Folha de São Paulo – 02/08/2024
Raimundo Mendes de Barros is the cousin of rubber tapper and environmentalist Chico Mendes, murdered in 1988 in Xapuri, Acre – Andre Carioba
Rubber tapper Raimundo Mendes de Barros was lucky to stay alive in the bloody dispute between rural workers and ranchers that took the life of his cousin Chico Mendes in the 1990s in Acre.
“They thought that with Chico’s death we would stop, but we have made extraordinary progress,” says Raimundão, as he has been known since his union days.
“God has been generous with me. I’ve had Covid, I’ve had a stroke, I’ve lost a bit of energy, but I feel motivated to be in the forest where I was born and raised.”
Heir to his activism in the Amazon region (“the blood that ran through Chico’s veins runs through mine”), with a stint in local politics, the 79-year-old rubber tapper continues to criticize landowners, São Paulo cattle ranchers, the sickle and the chainsaw. And he incorporates themes such as climate change into his speech in defense of the Amazon rainforest.
The image shows an elderly man with a beard and gray hair, wearing a red cap. He is smiling and looking up, with a blurred background that suggests an indoor environment. In the background, you can see a person wearing a green shirt, but it’s not clearly in focus.
Raimundo Mendes de Barros is the cousin of rubber tapper and environmentalist Chico Mendes, murdered in 1988 in Xapuri, Acre – Andre Carioba
In June this year, Raimundão made a dream come true: he opened a community woodworking shop in the heart of the Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve, 20 km from Xapuri (AC), the same land where the environmental icon was shot in 1988.
Ateliê da Floresta makes art, furniture and utensils from naturally fallen tree waste, offering a new source of income and pride for the community. Galleries in Manaus and São Paulo order products from the woodworking shop.
The project has the support of Lira (Legado Integrado da Região Amazônica), an initiative of IPÊ (Instituto de Pesquisas Ecológicas) which identifies and finances socio-environmental initiatives to conserve the Amazon.
In four years, Lira has invested R$46 million in 50 impact projects in the region, with resources from the Amazon Fund and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.
The image shows three people in a construction site. On the left, a young man in a light hat and long-sleeved shirt looks on with a smile. In the center, an elderly man with a beard and a red hat is standing, looking up with a pensive expression. To the right, a woman with sunglasses and a colorful blouse is sitting, looking at the old man. They are standing next to a wall made of orange bricks and the ceiling is made of corrugated metal.
Raimundo Mendes de Barros with Bleno Caleb and Jannyf Christina, from SOS Amazônia, during the construction of Ateliê da Floresta – Andre Carioba
“The struggle we built with Chico freed us from slavery and the bosses’ domination. He dreamed that one day the caboclos and caboclas would be considered equal to those in the city,” says the rubber tapper.
Raimundão draws parallels between life on the rubber plantation at the time of Chico Mendes and today in this interview with Folha. Read the main excerpts.
What are the threats to the Amazon rainforest? Are they the same as in the 1980s?
They continue to be a serious problem. Today it’s not just farmers who cut down the forest. The small ones, in their eagerness to put money in their pockets, destroy the forest with scythes and chainsaws, illegally harvest timber and raise cattle. It’s a terrible fever.
I experienced the violence of the latifundia with my fellow rubber tappers. We held countless standoffs, joining forces to try to stop the pedestrians who were tearing everything down for pasture. Chico had learned that it was possible to build power through armed struggle, but he didn’t want that. He had a balanced and wise personality and advised against violence.
The blood that ran through his veins ran through mine. We were facing poor people, fathers of families who migrated from other states to make a living. Only they were taking away ours, because we lived off rubber and chestnuts, just like our ancestors.
It’s been a long struggle. Today we’re not just concerned with survival, but with the climate issue here in the region.
How has the weather affected your lives? We’re living in a dangerous situation that wasn’t normal in the past. We used to have very determined rainy months and summer months when it didn’t rain. Now it rains a lot when it’s supposed to be summer. With the trees gone, the soil is exposed to the sun and has no foliage to absorb the water that falls. It’s a real nuisance.
The water flows through low places, it lands everything. And then there’s a shortage of water for our streams. Last year, they dried up in August and now they’re starting to in July. I’ve never seen that since I arrived here.
It’s serious for us, born children of the forest, who are aware that the forest is a source of survival.
“It’s a real nuisance.” Raimundo Mendes de Barros on the effects of climate change in Xapuri (AC)
What are you doing to face the threats of the sickle and the climate? I’m standing right next to a farm owned by a group of cattle farmers, meat sellers from São Paulo. Growing chestnuts, rubber, copaiba oil, jatoba water and açaí gives us the chance to continue here in the forest. Without support for these products of ours, people become discouraged and go off to become farm labourers or farm workers.
A few years ago, our community discussed community management, but the real dream was to reuse the remains of trees that rot in the forest. It’s the wood that falls in storms, that dies from the sparks of rain or natural fall.
We want the forest alive and there’s nothing better than working with woodwork. We found a partner, SOS Amazônia, who became aware of Ateliê da Floresta.
How do you reuse this tree waste? In my allotment [the area where Raimundão’s family lives in the reserve] there are nine rubber tapping roads, 500 hectares of forest, and plenty of dead trees. I’m not about ambition, I’m about the collective, about doing things together. We go into the woods, cut down the fallen ones and bring them to the woodworking shop. From there comes decorative material, kitchenware, bowls, spoons, skimmers, forks, pepper pestles, a variety of objects.
And has this project kept young people on the ground? There are 14 people working at the Atelier. We are training artisans, creating a profession, increasing income and putting more change in the basket. But it’s still a delicate situation for the forest parents. Many of their children go to the city. Only one of mine lives with me, the others are gone.
Despite the territorial and environmental issues, has life improved for the families?
I arrived here 44 years ago. There was too much illiteracy, we didn’t know what health was, we didn’t receive any assistance, it was total isolation from the government. We only “lit up” with the light of kerosene or the milk from the syringe in the can with sand. Only the rubber bosses bought and sold goods.
The struggle we built with Chico freed us from slavery, from the domination of the bosses and from the violence of the perverse latifundia. He dreamed that one day the caboclos and caboclas would be considered equal to those in the city. Today we have a school, a fridge, a television and our children go to college. Our bellies are full. We have made extraordinary progress.
“I’m not about ambition, I’m about the collective, about doing things together” – Raimundo Mendes de Barros on the Ateliê da Floresta methodology
And what do you think of your life at the age of 79? God was generous with me. I took care of the union, the city council [he was a Xapuri councillor for four terms] and his family. I had eight children. I went to places like Italy, Germany and the United States to talk about our situation and gain allies.
I’ve had Covid, I’ve had a stroke, I’ve lost a bit of energy, but I feel motivated to be in the forest where I was born and raised. I was lucky to stay alive.
X-ray
Raimundo Mendes de Barros, 79, known as Raimundão, is a rubber tapper and extractivist. He worked at Sucam (Superintendence of Public Health Campaigns), was president of the rural workers’ union in the region and a councillor for Xapuri (AC) for four terms, with the rights of these workers as his political platform. The right-hand man of his cousin Chico Mendes, he continued to fight for the preservation of the forest even after his death in 1988.
