Chico Mendes

Brazilian Rubber Tapper Chico Mendes Urges Preserving the Amazonian Rainforest
[Historical Note: The deforestation and development of the Amazonian Rainforest is one of the most hotly debated environmental issues of modern times. Environmental groups believe that the deforestation of the rainforest may be causing global warming, extinction of plant and animal species, and dislocation of native groups. Most of the development of the rainforest is the result of ranchers and developers seeking to carve out more usable land. Within Brazil itself, the issue of the indigenous people is paramount. Chico Mendes, a rubber tapper from Acre, organized a protest group of indigenous peoples who used non-violent protests as a way to focus local and worldwide attention on the problem of the depletion of the Amazon. His stance did not sit well with the developers or the wealthy landowners, and Mendes was assassinated for his beliefs in 1989.]

We realised that in order to guarantee the future fo the Amazon we had to find a way to preserve the forest while at the same time developing the region's economy. So what were our thoughts originally? We accepted that the Amazon could not be turned into some kind of sanctuary that nobody could touch. On the other hand, we knew it was important to stop the deforestation that is threatening the Amazon and all human life on the planet. We felt our alternative should involve preserving the forest, but it should also include a plan to develop the economy. So we came up with the idea of extractive reserves.
What do we mean by an extractive reserve? We mean the land is under public ownership but the rubber tappers and other workers that live on the land should have the right to live and work there. I say "other workers" because there are not only rubber tappers in the forest. In our area, rubber tappers also harvest brazil nuts, but in other parts of the Amazon there are people who earn a living solely from harvesting nuts, while there are others who harvest babaçu and jute.
So what are we really after? Despite the threats, we're fighting for better marketing and price guarantees for rubber. We want better marketing policies and better working conditions for those harvesting nuts. But there are an infinite number of natural resources in the forest, so we also want the government to encourage the industrialisation and marketing of other forest products that it has always ignored in the past.
We also wanted to seek out the leaders of the Indian peoples in Acre and discuss how to unite our resistance movements, especially since Indians and rubber tappers have been at odds with each other for centuries. In Acre the leaders of the rubber tappers and Indian peoples met and concluded that neither of us was to blame for this. The real culprits were the rubber estate owners, the bankers and all the other powerful interest groups that had exploited us both. . . .
Our proposals are now not just ours alone, they are put forward together by Indians and rubber tappers. Our fight is the fight for all the peoples of the forest. When the Minister of Agriculture met a joint commission of Indians and rubber tappers in his office, he was really taken aback. "What's going on?" he said, "Indians and rubber tappers have been fighting each other since the last century! Why is it that today you come here together?" We told him things had changed and this meant the fight to defend the Amazon was stronger. People really took notice of that.
People have used all kinds of arguments against us. The landowners say we're holding back progress and harming the country's economy. They say rubber is not important to the economy and the future lies with cattle raising. Others say the Amazon is a vast expanse of uninhabited territory and that it should be developed. All kinds of reactionary arguments are used against us. Our enemies work hard at putting forward their arguments to try and undermine our own. However, the national press has now started to realise that the defence of the Amazon is really an issue. But anyway, we can deal with the arguments that are used against us. To those who say that Acre should be producing food, we say there is plenty of land for that. What are the big colonisation projects supposed to be producing? Anyway, all it needs is for the government to develop an agricultural policy that takes into consideration the region's small farmers. There should be no problem about growing enough food.
The rubber tappers aren't saying that nobody should lay a finger on the Amazon. No. We've got our own proposals for organising production. The rubber tappers and the Indians have always grown their subsistence crops but they've never threatened the existence of the forest. It's the deforestation carried out by the big landowners to open up pasture for their cattle that is threatening the forest. Often, these people are just speculating with the land. What happens in Xapuri and other parts of the Amazon is that these people cut down 10,000 hectares, turn half of it into pasture for their cattle and let the other half grow wild. They are really just involved in land speculation.
The landowners use all the economic power at their disposal. They bribe the authorities; it's common knowledge that they've bought off the IBDF staff in the Amazon region. They also use the law. They request police protection for the workers hired to cut down the trees, saying it is their land so they can do whatever they like with it. They accuse the rubber tappers of trespassing when we try to stop the deforestation. They turn to the courts for support and protection, claiming the land is private property. But the rubber tappers have been here for centuries!