The babasú coconut (Orbignya phalerata martins), a typical palm species of the Brazilian north and northeast, will replace 17 million tons of coal Germany’s thermal power plants by 2015. The export project, to begin in March 2010, will create jobs for 8,000 Brazilian women, who will break up the coconuts in order to remove the nut, generating 500 new jobs immediately at a cost of 26 million dollars.

The fibrous shell of this fruit, usually discarded, “is used for artisanry, and the mesocarp (pith) is rich in starch and can be used as human food,” Adeilton Pereira Maciel, babasú researcher at the Federal University of Maranhão, told Tierramérica.

In Brazil, the babasú employs 400,000 women in breaking the coconuts, and generates numerous byproducts, like oil, biofuel, flour, soap and cosmetics.