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He described the organization of the
Conselho Nacional de Seringueiros
(CNS
or National Council of Rubber Tappers) as the fi rst step of an organized resistance
to environmental destruction in the Amazon. Chico Mendes and his companions
were defending the thesis that the rainforest is worth more standing up than lying
down; that extracting the richness from the forest without destroying it, is what
sustainable development is all about. Extractive Reserves (
RESEX - Reservas
Extrativistas
) became, after Chico Mendes, part of the Brazilian national system of
protected areas. The National System for Conservation Units (
SNUC - Sistema
Nacional de Unidades de Conservação
) defi nes them as a “Protected Area for
Sustainable Use by Traditional Populations.” The government decree 98.897 of
January 30, 1990, signed by President Fernando Collor de Mello and Environment
Minister José Lutzenberger is the legal basis for extractive reserves. It defi nes
RESEX as “territorial space destined to self-sustainable exploration and conserva-
tion of renewable natural resources,” and establishes that the executive power shall
create those reservations in territorial spaces considered of ecological and social
importance. The government cedes the rights of use of land and sea, and the popula-
tion receives a collective title for land use. This impedes the sale of the lands that are
federal properties. The responsibility for enforcement of the law is also federal. The
concession guarantees access to land and sea for the future generations of the local
community members.
In the case of Amazonia's rubber tappers, planners and policy-makers had a crucial
challenge to face: the creation of economic and non-economic incentives which
would allow non-destructive uses to become viable, and open long-term options for
maintaining rainforest populations. Chico Mendes wanted to create a management
system, built upon existing solidarity and cooperation, in order to encourage a
shared, collective sense of responsibility and to preserve the forest as a common
property resource. In order to halt or even reverse the present tendency towards
depopulation of the
seringais
, extractive reserves should provide the means for rub-
ber tappers and their families to sustain their livelihoods. Economic sustainability
would provide tappers with an incentive to retain and diversify their traditional
sources of income, and at the same time would encourage them to preserve the for-
est. Discussions and initial efforts to improve the income-generating capacity of
extractive reserves have focused on two areas: the improvement of product quality,
and support services for existing rubber and Brazil-nut industries. In addition, how-
ever, it will be necessary to diversify the range of productive activities to include
sustainable forest management, agroforestry, and use of other non-timber forest
products, such as medicinal plants.
While forging partnerships with other green groups, Chico Mendes insisted that
people should not be regarded as separate from nature but, instead, be considered
integral components of the natural landscape. He was a Brazilian pioneer in what is
now called environmental and social justice, promoting the rights of communities to
help shape their destinies from the ground up. Despite threats, Mendes refused to
leave his home state of Acre, in the westernmost part of the Brazilian Amazon
forest, for safer terrain. And so his life was cut short by a single shotgun blast. On
the evening of Thursday, December 22, 1988, Mendes was assassinated in his
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