WWF People in Acre
"Using our land with wisdom"
Governor of Acre, Jorge Viana Since coming into office in 1999, the State Governor of Acre, Jorge Viana, has made a tremendous commitment to the protection of Acre’s land and the zoning of different areas for specific types of land-use.
"Usar nossa terra com sabedonia" (using our land with wisdom) is his motto, and Mr Viana has underlined this goal by pledging four million hectares of forest - one quarter of Acre's territory - to be certified according to FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) standards.
This means that the products of a huge piece of Acre's land, equivalent to the size of the Netherlands, will be harvested and logged only in a sustainable manner and in line with the FSC's strict standards.
This pledge is Governor Jorge Viana's Gift to the Earth and a very strong sign of his government's commitment to protecting Acre's natural resources. Jorge Viana and his team want to establish a modern, sustainable forest economy, protecting biodiversity.
Says Mr Viana; "We want to show that it is possible to live off the forest without destroying it. We want to improve the living conditions of people who live in the forest. We want to make Acre a sustainable development reference for the Brazilian Amazon and the rest of Brazil."
WWF Fieldworker, Luis Meneses
... is big on sustainable forestry. And this 32-year old Brazilian agronomy graduate wants to see much more of it being practiced in Acre.
Sustainable forestry means replanting deforested areas with tree species as similar as possible to the ones that originally grew there - at the same time introducing new species of commercially valuable trees.
With this aim, Luis Meneses has spent a lot of time together with Indians and rubber-tappers in the deforested areas of Acre fine-tuning appropriate agroforestry systems which are now being
employed there.
Says Luis Meneses; "The Amazon is fascinating because of its power, its mysteries, its incredible biodiversity. Everything in the Amazon is hidden; many plants are hiding as a strategy to survive - and what do the shadows of the jungle hold?"
About working for WWF, Luis says: "WWF develops a key-role in adding quality to actions. WWF means that there is a very good team with lots of good ideas and solutions. It means we can make a difference."
The Machado family
Leone Machado (12) puts his hands around the slender trunk and grabs the part above him with his hands. Within seconds he is high up in the tree, smiling down at us. Together with his parents, four brothers and two sisters, Leone lives in the rainforest in the south of Acre, making a living by harvesting forest products.
Every bit as acrobatic as the spider monkeys of the rainforests, the Machado boys scamper through the tree-tops, harvesting the seeds of commercially valuable trees. The seeds of one tree may bring in as much as US$ 125 every year - in sharp contrast to the US$ 25 they would have made just once by felling the tree. The Machados also harvest Brazil nuts from trees which may grow as high as 60 metres, latex from the rubber trees and copaiba, a medicinal oil.
The Machado family is part of the Capeb Co-operative which sells forest products on behalf of the 800 families within it and provides them with basic necessities at reduced prices. And the NGO, 'Ecoamazon', which is strongly supported by WWF, markets Capeb's forest products, such as caps, bags and sandals made of Capeb's rubber and vegetal leather.
Says Valmires Machado, father of the Machado family; "What WWF did for us was give us the feeling we are worth more. WWF enlarged our self-esteem."
Adelaide de Fatima Goncalves de Oliviera
30-year old Adelaide de Fatima Goncalves de Oliviera is a logger and a woman in a man's world.
Mrs Goncalves de Oliviera recently left Acre's Woodloggers Union to preside over the newly established Associacao dos Manejadores da Floresta. Why?
"I found out my 12-year old daughter didn't dare tell people at school I was a logger. In her opinion, loggers are people who devastate the forest. So I switched to sustainable forest management to prove a logger can be a good person. I want to log in a sustainable way, leaving a legacy for the future generation."
Fatima and her husband Ciro Mochado Neto run their own logging company which has two sawmills and extracts timber from their 8,500 hectares land. Soon their company will be producing timber from 64 species of trees as opposed to the 12 sorts they have logged till now. And their company will be the first to get FSC-certification, something which means a lot to Mrs Goncalves.
"FSC is well-known and respected by the world. Now buyers choose me but with FSC -certification, it will soon be me who choses the buyers!"
