Agroecology and the Struggle for Food Sovereignty ... - Yale University

case study: living the amazonian dream
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Case Study: Living the Amazonian Dream –
Breaking Boundaries Through Market-
Oriented, Small-Scale Agroforestry 1
Corrina Steward
“Our story starts in the era of Chico Mendes, 2
but from a different side, or so we
thought,” explains Sérgio Lopes, the former coordinator of RECA (Reflorestamento
Econômico Consorciado e Adensado) and current director of the government’s
Familial Production department in Acre, Brazil. Unlike the traditional rubber tappers
of western Amazonia, the farmers in RECA did not come to the Amazon until the
1980s, when the Brazilian government launched a land reform effort that included
giving title to Amazonian land to poor farmers from all regions of Brazil.
These colonist farmers are often blamed as the main perpetrators of deforestation
in the Amazon because of their agricultural practices, which include slash-and-burn
techniques, and they are often viewed as lacking social cohesion. 3 Due to these perceptions,
colonists are frequently bypassed as candidates for conservation and sustainable
development projects, a process that ironically continues the cycle of poverty
and environmental degradation that forced them to migrate. As an organization,
RECA aimed to break the social, market, and ecological boundaries that prevented
them from attaining their Amazonian dream of a sustainable livelihood and home.
Their story is one of hope, courage, and human ingenuity that will resonate with all
smallholder farmers who are negotiating the complexities of global integration.
RECA families hail from numerous Brazilian states: Paraná, Santa Catarina, Minas
Gerais, and Espirito Santo. Many families spent most of their lives moving from one
state to the next, hoping to improve their lives through farming opportunities. Like
so many colonist farmers, their struggle for food and economic security did not end
with the gift of Amazonian land. Says Lopes, “I wanted to be a farmer. To have land.
We received the land but not the working conditions. We wanted to plant coffee and
cacão, but we realized we couldn’t.” Juraci Texeira Alecrim, another farmer in RECA,
explained how he cleared his land and began planting the usual tropical crops–corn,
rice, and beans–only to watch them yield nothing. “We knew coming here that it was
a difficult place and there would be hardships and suffering,” Maria Isabel Bacelar,
1 Adapted from the film
“Projeto RECA: Encontra
alternativa nas plantas
Amazônicas” (RECA Project:
Finding alternatives in
Amazonian plants) (1995).
Acre, Brazil: PPG7
Demonstration Project.
2 The leader of the rubber tappers’
movement, who was
assassinated for his efforts to
protect traditional rubber
tappers’ rights to land and
rubber trees.
3 Browder, J. (1995).
“Deforestation and the environmental
crisis in Latin
America,” Latin American
Research Review 30 (3): 123.
yale school of forestry & environmental studies