By Mariana Tokarnia, on-the-scene reporter for Agência Brasil
Established 18 years ago in a location that stretches over the municipalities of Santarém and Aveiro, the Tapajós-Arapiuns Harvesting Reserve is one of the best-conserved green areas in Pará, the Brazilian state that has accumulated the largest deforested area in the Amazon between 1988 to 2016. The reserved, comprised of 74 communities, combines income-generating activities for residents with conservation of the Amazon rainforest.
The area stands out in the Amazon region for its management model. The communities are organised into about 50 local associations under a parent association called Tapajoara, with membership in the reserve’s management council. All decisions are submitted to the council, and the population has an active voice there. Other members of the council include the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio) in charge of managing the territory, as well as representatives from state and municipal administrations, universities, non-governmental organisations, and cooperatives.
The rubber tree that provided material for crafts in the Vila Franca Community of the Tapajós-Arapiuns Harvesting Reserve. José Cruz /Agência Brasil
The population’s living standards have improved since the reserve was created—educational services have expanded, as well as the number of projects funded by organisations and conducted through university cooperation. Despite the advances, the community still requires further improvements, especially in health and education, which continue to have poor standards.
“The main purposes of the harvesting reserve were environmental conservancy and decent living standards for residents. But there’s so much we still need. We lack qualified teachers and proper facilities at schools,” said the chair of the Vila Franca Community Association and Tapajoara representative, Raimundo Guimarães Gamboa, 58. He pointed out that only six of the communities have local healthcare centres.
Residents are also calling for improvements telecommunications, with wider access to telephone and Internet services. “In some communities, radio is the only available medium for communication,” Gamboa said.
Activism
The boat used for carrying schoolchildren in the community. José Cruz /Agência Brasil
The poor basic services are leading communities to organise themselves to take care of the place they live. At the puxiruns, or community drives, residents volunteer carrying out community work. One day every week, they pull together to clean streets, plant trees, and do other activities. On those days, usually no work is charged or paid for.
“In addition to the community drives, anyone can call people to action. For example, if I have to clean a street or farm crops, I invite people and arrange a meal. We make a big panful of beans-and-flour and everybody joins in to help with work,” 69-year-old São Pedro community dweller José Rosário Fonseca explained.
Tugurrilho, as he is known, has seen the creation of the reserve and stood up for it. “We worked hard for it, we faced death threats from loggers, nobody seemed to care much. But we’ve made it, this has been the reserve that took the shortest to create,” he said. “Things have improved since then. We gained the legal rights to our land, and now we can work on it rather than destroy as others were doing.”
Conservancy
A total 3,660 families (about 15,300 people) live in the 74 communities that make up the reserve. José Cruz/Agência Brasil
The reserve spans over an area of 677,513 hectares. It was created on November 6, 1998 by community demand, to protect riverside territories from the advances of loggers that operated in the region. A total 3,660 families (about 15,300 people) live in the 74 communities that make up the reserve. It is managed by the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio).
The Amazon rainforest spreads over an area of 7.5 million km² (stretching over nine countries), and covers 40% of South America. It is the world’s largest and most important tropical forest and is home to the world’s largest river basin with 20% of the planet’s fresh water.
ARPA programme
Agência Brasil traveled to the Tapajós-Arapiuns Reserve at the invitation of the Amazon Protection Areas Programme (ARPA), the world’s largest rainforest conservancy project. Coordinated by Brazil’s Ministry for the Environment, the project has supported the creation and development of federal and state conservancy units in the Amazon since 2002.
Currently, the programme manages 114 conservancy (45 federal and 69 state) units and provides equipment, service contracting, and other initiatives required for managing the units.
The project is a collaboration with the state government of Amazonas, the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio), the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the World Bank, the KfW (a Germany-based financial cooperation bank), WWF Brazil, the Brazilian Biodiversity Fund (FunBio) and civil society organisations.
* Translated by Mayra Borges
