What are the Rubber tappers trying to preserve? Rainforest Preservation
The proposal to establish reserves for the harvesting of extractable forest resources (such as rubber]
combines forest preservation with a workable development effort. In Brazil, it is a plan with a strong local
constituency as well. Proposed in 1985 at the first annual meeting of rubber tappers in Brasília, it is supported
by an emerging community of autonomous rubber tappers.
The proposed reserves address the need for forest preservation in rapidly developing parts of the
Amazon, particularly in the Brazilian state of Acre where the rubber tappers have their strongest and most
visible organizations. Extractive reserves offer a mode of forest use that is both immediately economically
competitive and sustainable in the long run... More importantly, reserves used for extraction will continue to
produce over the long run
The proposal for extractive reserves would give land-use rights to "free rubber tappers," those tappers
who work as independents. Today these autonomous tappers have only limited land rights and projects
The global rubber industry
Their way of life
Brazil's future
International trade
No