Tapping into a sustainable future

Rubber tapper

Sebastião Mendes comes from a family with a long tradition of rubber tapping. His grandfather and father were both rubber tappers and Sebastião and his eight brothers have all relied on this sustainable rainforest industry for their livelihoods. His two sons are carrying on the tradition as they earn a living working alongside their father in the forest.

Sebastião, 63, lives in Cachoeira, a remote settlement in the south-west of Acre state in the Brazilian Amazon. It’s not far from the border with Bolivia. In the 1980s, this is where Sebastião’s cousin and fellow rubber tapper Chico Mendes and his followers took a stand against loggers who were intent on cutting down the forest to make way for pasture land for cattle. Chico Mendes brought worldwide attention to the destruction of the rainforest in Acre and founded a national union of rubber tappers in an attempt to preserve their profession and the rainforest that it relied upon. He was murdered in 1988 by ranchers opposed to his activism. Part of his legacy was the creation of the Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve in 1990, in which Cachoeira is located.

A normal day for Sebastião and his sons begins before dawn. Using a traditional tapper’s hat, which features a torch fuelled by kerosene, they make their way through the dense rainforest. Along the way they keep a careful watch as they could come across monkeys, tarantulas, boa constrictors or, on rare occasions, a jaguar.

In the cool of early morning the latex flows quicker than during hotter parts of the day. During the course of an eight-hour day, Sebastião and his sons work on between 150-200 rubber trees in an area covering about 300 hectares. Unless the rain is too heavy, they repeat this process six days per week.

The way rubber is tapped has remained unchanged for generations. An incision in the bark of the tree allows the latex to run down into a collecting cup. The cup is then left to collect the liquid before the tapper returns to collect it in the afternoon. The incision can continue to produce latex for up to five years, after which the opposite side of the tree can then be tapped.

Looking to safeguard the business for his sons, about eight years ago Sebastião planted a further 270 rubbers trees which, in a few years time, will be mature enough to be tapped for latex.

In the past, local tappers used to sell their rubber to the tappers’ cooperative in the nearby town of Xapuri. It was then used to make everyday items such as tyres and shoes. That all changed several years ago when the Natex condom factory opened. Representatives of this government-run factory, which supplies condoms to Brazil’s Department of Health, met with local tappers when they were looking for local rubber to manufacture their product. Through this new arrangement with the factory, a truck now comes to the village every eight weeks to collect rubber. Financially, this factory has been good news for the tappers: the price the condom factory pays them for native latex has substantially increased their income.

The forest has been a source of income for my people for a very long time,” says Sebastião. “In recent times there have been threats to our way of life but these have been overcome. The condom factory has enabled us to make a little more money and improve our standard of living without destroying our surroundings which we, as people of the forest, are happy about.

My only hope is that that the forest and the income it provides for my family and the community will flourish for generations to come.