GG5: Gen C: KI3

Many organisations are involved in decision making in this natural environment. Thee may be conflict between their aims of:

a) Government e.g Federal v. state

b) Private companies e.g. meat, mining, tourism

c) Individuals e.g. Yanomami v. gold prospectors in

Roraima state

Or in Acre state

e.g. ranchers v. seringueiros

Brazil has a federal government for the whole country.

With separate state governments for different regions.

Amazonas region includes Acre state.

State and Federal policy can differ depending on political power

And change over time

In the 1970s and 1980s the federal government tended to see the Amazon as an underused resource

The favoured exploitative development

The TransAmazon Highway gave access

The poor from the North East

The favela dwellers from the SE

Could move into Amazonia and

Have the opportunity to ‘better themselves’

National Integration Program (PIN): est in 1970, provided impetus to road-building boom (Transamazon highway connecting Amazon with NE, and the Cuiaba-Santarem highway linking Amazon with S & SE).

Rationale for PIN: E/W Transamazon highway would provide solution to drought problem in NE by creating jobs for displaced NE families in short term;

in long term, to alleviate population and social pressures in NE and promote occupation of Amazon; and to uncover mineral deposits during road construction.

Overriding motive: national security and fear of foreign domination in the region.

INCRA (National Institute for Colonization & Agrarian Reform) established network of villlages, towns, cities along the highway and demarcated 100-ha farm plots with goal to settle 70,000 families between 1970-2.

Legislation demands proof that plots of land donated to migrants do not remain idle. 1st thing new owners do is bulldoze the virgin forest to guarantee legal possession

Cattle ranching assisted by generous government subsidies greatest single factor in Brazil

Crazy policies promote devastation

Explosive" deforestation in Rondonia made possible through promoted frontier expansion scheme. BR-364 brought wave of migration and deforestation

Outside agencies – ‘supragovernmental -fund deforestation

Road building supported by loans from World Bank and Inter American Development Bank in 1980s with growing environmental opposition.

It is estimated that the indigenous population (indian population) in Brazil, during the colonial times, was between 1 and 3 million people.

Today, there are only 330,000 indians in all of Brazil.

These peoples form 215 "nations" which are recognized by "Funai" (National Indian Foundation which was founded in 1967 – a national government agency).

There is evidence of another 60 isolated groups which still have no regular contact with outsiders.

Acre state has a territory covered mostly by jungle of the Amazon Rainforest. The state is a well-known producer and exporter of rubber.

The creation of the 695,000-ha Chandless State Park and three state forests for sustainable production totaling another 482,000 ha was announced last Thursday by Acre state governor Jorge Viana, in front of over 100 journalists visiting the Seringal Cachoeira community managed FSC-certified forest in Xapuri, as part of the programme of the International Amazon Environmental Journalism Meeting.From WWF Newsroom

http://www.amazonlink.org/ACRE/

Geography and biodiversity of Acre

Indigenous peoples in Acre

First immigrants, the rubber The rubber tappers

"Development" of the Amazon - cattle raising

The case of Chico Mendes

The BR 364 and the growth of Rio Branco

Extraction reserves

Products from sustainable use

In Acre a pro-environment governor is in power currently. It wasn’t always the case!

B) Private Companies

Report held by CIFOR - Center for International Forestry Research - explains the link between the growth in international demand for Brazilian beef and the increase in deforestation in Brazilian Amazon.

The prestige of the "Brazil brand" on the international beef market has reached its peak. Home to the world's largest marketable herds of cattle, totaling 166 million head, Brazil ranks fourth worldwide in beef exports.

Gran Carajas Iron Ore Mine

And Tucurui Dam

Brazilian owned Company

The state of Acre, known as the land of rubber and the land of Chico Mendes, is seeking another title: the land of green tourism.

There is no lack of reasons why it should not get it, seeing that 95% of its total area - is covered by the Amazonian Forest, with a huge variety of flora and fauna.

The point of entry for this "green tour" is the capital Rio Branco, which lived its apogee of splendour during the golden age of rubber.

                                                  

                                                                           

C) Individuals in Acre: Chico Mendes - seringueiro

Trade unionist and leader of the rubber tappers in Acre, Chico Mendes became world famous through his denunciations of the destruction of the Amazon Forest.

He entered union politics in the 1960s, and during the 1970s invented the "empate", a non-violent strategy for the defence of the environment, based on passive resistance to deforestation.

In 1985, he was one of the founding members of the National Council of Rubber Workers.

In 1987, he received the United Nations Global 500 Prize, for his role in the defence of the environment.

After suffering various death threats, he was assassinated by a gunman in the courtyard of his home in Xapuri, in Acre, in September 1988.

The ranchers used to have political power

( C ) INDIVIDUALS

The killer of internationally known rain forest protector Francisco Mendes escaped from jail with his father and seven others, setting off a huge manhunt through dense Amazon jungle, police said Monday.Darcy Pereira, his father, Darli Alves da Silva, and the other inmates broke out late Sunday from a penitentiary in the Acre state capital of Rio Branco, about 2,200 miles northwest of Sao Paulo. Police said they sawed through cell bars in their loosely guarded prison.Mendes' murder spotlighted the often-violent struggle between conservationists and ranchers in the vast Amazon rainforest.