Piaçava Production Chain: An Old/New Question

CMIO 26 de May de 2014

3 minutes read

CARLOS DURIGAN

Recently, the Federal Public Ministry, the Public Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Labor and Employment led an action that brought to light the unfair labor relations involving the extractive production of piassava in the Middle Rio Negro region, an extensive area that encompasses land and rivers in the municipalities of Barcelos and Santa Isabel do Rio Negro, in Amazonas.

A rich historical and scientific documentation, as well as countless works carried out by organizations of different hues in the region, demonstrate its exuberance. From an environmental point of view, it is in this region of Barcelos and Santa Isabel that we find Mariuá, the largest river archipelago in the world, and the Eldorado waterfall in Serra do Aracá, the largest in free fall in Brazil. In the same Serra do Aracá, actually a Tepui, a typical tabular formation of the Guiana Shield, the deepest vertical cave in South America is also located, not to mention the rich biodiversity and the wide variety of natural landscapes unique to this important hydrographic basin. which is the Rio Negro in its middle course.

No less important is its sociocultural and historical richness. Currently, there are at least 30 indigenous ethnic groups that live there and coexist, in cities or in communities, with the colonizing culture of the surrounding society, transforming this region into an important ethnocultural frontier already highlighted by numerous works by renowned anthropologists.

Historically, the region was the scene of intense tragedies. Since the beginning of European colonization, when Portugal advanced its frontiers of domination over the Amazon and soon after with the discovery of so many natural elements capable of generating wealth, extractive productive chains were inaugurated that since then have taken turns in terms of their object of wish for that purpose. Initiated with the drugs of the sertão, the so-called plants for medicinal use, intensively explored in the first economic cycles of the region, successive cycles were imposed, of which the exploitation and trade of rubber stands out. Currently, this productive configuration is still alive in the Middle Rio Negro region with the production of piassava fiber, among other extractive products.

These economic cycles based on extractivism brought wealth to a regional oligarchy. However, they were also responsible for the domination and extermination of dozens of indigenous peoples, among many other ills that can still be witnessed in the region, with the abandonment to their own luck of a good part of the families that still live under this commercial supply system, exchanging debt work. It is true that this system generated a deep interdependence between its links, but it is also true that it also never generated real benefits for extractive families. An example of this is how the lack of real financial return from these extractive activities and also the extreme precariousness in the provision of public services offered to those who live outside the municipal headquarters has led to a regional exodus towards the cities, where they also do not find a good scenario.

It is interesting to note how the extractive economic cycles bring pride to many people, however, the neglect in the face of social tragedies, the violence of the exploitation of the work of countless indigenous and non-indigenous families exploited throughout history to generate a wealth that they could not to share. And this is all still happening today, less than 500 km from the state capital.

There will certainly be discontent and conflicts generated by this recent action, after all there are hundreds of years of persistence of an excluding and authoritarian model, but it is important for this debate to take shape and add to the processes already underway in the region, such as the discussion for a regional territorial order. , due recognition of lands occupied by indigenous communities, participatory management of natural resources, conservation of biodiversity, improvement in the quality of life of rural and urban populations in these municipalities, among many other topics.

The role of public authorities will be fundamental for these processes to really be able to build a positive scenario in the region.

Carlos Durigan It’s geographer, Master in Ecology, he has lived and worked in the Amazon for 20 years. He participates in multidisciplinary research involving studies and field work in biodiversity and sociodiversity to support actions in Conservation Units and Indigenous Lands. He is currently Director of the Amazon Program at WCS-Brasil (Association for the Conservation of Wildlife).

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By Amazon Real