The forest business

SÃO LUÍS DO REMANSO, BRAZIL — Generations of rubber tappers, or seringueiros, have lived in the forest in Brazil’s western state of Acre, tapping the rubber trees for which the region is famous, hunting and fishing. They have also harvested Brazil nuts, medicinal herbs and other forest products—but not wood. Cutting and marketing trees on a sustainable basis requires technical knowledge and management skills that have not been part of their culture.

Pedro Bruzzi, forestry engineer with the Center for Amazonian Workers (CTA), is helping the seringueiro families in the São Luís do Remanso Extractive Reserve to make a business out of selectively harvesting trees while protecting the forest that is their heritage. Bruzzi talked with IDBAmérica’s Roger Hamilton.

IDBAmérica: Throughout the Amazon, landowners are replacing forests with soybeans and cattle. Why have the people in São Luís do Remanso decided to leave their forest intact and harvest trees?

Bruzzi: They believe that a standing forest will earn them money over the long term and at the same time benefit the community. The key is long term: If you compare managed forestry with soybean and cattle production, in the first years soy and cattle are going to win. But over a 30-year period, because of the role that trees play in protecting the soil, as well as for other reasons, forestry will produce higher returns.

IDBAmérica: São Luís do Remanso has received a good deal of outside support and government subsidies. What does this say about community-based forest management as a business enterprise?

Bruzzi: Of course a business cannot depend on subsidies for its existence. But forestry is a new activity here. We had to construct roads, which is very expensive. We had to spend money for training and buying chainsaws, safety equipment, and tools for fieldwork, such as compasses and maps. We had to hire specialists to help develop the forest management plan.

In a market economy, private firms normally make these kinds of investments, although subsidies and other incentives are commonly used to give innovative businesses a start and promote activities that are in the public good. In Acre, the government, as well as nongovernmental and international organizations, saw forest management as a new economic activity with major obstacles to overcome. They also recognized its importance for safeguarding the environment to benefit society as a whole.

Once we have established a chain of production—that is, when the community is selling sawn lumber and not just logs—and once we have the capability to market products in São Paulo and overseas, the business will be very profitable.

IDBAmérica: Acre’s state government wants to create an economy based on managed forests, not just in extractive reserves such as São Luís do Remanso, but on many thousands of hectares of private lands and government and indigenous reserves. Where will all of this technical expertise come from?

Bruzzi: We don’t have enough forestry experts now. But their numbers are growing. For example, when the CTA got involved in economic development in 1990, we had only agronomists. Today we have five forestry specialists, more than agriculture specialists.

But in the end, I believe that technical assistance must be provided by private consultants and paid by the producer out of the income he earns. They should not be provided by a nongovernmental group such as the CTA or by the government.

IDBAmérica: Why are private firms so important?

Bruzzi: Because if the private sector is involved, this means that forest management is a profitable economic activity that does not have to depend on other sectors in society for its existence. It also means that forest management will survive future political administrations that might not be as supportive as the present one.

Also it is essential for communities to develop partnerships with private firms, such as sawmills, where local people can learn such things as how to measure a tree trunk, how it’s cut and how the sawn timber is measured, so they will understand the concept of waste.

IDBAmérica: What can Acre do to increase the numbers of forestry experts?

Bruzzi: Acre has a Forestry High School . CTA employs two of the school’s graduates, young people who were born and raised in the forest, and who are now proud to return to their forest communities to help their people.

Also this year Acre’s university is graduating its first forestry engineers. When I came to Acre in 1997, the university only offered courses in agriculture. Imagine, in the middle of the forest they were only training agronomists!

IDBAmérica: But doesn’t community-based forestry ultimately depend on the community? What are the constraints at the local level?

Bruzzi: We have seen that people in rubber tapper communities learn the productive aspects of forestry management very quickly, because it is so closely related to their traditional practices. Forest engineers who are new to Acre often think that they simply have to help the people make a management plan, learn how to mark trees on an Excel spread sheet, how to subtract profits from earnings and earmark capital for future investments. But this is not enough. In the end, the people are often discouraged when this does not translate into real improvements in their quality of life. The “hole” is much deeper than they thought.

Communities have to learn how to use their earnings from forestry to raise their living standards. To do this they need help from experts in management and administration, not just forestry. This is fundamental. Ultimately, the big challenge facing community organizations is to learn how to function on their own and take charge of their own projects.

IDBAmérica: How well do the people accept these new ideas?

Bruzzi: It’s hard at first. For over a century the people here had lived under the aviamento system, a form of semi slavery in which rubber tappers lived isolated from each other, had no rights and were forced to sell their rubber to the patrão and buy their supplies from him as well. They had no education.

When the CTA started working in this area in the 1980s, the illiteracy rate was about 99 percent and the people were effectively excluded from the broader society. They were incapable of planning for the future and thinking strategically. And this is precisely what an entrepreneur must do. Probably the biggest problem we have today is to help the people think like entrepreneurs.

Education is the heart of it. This is the lesson that the Europeans and Japanese taught us, that serious investments in education is the only road to development. Perhaps São Luís do Remanso has some advantages because it now has a high school that will prepare students to go on to the university.