The trade in which unionist and environmentalist Chico Mendes stood out, may cease to exist. The warning comes from Dercy Teles, President of the Rural Workers Union of Xapuri, an organization once conducted by Chico Mendes and that, to this day, represents rubber tappers of that region.

More than just the end of a tradition, the decline of rubber extraction represents the collapse of the model envisioned by the Brazilian activist who impressed the world by lending his voice to the cause of defending the possibility of preserving the forest while affording respectable living conditions for those who inhabit it. The fall is marked by an increase in deforesting practices – according to data from the Institute for Man and Environment of the Amazon (Imazon), the increase in deforesting in the state of Acre is one of the worst in Brazil, relatively speaking. In recent findings, which compared periods from 2008 and 2009, an increase of 149% in the amount of forest felled was detected, a number which is only exceeded by the state of Roraima (209%).

Rubber tappers are men and women who live in the jungle itself, in places that often can only be reached after long trips that can last days, through rivers and mud-ridden jungle trails. They make a living thanks to such species as the rubber tree or seringueiras as they are called in Brazil. From the narrow, knife or hatchet scratched lines etched into the tree’s bole, runs a viscous, milky white liquid that drips into a collecting receptacle such as a simple tin can or bowl fixed directly onto the tree trunk. Each rubber worker crosses the jungle twice a day: once in the morning to etch the trees and then again in the evening to retrieve the latex. At night, the work continues by the fire, when the material is then smoked and transformed into rubber.

Visualizar Acre em um mapa maior

The decline of rubber extraction in the Amazon is directly related to the competition that comes from the Asiatic market and also from the cultivation of rubber producing trees in other regions in Brazil, a process that began decades ago. The situation however, has never been so critical for those who live in the forest. “A rubber tapper, on the average, produces 100 kilos of rubber per month and, if lucky, sells it for US$0.65 a kilo (or R$1,20 in Brazilian currency). This will afford him or her some US$65 at the end of a whole month. Meanwhile, prime necessity goods are readjusted frequently. "A kilo of sugar, for instance, sells for little over a dollar here at the city’s center square. One can only imagine the markups the product can suffer once well into the forest!” explains Dercy Teles.

Aside from rubber itself, many survive thanks to the extraction of other natural resources the forest has to offer, such as the Brazil nut, the second source of income for most families. Payments for this and other natural products however, have fallen considerably according to the entity that represents forest workers. “The very category known as the ‘rural worker of the Amazon’ is doomed to extinction if no changes are made to the development model adopted for the region”, says Teles. With nowhere else to turn to, many have switched to deforesting to be able to purchase cattle, following the example of major cattle farmers who count on federal bank support to obtain large tracts of land at a low cost.

“Those who have turned to cattle breeding enjoy a much better standard of living today, while those who have remained living on extractivism activities are succeeding in surviving the changes”, sums up the woman who demonstrates her concern in witnessing the fact that the sons and daughters of many rubber workers are giving up the trade to try their luck in the cities.

The little Princess of Acre


Aside from being the town in which Chico Mendes came up as a union leader, Xapuri was also once one of the country’s main rubber extraction centers. Today it lies rather stagnant. One of its most flourishing districts is known by the name of Siberia, earned from the early days of World War II when it came into existence on the outskirts of a rubber tree plantation and became a major exporter of rubber to that region of Asia. It is actually a poor district, with its wooden homes resembling shacks for former rubber tappers who live in even harsher conditions than those found in the forest itself.

Most dwellings haven’t even the luxury of proper sewage facilities and, in restaurants of the “rich” part of town that once benefitted from the rubber economic boom in bygone days, it is quite common to see some inhabitants purchasing a single meal container to be divided among the entire family. According to data from the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) web portal, a monitoring entity connected to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), in 2000 there were no “subnormal agglomerations” such as slums, in the city. In 2008, the municipality declared that there were “irregular land allotments, as well as shanty towns, hut-like dwellings, stilt housings and the like”.

