Valuing the old, inspiring the young
Extractivism Week in Terra do Meio, Pará, is marked by a strong indigenous presence, a Brazil nut harvest record and the strengthening of rubber production
By Ariel Gajardo and Roberto Almeida of ISA
Photos: Lilo Clareto/ISA
The Xipaya, Curuáya, Xikrin, Yudjá and Arara peoples unite with the riverside dwellers of the extractivist reserves of Rio Xingu, Rio Iriri and Riozinho do Anfrísio, in Pará, to promote traditional knowledge, extractivism, and a transparent, autonomous economy of socio-environmental diversity.
According to Kwazady Xipaya, the course has already been charted. “We saw the example of the extractivists growing in an activity that we said: it’s working! They use forest resources, which are ensuring the sustainability of those people, allowing the young and old to remain within that community.”
He concluded with a call to indigenous communities: “Let’s do it?”
The call from Kwazady was witnessed by businessmen and partners at the fifth edition of Extractivism Week (Semana do Extrativismo — SEMEX), an annual event that remains firm in its resolve to build bridges of access between community production and fair markets.
Held in May of this year, the fifth edition of SEMEX featured something new. For the first time, the meeting was held on indigenous land — the Xipaya Indigenous Land, along the banks of the Curuá River. Over the last four years, the meeting had been held on the Extractivist Reserves of Riozinho do Anfrísio, Iriri and Xingu.
Over 150 participants took part in meetings and workshops that highlighted common goals, over the course of five days. Ties between indigenous peoples and riverside dwellers were strengthened. All of them united by a common production and commercialization strategy for their respective lands.
“We saw that the needs of the riverside dwellers are the same as the indigenous peoples. Since they live off the same things and produce the same things. The difference is culture. But culture is not for sale,” said João Carlos Xipaya, cantina manager for the village of Tukayá.
Today, riverside dwellers and indigenous peoples are taking the lead in the production of a basket of over 10 products. Rubber, Brazil nuts, oils, flours and forest seeds find partner buyers who value sensitivity, transparency, guarantee of origin and quality.
Learn more about this history in a video on the fifth edition of SEMEX below. English subtitles are available on the Youtube controls.
From distance to convergence
In an enormous mosaic of protected lands, such as the Terra do Meio (PA), covering 8.5 million hectares — almost the size of the state of Santa Catarina — coordination between peoples of the forest who live so far apart, requiring days of travel on winding rivers like the Xingu, Iriri, Curuá and many others, was like a tiny speck on the horizon.
It is also a region filled with surprises and uncertainties. The riverside dwellers have experienced the rise and fall of rubber, a system of patronage and river traders and the recent creation of the Extractivist Reserves, and have always lived under threat. Indigenous peoples have experienced serious crises through contact with non-indigenous people, and fought for the demarcation of their lands.
Today, they still suffer the impacts of the Belo Monte Hydroelectric Plant, with illegal mining, land fraud and the theft of timber, all of which increase pressure on their lands.
If there are distances, threats and pressures, there is also a gathering that has occurred every year since 2014, which features prominently on the calendar of the peoples of Terra do Meio: Extractivism Week. A unique event that takes a strategic look at the future of the region, with participation from local communities, partners and businessmen.
Today, the indigenous peoples recognize that their fight is the same fight as the riverside dwellers. They both want to earn income from their lands and pass down the teachings of their elders to future generations.
What the Rede de Cantinas da Terra do Meio does
Our work, according to Kwazady Xipaya, is to provide continuity to a model that has been working successfully: the Rede Cantinas da Terra do Meio [Terra do Meio Cantina Network].
The cantinas are collectives of riverside dwellers, indigenous peoples and small-scale farmers who produce and sell products of the peoples of the forest.
These collectives generate their own working capital, which enables the production and sale in a transparent and autonomous manner. They are spread throughout the region of Terra do Meio and the Lower Xingu. Mini-processing plants add value to the products of the people of the forest and combine traditional knowledge and technological innovation.
Today, they form a network of 22 cantinas spread throughout Terra do Meio, both on indigenous lands and extractivist reserves. There are 8 mini-processing plants for the production of various products and 44 warehouses for inventory. In addition, there are 9 rubber processing plants and 153 newly reopened rubber tapper paths. And more cantinas are on their way, beginning with the Yudjá people of Volta Grande do Xingu.
“The distance that we traveled [to arrive at the village of Tukayá] is nothing compared to the immensity of what we learned. We want to be a part of the network, because we know it will work for us!” said Bel Juruna, representative of the Yudja Mïratu Association of Volta Grande do Xingu (Aymix).
The network has shown its potential as an important driver to leverage the generation of income for communities and transform the lives on the extractivist reserves and indigenous lands.
