Rubber tappers create a sustainable future in the Amazon / Photo: © AFP
By AFP - Agence France Presse
Rubber tappers forge a sustainable future in the Amazon
When the sun rises on the Amazonian island of Marajó, Renato Cordeiro laces up his boots, picks up his machete, and heads out to tap his rubber trees.
Drop by drop, he collects the milky white sap, known as latex, which sustains him.
The recent revival of the rubber tapping trade in this impoverished region of northern Brazil has created jobs for families who once prospered during the Amazon rubber boom, which collapsed at the end of the 20th century.
A local company called Seringo has enabled Cordeiro and more than 1,500 other rubber tappers to resume their trade. The company produces goods such as footwear and, at the same time, protects the forest, which is increasingly threatened by deforestation.
For Cordeiro, a robust 57-year-old man, the Amazon is his backyard.
Behind his house on stilts on the Anajás River, dozens of natural rubber trees mingle with centuries-old trees and palms typical of this island, surrounded by rivers on one side and the sea on the other.
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“I started tapping trees at the age of seven with my mother, in the middle of the forest,” said Cordeiro, holding his machete, which has a protruding metal piece for making precise cuts in the bark.
With each incision made carefully so as not to damage the trunk, the native Amazonian tree begins to drip its latex into a container placed underneath. As it fills up, Renato moves on to the next tree.
Every day, he collects around 18 liters and mixes them with vinegar to produce white rubber sheets. These leaves are hung on a rope for 10 days to dry before being sold to Seringo, who collects them from his house on the banks of the river.
Cordeiro, who is married and has three children, smiles with pride. After almost two decades of surviving by hunting and harvesting açaí, he returned to being a rubber tapper in 2017 to protect what he calls his family's heritage - the forest.
“I longed for a return to this work,” says Valcir Rodrigues, another rubber tapper and father of five, from a house on stilts along the river north of Anajas.
“We want to leave a better world for our children, that's why we don't deforest,” he says.
Rodrigues often confronts loggers who invade his land to cut down trees.
“They need to understand how much they harm the forest - and themselves - since many end up in debt to their employers,” he explains.
Deforestation increased in Marajó when global demand for Amazonian rubber plummeted and countries like Malaysia began planting rubber trees on a large scale.
Today, however, rubber supports Rodrigues' entire family. His wife and mother-in-law skillfully produce colorful handmade products that are sold mainly in Belém, the capital of the state of Pará, east of Marajó.
“I used to be a civil servant, but the local government never gave me a job. This is my first real business and I love it,” said his mother-in-law Vanda Lima, a smiling 60-year-old woman.
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With one of the worst Human Development Indexes in Brazil, “it was necessary to create income in Marajó”, says Zelia Damasceno, who co-founded Seringo with her husband to boost the region's bioeconomy.
Initially focused on promoting handicraft work, the couple realized that rubber tappers were “dissatisfied”, extracting latex sporadically for their spouses to use in making handicrafts.
“So we thought of a second purpose - footwear - so that they could also earn a living,” says Damasceno, 59, from Pará.
At its factory in Castanhal, some 300 kilometers east of Marajó, Seringo produces 200 pairs of biodegradable shoes every day, made from 70% rubber and 30% açaí powder.
The company recently received support from the Pará government to increase the number of rubber tappers it uses in Marajó to 10,000.
This is part of a sustainable development program launched ahead of COP30, a UN climate conference scheduled for November in Belém.
Even so, Damasceno admits that there are still challenges: “Some young people don't want to follow this path. We need to raise awareness about the importance of this work to preserve the forest and their future.”
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