Palm in the news
We had a cycad here similarly affected, Bowenia serrulata. They did manage to protect it effectively, but there wasn't the same problem with financially marginal people. The bottom line is that people need to eat, they'll do whatever it takes to get an income. Chamaedorea ernesti-augustii is relatively common in cultivation, if they can sort out the land tenure security problems then it shouldn't be difficult to bring a lot of them into cultivation.