Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-gq7q9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-18T04:35:40.208Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Forest Citizens: Changing Life Conditions and Social Identities in the Land of the Rubber Tappers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 September 2022

Marianne Schmink*
Affiliation:
University of Florida
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

In the past few decades, a new era of socioenvironmental institutions and policies has promoted experimentation with alternative proposals for managing land and resources in the Amazon region. The rubber tappers' home state of Acre was transformed by the florestania policies of the “forest government” regimes that built on the rubber tappers' identity and history to promote forest-based development and to extend citizenship rights. Beginning in 1999, the state became a laboratory for experimentation with new approaches to development, at a time of rapid changes among both urban and rural populations. This article uses data from household surveys in the capital city of Rio Branco, as well as extensive secondary literature, to trace the evolution of these new policies and projects and their ambiguous implications for citizenship and sustainable development.

Resumo

Resumo

En las últimas décadas una nueva era de instituciones y políticas socio-medioambientales han promovido la experimentación con propuestas alternativas de gestión de la tierra y de los recursos en la región del Amazonas. Acre, estado natal de los huleros, fue transformado por las políticas de florestaría de los gobiernos que se basaron en la identidad e historia de dichos huleros para lograr un desarrollo basado en la selva y extender los derechos de ciudadanía. Desde 1999, Acre se ha convertido en un laboratorio para la experimentación con nuevas aproximaciones al desarrollo al mismo tiempo que se han producido rápidos cambios en las poblaciones urbanas y rurales. En este artículo se utilizan datos obtenidos a través de encuestas realizadas a unidades familiares de la capital, Rio Branco, así como una extensa literatura secundaria, para a través de ello trazar la evolución de esas nuevas políticas y proyectos y sus ambiguas consecuencias para la ciudadanía y el desarrollo sostenible.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 2011 by the University of Texas Press

Footnotes

The author gratefully acknowledges the insightful conceptual and editorial contributions of Charles H. Wood and Philip J. Williams.

