In this article, we attempt a critical evaluation of our own eight-year project in Brazil of planting coconuts in Kayapó Indian villages aiming to improve their livelihoods and support their role in tropical forest conservation. Between 2006 and 2007 we delivered a total of 1400 coconut seedlings to Aukre village. Seven years later, the coconut plants are beginning to mature, and we had the opportunity to visit Aukre and assess the fate of the plants. Mortality rate was higher than 95%, but the 54 surviving, fruiting coconuts grown from our delivery of seedlings were responsible for a 300% increase in the adult population of this species