For social scientist Elder Andrade de Paula, professor at the Federal University of Acre and a specialist on rural development, the exodus from the forests to the cities is a problem which is not restricted to Xapuri and the working class crisis is not limited to the decadence of the rubber tapper trade. “It’s not just them. All peasants in the Amazon region, including riparian dwellers, hinterland former slave settlement dwellers known as quilombolas and native aboriginal populations are being threatened by this state of affairs”, says he. “Public policies have been very restrictive. The priority has gone to major projects such as building roads, hydroelectric power plants and the raising of livestock. This is a path that leads to extraordinary increases in the exploitation of natural resources, in a way that makes it totally unsustainable for local populations to make ends meet”, denounces the social scientist.

As examples of this situation, he mentions the soy expansion in Rondônia, the spreading of livestock breeding in Acre, the building of the Trans-Pacific Highway connecting the state of Acre to the Peruvian ports of Illo and Matarani on the Pacific Ocean side of the continent. He also points out that the process is marked by the exclusion of locals such as the Madre de Dios natives, in the Peruvian Amazon who were moved away to build the hydroelectric power plant. “The areas that are being exploited are areas that were already taken for granted as reserved for environmental protection, from Indian reservations to wildlife and forest preservation”, says he. “While the advertising goes along the lines that the state of Acre is a role-model for sustainable development, what we have seen, throughout the entire region, is quite the opposite”, says he in closing.

Survival

Chico Mendes, a rubber tapper himself who brought fame to the trade the world over and received awards and honors for his work in defense of the forest, was murdered on December 22, 1998. His death occurred seven years after he took a seat as the President of the Rural Workers Union of Xapuri, amidst the quarrels over the creation of extractivism reservations and land reform in the State, achievements that served as the basis of the sustainable development model he stood up for. Farmer Darcy Alves da Silva and his son Derli, former owners of the Cachoeira rubber tree plantation, one of the areas expropriated thanks to Mendes’ campaigns were arrested and condemned for the crime.

Today, the Cachoeira rubber tree plantation is one of the few areas in which former rubber tappers can have some hope of surviving without having to flee for the cities. With a strong support from the Government, the place now has an ecological lodging and, ironies apart, it is an important center for harvesting reforestation-certified wood. Former allies that supported Mendes’ campaign struggles, today they showcase rubber extraction techniques to tourists.

Close by there is a state-supported condom factory called Natex, inaugurated in 2008 as part of the project to benefit the latex extracted by rubber workers, enable their permanence in the forest and, in this manner, strengthen the jungle’s own preservation. To this date, however, the idea that consumed nearly US$17 million and was financed both by the Federal Government and the state of Acre, as well as by the Inter-American Development Bank, has not yet flourished. With production below forecasts, the factory purchases only less than 10% of the production of the region’s rubber tappers. According to the Rural Workers Union of Xapuri, there is no hope for the factory to save the trade.

Connecting the survival of rubber tappers with the preservation of the forest is no new take on the subject. After the death of Chico Mendes, composers Aguinaldo Batista and Luiz Gonzaga composed the following song (in a liberal translation from the Portuguese original):

“I cannot breathe, I can swim no more,
The earth is dying, one cannot plant anymore,
If you plant, you won’t see it grow; if it does, it won’t yield,
Even good spirits are hard to find
Where’s that flower that grew over there?
Pollution took it
And the fish that belong in the sea?
Pollution took them
And where have the green surroundings gone?
Pollution took it
Not even Chico Mendes survived”

(Translated by Robert Rajabally)

Daniel Santini is reporter and he studies international journalism at PUC SP. He went to Xapuri to write about de first Brazilian state owned condoms factory, after being granted by the Susteinable Development Investigative Journalism Scholarship of Avina Foundation. He  learnt more about the rubber tappers after being hosted by Aderaldo Ribeiro da Silva, distant eight yours by boat from the city plus two hours walk on the mud. He does not forget the kindness of Aderaldo´s family