Amazon Feeds Diverse, Sustainable Market
Copyright 2001 Inter Press Service Inter Press Service
January 31, 2001,
By Mario Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO, Jan. 31 - The Amazon forest could inundate the world with new colors and products, if its resources are exploited in a sustainable way, local officials and environmentalists say.
Levi's jeans, for example, obtained an additional color with aza dye, the fruit of a palm that has made a splash on Brazilian markets in recent years in the form of juice and ice cream.
There are many colorants and natural fixatives, traditionally used by the Amazonian indigenous peoples in creating crafts and artwork, that have awakened market interest.
The Kaxinaws paint their cloth black with a local mud and fix the color with mahogany bark and banana tree sap, said Joao Augusto Fortes, owner of Amazon Life, a Rio de Janeiro-based firm specializing in ecological products.
Other fruits and seeds, like urucum, jenipapo and guaran, are also a source of dyes, providing a spectrum of colors for the indigenous and other inhabitants of the Amazon, each with its specific fixative, Fortes explained to IPS.
Guaran also serves as an energy food, and is the basis of a soft drink made by the Brazilian company Ambev, which says it will soon compete with the likes of Coca-Cola.
Products made from natural latex and chestnuts, oils used for cosmetics or medicines, and an array of fruits are other Amazon goods that are gaining market space and helping preserve the forests from the destruction caused by conventional economic activities.
They are products of "sustainable extraction," stimulated through a program financed by the Brazilian government, the Group of Seven (G-7, the wealthiest industrialized nations), and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
Extractive Reserves, the brainchild of Chico Mendes, the social and environmental leader who was assassinated in 1988, have multiplied in recent years. So far, there are 17 areas, with the participation of 30,000 people, and another 14 are in the planning stages, reports the government's Coordination Secretariat for the Amazon.
"We know the potential for sales of some products and what must be done to pursue it, but we lack investment," said Jurez Leitao dos Santos, president of the National Council of Seringueiros (rubber tappers), lamenting the scarcity of government funding for sustainable economic activities.
The pulp of the aza has "a fantastic market," as a beverage or as a food for athletes, because it boosts muscular elasticity, indicated Dos Santos.
A chain of athletic clubs is interested in purchasing it, but investment is needed to develop a distribution system, he said.
Nevertheless, beginning this year there will be regular source of income, with greater funding from the goverment and financing from the Amazon Development Bank, Mary Alegretti, head of the environment ministry's Coordination Secretariat for the Amazon, told IPS.
The major challenges in extractive production now are to achieve high technological qualifications and a stable supply.
"The model for developing the activity," said Alegretti, "was adopted for wood on the Xapur Reserve in Acre state." The project involves forest management, small industry with environmental certification, an education center and training in design in Italy.
In other words, it covers the entire process for producing and selling furniture and other value-added final products, she pointed out.
The Chemistry Institute at the University of Brasilia contributed to the new approach by developing a technology to process the latex extracted from the rubber tree. Now, rubber tappers can sell a higher quality latex, fetching a better price.
The technique is "simple, without energy waste," and favors small-scale, family run business, with a higher income, said Floriano Pastore Junior, the researcher who heads the project.
The so-called Sandalia d'Arvore is a product created for the sophisticated fashion market, but contributes to the preservation of Amazon forests at the same time.
The sandal made its debut at the Rock in Rio music festival, which brought 1.2 million people to the concert grounds from Jan. 12 to 21 with the slogan "for a better world."
"Bold design, comfortable, resilient and beautiful" describe the shoe developed by the Eco-Business Institute of Amazonia, with financing from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), said Moacyr Bittencourt, coordinator of natural product marketing for WWF/Brazil.
The sandal's relatively high price of $ 49 is justified because its quality meets European standards and because it reimburses the people who are protecting the forests by living in a sustainable way, Bittencourt explained.
The materials -- natural latex and plant-based leather -- come from associations of rubber tappers and Kaxinaws Indians in Acre.
The sandals are manufactured in southern Brazil. Production can reach 4,000 pairs a month, limited only by the supply of raw materials. Buyers from Switzerland, the Netherlands and Great Britain have already expressed interest in the footwear.
Also taking part in the sales, in addition to the WWF international network, is Amazon Life, founded 10 years ago to develop and market the plant-based leather, a rubberized textile that replaces the animal-based product.
Amazon Life is already invoicing nearly $ 1.5 million annually, two-thirds from exports. It has begun to diversify to other products -- handbags, backpacks, clothing and shoes -- evidenced by the company's website (www.amazonlife.com.br).
The firm perfected the traditional indigenous technique for rubberizing textiles, and patented the process, but shares the profits with the Amazon communities, Fortes explained.
Natural latex will also be processed within the Amazon region for condom manufacturing through a project combining the efforts of the Acre state government, the Coordination Secretariat for the Amazon, and the Ministry of Health, the latter affirming that it plans to buy the entire stock.
But all of these products, like plant-based leather, condoms and latex gloves, represent a limited demand for rubber, the major market of which is the tire industry, pointed out Atanagildo de Deus Matos, the new head of the government's Development Center for Traditional Peoples.
As a result, he places greater hope on a project of the Pirelli company to make the Xapuri tire, made entirely of natural rubber and due out on the market by mid-year.
"That, of course, will absorb the Amazon's rubber production," affirmed Matos. The tires will cost more than those made from petroleum-based rubber, but one can think of it as an "environmental tax that society should pay for the preservation of the Amazon forests," he said.