Forest Reserves 195
Forestry that sustains both people and trees
In the Amazon rainforest of Brazil, conflicts have often erupted between
logging companies, cattle ranchers, and others who earn a profit from cutting
down the forest, and people who live in the forest farming, harvesting rubber,
and making crafts. After huge portions of the rainforest were destroyed,
workers and indigenous people finally convinced the government to create
“extractive reserves” — large areas of forest protected from destruction, but
open to limited use.
Unfortunately, even people who lived in the forest for many years were
denied the right to use the extractive reserves. The very forests they had fought
so hard to protect would no longer protect their livelihoods.
People in the Tapajos Community Forest Reserve
traditionally earn their living farming, hunting, and
using forest products to make baskets, canoes, and other
handicrafts. But they also need medicines, tools, fuel,
electricity, and other things, which requires them to earn
money. With some financial help, they built a carpentry
workshop which they named the Caboclo Workshop, for
the Caboclo people of mixed indigenous, African, and
European descent. Using only trees cut down on land cleared for farming, they
made furniture to sell in local markets and in stores throughout Brazil.
This income led them to think about making more wood products to earn
more money. But they were not allowed to cut any standing trees unless they
had a “forest inventory” and a “sustainable management plan” approved by the
Ministry of the Environment.
To fulfill these government requirements, they would have to collect
information about how much wood was in the forest and how much new
wood grew each year. The government did not believe that villagers, many of
whom could not read or write, could do such a thing. But the villagers were
the real experts of the forest. They had been guiding environmental scientists
through the forest for years, teaching them about plants and animals. Now
the scientists taught them to use a simple tool to measure tree growth and
calculate how much wood grew each year. The villagers made a plan to
produce small, high-value products such as butcher blocks and stools, limiting
their use of wood to the amount that could grow in a year.
The Ministry of the Environment accepted their plan, and now the Caboclo
Workshop allows them to earn income without abusing the forest’s resources.
The forest dwellers of the Caboclo Workshop have done what scores
of scientists, economists, and development workers have long struggled to
achieve: establish a forest management plan that is sustainable for both their
community and their forest.
A Community Guide to Environmental Health 2012