The path they chose was to invest in the açaí production chain. In 2013, farmers, fishers and plant extractivists on the islands sat down to establish a community protocol, aimed at bolstering their social and cultural identity as a tool for practicing self-management. These are just some of the environmental impacts they face as a result of human intervention in the region.
#AMAZON CHIME CALL TREES SERIES#
The first step was a series of discussions among the communities to seek solutions to the common problems they face: Saltwater contamination of their freshwater sources erosion caused by growing herds of domestic buffalo construction of hydroelectric dams upstream and the redirection of the Araguari River into the Amazon, from its previous course running parallel to the larger river and straight out to sea. Some 10,000 people live in 51 communities on these islands, and they’re in the process of reclaiming their territory. Miro is also a community leader in Arraiol, the most organized community in the Bailique Archipelago, the clutch of islands at the mouth of the mighty Amazon River in the state of Amapá. Miro and Josilene are plant extractivists - part of a long tradition of rural peoples in Brazil whose livelihood centers around the sustainable harvest of forest products. We take care of the small plants and end up making nurseries on everyone’s property.” We raise different plants here to keep the forest healthy and diverse and at the same time, we raise the açaí seedlings. “I do too, and I have a son who’s picking really well.
“I have three daughters, and two of my sons-in-law pick açaí here,” says Josilene’s husband, Manoel Miracy dos Santos Filho, better known as Miro. The faces of her family members, gathered for another day of harvest, are lit up by the atmosphere still hot from the sun. Josilene Ferreira Lopes is threshing bunches of açaí berries over a tarp spread on the ground to the sound of the saracura bird ( Aramides saracura), which means it’s high tide, a time of day that locals call the lançante. Inside a forest of many greens, the trees touch one another, loaded with a dense freshness. A key challenge to this sustainable livelihood is the increasing saltwater intrusion into the islands’ water sources, the result of both climatic factors and human interference in the regional landscape.In 2016, the açaí collected by Amazonbai, the local cooperative composed of more than 2,000 people, became the world’s first and only açaí production chain to gain Forest Stewardship Council certification.Residents of the Bailique Archipelago, which lies at the mouth of the Amazon River, established a community protocol to promote their traditional açaí cultivation and strengthen their cultural identity.
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