National Council of Rubber Tappers calls for mobilization in Brasilia

27 February 1997

Dear Friends,

The National Council of Rubber Tappers-CNS, has called for a mobilization in Brasilia on March 3 and 4, 1997 - next Monday and Tuesday.

The CNS is calling for the mobilization to demand the implementation of three important points, to guarantee extractive communities' permanence - and protection of - the Amazon Rainforest:

Government policy for natural rubber, including a just price and transportation support;
Credit policy for extractivism;
Immediate implementation of Ecological Land Reform, a project to create new Extractive Reserves and Extractive Settlements.

The CNS has been negotiating these points with the Brazilian government, with encouraging results, but they feel that this mobilization is necessary in order to push for concrete results. They have asked the international community to express their solidarity by writing to President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, requesting him to listen to their demands.

The CNS was founded in 1985 to defend the rights of tens of thousands of extractive workers who still live and work in the Amazon Rainforest. Leaders in the struggle to save the Amazon, the CNS demands that social justice be included in environmental action. In the words of Osmarino Amancio: At first, people talking about ecology were only defending the fish, the animals, the forest, and the river. They didn't realize that human beings were in the forest - and that these humans were the real ecologists, because they couldn't live without the forest and the forest couldn't be saved without them.

Extractive communities across the Amazon continue to face a difficult situation. They are calling for this important mobilization, and request your support.

Please send a letter (see draft below) to President Cardoso by next MONDAY, MARCH 3.

DRAFT OF PROPOSED LETTER

President Fernando Henrique Cardoso
President of the Republic of Brazil
Via Fax: 011 55 61 226 7566 (or 321 5806 or 224 0289)

Dear President Cardoso:

The international community is following with deep concern the struggle to preserve the world's tropical rainforests, particularly with the Rio + 5 meetings to take place in Brazil next month.

The National Council of Rubber Tappers-CNS has told us that they are calling a meeting in Brasilia early next week of leaders from extractive communities from across the Amazon. We understand the importance of and wish to express our solidarity with their demands, which include:

The assurance of a market and just price for native rubber production;

The creation of a credit policy for extractive communities;

Ecological Land Reform - the continuation of the creation of Extractive Reserves and Settlement Projects, in order to guarantee the preservation of these communities and the forest they have traditionally inhabited.

We are fully disposed to collaborate in any way we can towards this just cause, and trust that you will do your utmost to guarantee that extractive communities will be able to continue living and working in the forest - thus protecting it for future generations.

Sincerely,