conservation. The forest must be healthy and well preserved to produce nuts, and importantly, Amazon nut harvesting is a permitted activity within protected reserves. 

This is why ASCART plays such a key role: it brings together nut-harvesting families who not only produce Amazon nuts but also have a direct responsibility for protecting the territories where they work. In many ways, conserving the forest is part of the activity itself. 

Amazon nut harvesting has historically been a family activity. Many families have depended on the nut groves for generations, passing down knowledge and traditions over time. So when we talk about Amazon nuts, we are not just talking about a product. We are talking about the forest, culture, territory, and a way of life. 

 
* Castaña del Futuro is a project developed in partnership with the Association of Amazon Nut Harvesters of the Tambopata National Reserve and the Bahuaja Sonene National Park (ASCART). It is one of the first pilot initiatives selected for the Transformation Fund and is financed through the Wyss Academy's climate contribution. The Fund invests in innovative solutions that drive positive change for climate, people, and nature.