References

Acre (State Government) 2000 Zoneamento ecológico-econômico do Acre, 3 vols. Rio Branco (accessed October 15, 2009, at http://www.ac.gov.br/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1533&Itemid=138).Google Scholar
Acre (State Government) 2008 Plano plurianual 2008/2011. Rio Branco (accessed October 15, 2009, at http://www.ac.gov.br/index.php?option=com_docman&task=cat_view&gid=27&Itemid=165).Google Scholar
Allegretti, Mary 2002A construção social de políticas ambientais: Chico Mendes e o movimento dos seringueiros.” Ph.D. dissertation, Universidade de Brasília.Google Scholar
Arnt, Ricardo, ed. 1994 O destino da floresta: Reservas extrativistas e desenvolvimento sustentável na Amazônia. Rio de Janeiro: Relume-Dumará.Google Scholar
Bakx, Keith Stanley 1986Peasant Formation and Capitalist Development: The Case of Acre, South-West Amazônia.” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Liverpool.Google Scholar
Barp, Wilson José, and Barp, Ana Rosa Baganha 2002Crisis and Mediation in Social and Agrarian Relations: The Case of Acre.” In Globalization and Sustainable Development in Latin America: Perspectives on the New Economic Order, edited by Saha, S. K. and Parker, David, 250275. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.Google Scholar
Becker, Bertha 1990 Amazônia. São Paulo: Ática.Google Scholar
Becker, Bertha 2004 Amazônia: Geopolítica na virada do III milênio. Rio de Janeiro: Garamond.Google Scholar
Becker, Bertha 2005Amazônia: Nova geografia, nova política regional e nova escala de ação.” In Amazônia sustentável: Desenvolvimento sustentável entre políticas públicas, estratégias inovadores e experiências locais, edited by Coy, Martin and Kohlhepp, Gerd, 2344. Rio de Janeiro: Garamond.Google Scholar
Becker, Bertha 2009Articulando o complex urbano e o complex verde na Amazônia” (accessed September 25, 2009, at http://www.cgee.org.br/).Google Scholar
Browder, John O. 1992Extractive Reserves and the Future of the Amazon's Rainforest: Some Cautionary Observations.” In The Rainforest Harvest, edited by Friends of the Earth, 224235. London: Friends of the Earth.Google Scholar
Browder, John O., and Godfrey, Brian J. 1997 Rainforest Cities: Urbanization, Development, and Globalization of the Brazilian Amazon. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Browder, John O., and Godfrey, Brian J. 2006 Cidades na floresta: Urbanização, desenvolvimento, e globalização da Amazonia brasileira. Manaus: Universidade Federal do Amazonas.Google Scholar
Centro de Desenvolvimento e Planejamento Regional 1979 Migrações internas na região norte: O caso do Acre. Belo Horizonte: Centro de Desenvolvimento e Planejamento Regional and Superintêndencia de Desenvolvimento da Amazônia.Google Scholar
Centro de Gestão e Estudos Estratégicos 2009 Um projeto para a Amazônia no século 21: Desafios e contribuições. Brasília: Centro de Gestão e Estudos Estratégicos.Google Scholar
Clémencon, Raymond 2008The Road Map to Bali.” Journal of Environment and Development 17 (1): 7094.Google Scholar
Costa Sobrinho, Pedro Vicente 1992 Capital e trabalho na Amazônia ocidental. São Paulo: Cortez.Google Scholar
Dagnino, Evelino 2006Meanings of Citizenship in Latin America.” Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies 31 (62): 1552.Google Scholar
DaMatta, Roberto 1991Do You Know Who You're Talking To? The Distinction between Individual and Person in Brazil.” In Carnivals, Rogues, and Heroes: An Interpretation of the Brazilian Dilemma, 137197. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.Google Scholar
Ehringhaus, Christiane 2005Post-Victory Dilemmas: Land Use, Development, and Social Movements in Amazonian Extractive Reserves.” Ph.D. dissertation, Yale University.Google Scholar
Escobar, Arturo 2001Culture Sits in Places: Reflections on Globalism and Subaltern Strategies of Localization.” Political Geography 20:139174.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Esteves, Benedita Maria Gomes 1999Do ‘manso’ ao guardião da floresta.” Ph.D. dissertation, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro.Google Scholar
Fearnside, Philip M. 1997Environmental Services as a Strategy for Sustainable Development in Rural Amazonia.” Ecological Economics 20 (1): 5370.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fernandes, Marcos Inácio 1999O PT no Acre: A construção de uma terceira via.” Master's thesis, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte.Google Scholar
Gomes, Carlos Valério Aguilar 2001Dynamics of Land Use in an Amazonian Extractive Reserve: The Case of the Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve in Acre, Brazil.” Master's thesis, University of Florida.Google Scholar
Gomes, Carlos Valério Aguilar 2009Twenty Years after Chico Mendes: Extractive Reserves' Expansion, Cattle Adoption and Evolving Self-Definition among Rubber Tappers in the Brazilian Amazon.” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Florida.Google Scholar
Holston, James 2008 Insurgent Citizenship: Disjunctions of Democracy and Modernity in Brazil. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Homma, Alfredo K. O. 1992The Dynamics of Extraction in Amazonia: A Historical Perspective.” In Non-Timber Products from Tropical Forests: Evaluation of a Conservation and Development Strategy, edited by Nepstad, Daniel C. and Schwartzman, Stephen, 2331. Bronx: New York Botanical Garden.Google Scholar
Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística 2002 Contas regionais do Brasil. Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística.Google Scholar
Jelin, Elizabeth 1996Citizenship Revisited: Solidarity, Responsibility, and Rights.” In Constructing Democracy: Human Rights, Citizenship, and Society in Latin America, edited by Jelin, Elizabeth and Hershberg, Eric, 101119. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Kainer, Karen, Schmink, Marianne, Leite, Artur C. P., and Fadell, M. S. J. 2002Experiments in Forest-Based Development in Western Amazonia.” Society and Natural Resources 16 (10): 869886.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keck, Margaret 1995Social Equity and Environmental Politics in Brazil: Lessons from the Rubber Tappers of Acre.” Comparative Politics 27 (4): 409425.Google Scholar
Lele, Uma, Viana, Virgílio, Veríssimo, Adalberto, Vosti, Stephen, Perkins, K., and Husain, S. A. 2000 Brazil Forests in the Balance: Challenges of Conservation with Development. Washington, D.C.: World Bank.Google Scholar
Marshall, Thomas H. 1950 Citizenship and Social Class, and Other Essays. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Mesquita, Geraldo 1977Depoimento na Comissão de Agricultura e Política Rural, Câmara dos Deputados.” Diário do Congresso Nacional (Brasilia), section 1, supplement A, no. 157 (June 10): 4764.Google Scholar
Mesquita, Geraldo Moreira, Rachel, 2006Acre começa a entrar na era da industrialização.” Página 20, July 17, 1213.Google Scholar
Oliveira, Ermício Sena de 2003O movimento pelo desenvolvimento sustentável do Acre, Brasil (1988–2002): Ciclos de protestos, capital social e rendimento democrático.” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Salamanca.Google Scholar
Oliveira, Luis Antônio Pinto de 1985O Sertanejo, o brabo, e o posseiro: Os cem anos de andanças da população acreana.” Master's thesis, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais.Google Scholar
Paula, Elder Andrade de 2005 (Des)envolvimento insustentável na Amazônia ocidental: Dos misionários do progresso aos mercadores da natureza. Rio Branco: Editoria da Universidade Federal do Acre.Google Scholar
Pearce, David, Putz, F. E., and Vanclay, J. K. 2002Sustainable Forestry in the Tropics: Panacea or Folly?Forest Ecology and Management 172:229247.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perz, Stephen G. 2000The Rural Exodus in the Context of Economic Crisis, Globalization and Reform in Brazil.” International Migration Review 34 (3): 842881.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perz, Stephen G., Aramburú, Carlos, and Bremner, Jason 2005Population, Land Use and Deforestation in the Pan Amazon Basin: A Comparison of Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Perú and Venezuela.” Environment, Development and Sustainability 7 (1): 2349.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rice, Richard E., Gullison, R. E., and Reid, J. W. 1997Can Sustainable Management Save Tropical Forests?Scientific American 276 (4): 4449.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rodrigues, Gomercindo 2007 Walking the Forest with Chico Mendes: Struggle for Justice in the Amazon, edited and translated by Rabben, Linda. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Sant'Ana, Horácio Antunes de Jr. 2004 Florestania: A saga acreana e os povos da floresta. Rio Branco: Universidade Federal do Acre.Google Scholar
Schmink, Marianne, and Cordeiro, Mâncio Lima 2008 Rio Branco: Cidade da florestania. Belém: Universidade Federal do Pará and Universidade Federal do Acre.Google Scholar
Schmink, Marianne, and Wood, Charles H. 1992 Contested Frontiers in Amazonia. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Silva, Adalberto Ferreira da 1982Ocupação recente das terras do Acre: Transferência de capitais e disputa pela terra.” Master's thesis, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais.Google Scholar
Sojo, Carlos 2002The Idea of Citizenship in the Latin American Debate.” Cepal Review 76:2537.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Souza, Francisco Kennedy Araújo de 2006Effectiveness of Extractive Reserves, Agro-Extractive Reserves and Colonist Settlements in Southwest Amazonia: An Economic and Land Cover Comparison of Three Land Tenure Types.” Master's thesis, University of Florida.Google Scholar
Viana, Jorge 2001Foreword.” In Working Forests in the Neotropics: Conservation through Sustainable Management?, edited by Zarin, Daniel, Alavalapati, Janaki R. R., Putz, Francis J., and Schmink, Marianne, viiixvi. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Wood, Charles H., and do Carvalho, José Alberto Magno 1988 The Demography of Inequality in Brazil. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Xangai, Juracy 2006 “Neoextrativismo: Tradição somada a tecnologia.” Página 20, July 30.Google Scholar
Yashar, Deborah J. 2005 Contesting Citizenship in Latin America: The Rise of Indigenous Movements and the Post-liberal Challenge. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar