Middle Juruá
Example of collective mobilization for conservation
Middle Juruá
Example of collective mobilization for conservation
Life, courage and future in the Middle Juruá: where sustainability is conceived by collective hands
By: Raissa Testahy
5 to 6 days by boat, more than 700 km from the capital of Amazonas, we find Carauari, the mother municipality of the Médio Juruá territory – an area of preserved tropical forest and extremely rich in biodiversity.
The territory is bathed by the Juruá River, one of the main tributaries of the Amazon River, which originates in Peru. There we find two conservation units, the Resex and the RDS. Both are the result of a lot of class struggle, awareness and, above all, unity of the riverside population and indigenous peoples. To tell this story, let's go back to the 1980s.
Just like in the backlands of Bahia (told in the Coopercuc story), the Basic Education Movements (MEB) linked to the Catholic Church played an essential role in clarifying what was happening there — and everything began to change.
In the 1970s, residents were not free to plant or fish and were forced to buy food from the shacks run by the so-called “bosses,” with whom they had endless debts. Through the meetings and classes taught by the MEB, many understood that they were being exploited and, thus, the leaderships were born as a form of resistance.
One of them was Manoel Cunha, a rubber tapper and the last of his generation to live in this semi-slavery regime. He realized that, together, they could transform that work system that only benefited a few and that they needed to leave. “from the clutches of the bosses”. With a lot of struggle for community empowerment, reprisals and challenges, the community realized that they needed to take ownership of the territory.
It was only then, in 1997, that the Médio Juruá Extractive Reserve (Resex), in the central region of Amazonas, where more than 2,600 people live. Manoel, who has been ICMBio's manager in the Resex since 2016, proudly states that not a single drop of blood was spilled during the process. The bosses left the area with the strength of community organization and the residents finally took ownership of the management of the territory.
However, the protected area did not include the entire Médio Juruá territory, only the left bank of the river. After much negotiation, in 2005 the Uacari Sustainable Development Reserve (RDS), a state conservation unit, located on the right bank of the Juruá river.
“I say I am a co-manager because everyone works together in the management. Everything that is done is done together. The only thing that divides us is the river. The problems are the same. The relatives are the same. The two [managers] work together (Resex and RDS). We understand that if we don’t have a partnership, we won’t get anywhere.”, highlights Gilberto Olavo, manager of RDS Uacari for more than 13 years.
“The most valuable thing we have in Médio Juruá is community organization”
After the rubber tappers' articulations and struggles, the communities realized that there was a need to create strategies to market the communities' production in a fair manner and valuing their way of life.
In this sense, the ASPROC (Association of Rural Producers of Carauari), as an organization that could support the municipality's rural producers in generating income and guaranteeing rights.
Promoting citizenship for riverside communities, the association has been operating in the territory for over 30 years and represents approximately 800 families from 55 riverside communities.
According to the organization's website, ASPROC, through participatory management with the social organization of communities, achieves economic and social development in the region, enabling the co-management of natural resources of great sociocultural importance through the development of sociobiodiversity value chains, as is the case of the sustainable management of pirarucu and the rubber chain.
In this socioeconomic arrangement, other organizations also contribute to the management of oilseeds, açaí and other species in the region, such as AMARU, CODAEMJ, AMECSARA, ASMAMJ and AMAB.
Owners of the land, the forest, the river
The Deni are among the indigenous peoples of the Juruá and Purus rivers region who also suffered from rubber exploitation in the region. The people waited for decades until their territorial rights were secured. In 2003, they managed to obtain official demarcation of their lands.
In 2006, ASPODEX (Association of the Deni People of the Xeruã River) was created, representing approximately 1000 indigenous people living in five villages located in the municipality of Itamarati, in Médio Juruá (AM).
The association works to guarantee the rights of indigenous peoples, such as access to public health and education services that are appropriate to their sociocultural realities. In partnership with village leaders, it also coordinates community activities for territorial protection, environmental conservation and income generation, such as the sustainable management and marketing of pirarucu and oilseeds.
“ASPODEX is one of the implementers of the Médio Juruá Territory Program (PTMJ). The Deni people have an increasingly strong participation with riverside communities to strengthen production chains and territorial management”, comments Ronnayana Silva, coordinator of Territorial Programs at Sitawi.
Recent years have been marked by setbacks and attacks on forest peoples in Brazil. The “Scorched Earth” study, published in 2023, pointed out that “institutional fragility” worsened during the Bolsonaro government, leading to record destruction of the Amazon rainforest caused by illegal mining.
In 2022, mining rafts also arrived in Médio Juruá. “It was the first time in history that a mining raft entered the Juruá River region. These were difficult times, but we never stopped fighting.”, says Manoel.
The arrival of PTMJ
In 2014, Natura and Coca-Cola joined forces with several associations, government environmental protection agencies and leaders from various communities riverside communities of Médio Juruá in an integrated process for the creation of a territorial development plan, based on a participatory diagnosis combined with results from the Social Progress Index (IPS Community).
In this scenario, Sitawi was invited to coordinate the development of a proposal to be presented to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
This is how, in 2017, the Juruá Middle Territory Program (PTMJ). During the 1ª During the program's phase, between 2017 and 2021, the initiative developed an action plan for the region, which involved a broad base of stakeholders to expand the scale and impact of conservation and development initiatives in the social, environmental and economic dimensions. See below the partners for each phase:
The program is now in the 3rd year of its 2nd phase and has a positive impact on the region's population, promoting social mobilization and income generation.
"It was the first program where these production chains were worked on as a whole, in a transversal and synchronized way. And the result was frighteningly good. Thank God, right? We managed to make a lot of progress and also brought what we call social.”, highlights Manoel.
The Social highlighted by Manoel is the work with youth empowerment, the strengthening of community organization and the empowerment of women in all production processes. Ronna Silva highlights that all of PTMJ's work is aligned with local organizations: “My work takes into account, in a very horizontal way, the perspective of local partners to enhance their ways of life and strengthen the territory.”.
"The PTMJ brought transformation and explosion”, highlights Lucinete Viana, Philanthropy Management analyst at Sitawi, the PTMJ revolutionized the way of life in Médio Juruá.
Lucinete lived in the Médio Juruá reservation and at the age of 13 she had to move to Carauari with her entire family to study, as there was no high school on the reservation. She lives in Carauari to this day and graduated in administration, working at Sitawi since 2018, directly with the PTMJ.
Moved, she says she noticed a more empowered and safer community (especially women), more effective communication due to the advancement of technology in the region and the conservation of ecosystems that were being devastated (such as the pirarucu lakes and the turtle beaches).
Being a woman in the Middle Juruá
Until now, this journey of struggle and perseverance for the territory has been told and carried out by men.
“The history of the Middle Juruá is very beautiful, but it does not give visibility to women. While the men met to plan how we could live better in the territory, the women were at home taking care of the family. They believe that women are not part of this history, but they were playing a very important role in taking care of the family so that the men could meet up,” emphasizes Rosangela Cunha, president of ASMAMJ (Association of Agroextractivist Women of the Middle Juruá).
ASMAMJ was created in 2004, when women came together and decided to organize themselves as a group to empower themselves and grow. The association's main activities include actions for women's well-being and health, training for skills development, and strengthening the region's biobusiness production centers.
The actions to generate income are called production hubs – biocosmetics, biojewels with scales, andiroba oil and essential oil.
In partnership with the Juruá Institute, GIZ and Natura, ASMAMJ published in 2022 the study entitled Gender and Youth Diagnosis in the Value Chains of the Middle Juruá which presents the particularities of men, women and youth in local value chains.
Rosângela states that there is a huge difference between past and current generations, with the empowerment of women in the region and the deconstruction of machismo. “I am very proud of my culture and my ancestry, but I do not reproduce the machismo that has always existed in my family,” highlights.
According to the association's president, the arrival of PTMJ had a very positive impact during the reactivation of ASMAMJ, as it enabled them to create production hubs, which boosted income generation.
Watch the documentary Raw Sap
For the future, Rosangela hopes that ASMAMJ will grow as an association and achieve benefits that directly impact women. “I want women to have financial autonomy, to make their dreams come true, to be objective about what they want,” she emphasizes.
Youth, present!
“Talking about the future is exciting. Before, we couldn’t talk about the future. Who would have imagined that the son of a riverside dweller would go to college within a conservation unit? May we always continue to believe that it is possible to live in harmony with nature in a sustainable way.” Raimundo Cunha, president of AMECSARA (Association of Extractive Residents of the São Raimundo Community).
The Association was founded in 2006 as a result of the need that the São Raimundo community saw in organizing itself to demand its rights. AMECSARA works on projects aimed at supporting the strengthening of non-timber production chains, environmental conservation, community organization, contributing to strengthening actions to improve environmental quality, income generation and, above all, the social organization of the peoples and communities in the region.
Raiumundo Cunha has been president of AMECSARA for 8 years and started in the social movement at a very young age, at 11 years old. In addition to being a firefighter for ICMBIO and trained as a volunteer environmental agent, he works to raise awareness throughout the Médio Juruá, together with managers of conservation units in the fight against illegal fishing.
As soon as he became president, he saw that the youth did not have an association to represent them. So, in addition to representing residents, he brought in youth leadership, environmental education and turtle conservation.
Both Manoel and Gilberto, managers of conservation units, want young people to continue empowering themselves and to be occupying more positions tomorrow and beyond. spaces. “Communities are leadership factories. We are working on this strong introduction of young people into leadership roles. Tomorrow they will be here. They will be the ones in the presidency of ASPROC, in the management of the Resex”, emphasizes Manoel.
Through initiatives such as the Young Protagonists and Young Multipliers, young people have become really interested in Médio Juruá and in being present in these discussion spaces.
Another initiative is “Youth educating youth”, which transforms the way young people see work in schools in the region. Classes are given on the creation of conservation units and the history of Médio Juruá, so that children grow up with a sensitivity to the protection of forests.
Riverside dwellers and turtles: all for the turtles of the Amazon
For 40 years, communities in the Médio Juruá region have been monitoring turtles. The community members guard the eggs to protect them from predators and malicious hunters. But what are these turtles we talk about so much?
Every year, hundreds of residents from the two conservation units gather at the Ecological Scavenger Hunt for the release of turtles. The work is carried out between the months of June and November, when the females lay their eggs on the banks of the Juruá River. This entire period is monitored by community members and monitors, who count and protect the nests and eggs each year, in addition to monitoring the boards installed on the beaches, fields and ravines of the region.
The trays are spread across the two Conservation Units, 14 in the Uacari RDS, managed by Sema, and five in the Resex, managed by the federal government, through the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio).
Many hands
To strengthen dialogue between different organizations and generate greater achievements for the population of Médio Juruá, the Middle Juruá Territory Forum (TMJ Forum). The results achieved by community-based conservation are the result of collective work.
“We have strong cooperation in the assemblies and in the Forum. We have a joint way of doing things: we don’t compete for spaces, we work together, and that’s why things work out,” emphasizes Raiumundo, president of AMECSARA.