In addition to an increase in amounts traded between 2009 and 2018, totaling around R$ 1.8 million (US$ 463,000), the cantinas have already accumulated working capital that today totals around R$ 500,000 (US$ 130,000). Of the contract signed with large buyers of the network, a total of 3.7 tons of babassu flour was sold for use in public school lunches in the region of Altamira; 1.5 tons of copaiba oil for the perfume company Firmenich and another 8 tons of rubber for the company Mercur.
In addition, in a year of record Brazil nut harvest, 330 tons were sold to Wickbold, Fundação Somos Um and the local market.
For Marcelo Salazar, at Instituto Socioambiental, the Network has the potential to reinvent the production chains of the region, placing forest products, managed by indigenous people and extractivists, on another level of value.
Those who gather and process the products earn more, there is more transparency in terms of information and the consumers can learn more about where the products come from and the context of the people who produce them. Expanding the options for sale of the products and adding value to these projects also enable them to manage their lands and maintain their ways of life.
Transparency, sensitivity and innovation
For riverside dwellers and indigenous people, the Extractivism Weeks are opportunities to show businessmen and partners their work, how the forest products are handled and their ways of life.
In this fifth edition of the event, in addition to the operators of the cantinas and representatives of the extractivist and indigenous associations and their support organizations, representatives from Mercur, Wickbold, Funai, ICMBio, Rainforest Noruega, Moore Foundation, do ISA, Fundação Viver Produzir e Preservar and Norte Energia were present, who are required to carry out a series of socio-environmental mitigation programs due to the impact on the indigenous people and riverside dwellers caused by the building of the Belo Monte hydroelectric plant.
“We are explaining the real world situation, our work model. They [companies and partners] think it’s really interesting that they can see how copaiba, rubber and Brazil nuts are produced,” said Pedro Pereira de Castro, cantina operator for the Riozinho do Anfrísio Extractivist Reserve.
Businessmen, in turn, show their commitment to the community in an environment of intense discussion about production chains.
A partner since the start of the Network and present since the 1st edition of Extractivism Week, in 2014, Mercur takes its engagement with the project beyond basic contracts to sell rubber. In this edition, two chemists from Mercur arrived seven days before Extractivism Week to improve, together with the rubber tappers, the processing of rubber sheets and rubber-coated fabrics.
“To purchase forest products from the riverside dwellers or the indigenous villages one has to have a certain sensitivity. We need to stop talking about the industrial and business world, and talk more about human sensitivity. Understand a little bit about how they think, which is entirely different than the thinking of the city,” said Jorge Hoelzel Neto, a Mercur facilitator.
The bread and cake company Wickbold, the main buyer of Brazil nuts produced in Terra do Meio, was also present to evaluate the huge jump this year in the volume of Brazil nuts purchased, which required efforts from all sides: from the company, the cantina operators, resident associations and local partners.
“It’s not the easiest way to buy, being very transparent. Negotiating with well-established companies, with structured logistical chains, and locations with easy access would be much easier and cheaper. But the company really believes in sustainability and socio-environmental responsibility,” said Thiago Valença, supply coordinator for Wickbold.
“The Network, the mini-processing plants, the Selo Origens Brasil [Brazil Origin Seal] and the entire framework that they are creating here to generate income in this enormous territory that is Xingu, I’ve never seen done so well anywhere,” noted Marina Tereza Campos, of the Moore Foundation.
Past, present and future
The future, laid out during Extractivism Week, promises even more. In addition to listing a series of actions, improvements and acquisitions — such as the ramping up of three new mini-processing plants, the creation and printing of new labels for the products of the collective brand Vem do Xingu [Made in Xingu], renovations to the cantinas and warehouses and the purchase of grinders, packing machines and presses for the rubber tappers — the main challenges are integrating the investments in the region and expanding the capacity to develop new products through partnerships between communities and companies.
That is why it is so important to look into the past, in order to understand the achievements over time. “In 2002, hardly anyone had an official document, you could count the number of people who had one. We didn’t know what an Extractivist Reserve was. People couldn’t read or write,” recalls Raimundo Belmiro, of the Extractivist Reserve Riozinho do Anfrísio.
Raimundo also remembers a time when he received death threats from land grabbers, shortly after the creation of the Extractivist Reserve: “I risked my life for the entire community of Riozinho do Anfrísio. The most serious thing that happened was having to travel with five or six bodyguards just because I was exercising my rights.”
For him, the older generation should encourage the younger generation to keep up the work of extracting rubber, harvesting Brazil nuts, babassu and other products, that they shouldn’t just think about the present, but rather about the future of the region. Raimunda Rodrigues, cantina operator for Extractivist Reserve Rio Iriri, adds: “We have to stay here in the forest. My message is that people should not move away in search of something that is not theirs, that people should stay and work in their communities and preserve the forest.”
This report was prepared with support from the European Union.
Translation: Beatriz Velloso
