The Amazon has been temporally inhabited by riverside
dwellers, rubber-tappers, indians,rural workers, small farmers, who
in their interaction with nature, never caused the devastation that
is seen today .These less well-off social groups were capable of
formulating alternatives to satisfy their needs and contribuite to
their development, with compatible social programs for their
enviroment. Their participation is indispensable in the elaboration
of projects relating to production and the preservation of the
environment. These agents can provide knowlegde they have acquired
from their living on the land living close to nature they are
indispensable in the implementation of development projects that seek
to utilize adequate social technologies that preserve the environment
and are economically viable.
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LETTER FROM AMAZON RIVER'S DWELLERS
We, 45 river dwellers representatives from different towns of
the state of Amazon, met, from may 25th to may 29 th 1992, in
Manaus TO DISCUSS OUR UNDERSTANDING ABOUT THE CONSERVATION OF AMAZON
RIVER FISHERY.
The struggle in defense and conservation of fish began during
the 80's because the fish had started to disappear from lakes and
rivers.
The growing activity of big fishing boats which used destructive
and wasteful fishing methods gave us no other alternative. The
communities where we live started to get organized into
committees, in order to stop the predatory invasion of lakes and
guarantee the preservation of fish.
In deciding what a Sustainable Development Proposal would be we,
river dwellers, decided the following items:
A Sustainable Development Proposal means an integrated
process which includes economic, social, political and educational
dimensions.
- An economic dimension because this requires the existence of
an infrastructured form of management which will adequateiy process
river dwellers' production and give them easy acess to credit and
regional marketing for their communities.
- A social dimension because this must benefit the regional
population, supplying it with many kinds of products by
creating a base for production integrated with the consumer market
and making possible a family and communitarian economy.
- A political dimension because the organized communities
should centralize the production and marketing of their products.
They also must have the power to stop the continuos predatory
invasion of the region by mine companies, timber companies, hydro-
electric dams, etc. They must also have the power to control the
implementation of any project which affects the 'eco-system' and
life style of our communities. To do so, there should exist a law
which guarantees the communities' rights in relation to land, lakes
and environment in the areas where we live. This law must also
prescribe a listing of rights and obligations for river dwellers
diferent from those rights and obligations prescribed for companies
which come to work here.
- A educational dimension because this should guarantee
conditions for the river dwellers to develop their own tecnologies
for production and diversification of agricultural production. It
should also guarantee education for our children, including
University education level, directly related to our reality of
life and work, our history and culture. For this to be possible a
massive 'consciousness raising process' is necessary in the rural
and urban areas to establish an harmonious and respectful
relationship with nature.
'Sustainable Development' means to us rivers dwellers an
articulation of all these dimensions into a process in which
the organized communities living on flat lands, river and lake
areas are political agents that guarantee regional development
and full respect for Amazon nature.
Since 1985 we have had a clear and defined proposal of
fishing conservation. This proposal selects lakes for fishing
reproduction (fish saintuaries), stocked lakes and lakes where
fishing is allowed.
1 - LAKES FOR REPRODUCTION are those untouchable lakes, where
the fishing is totally forbidden. To select these lakes we obey
certain criterias as: the existence of forests along the lake sides,
green cover of at least 20% of the lake's size, depth of at
least 1,5 meters of water and the existence of variety of fish.
2 - STOCKED LAKES are called thus because they are conserved
for the subsistence of our families. On these lakes fishing is
only permitted with tradicional gear. It is forbidden to use
fishing nets, for example, and to sell fish from these lakes,
commercially.
3 - FREE LAKES are destinated for commercial fishing, where
fishermen use modern equipament to catch fish to feed an urban
population. They are free to fish commercially but they are
required to follow the law concerning size of the fish, period of
reproduction, size of the fishing net for each species, etc. This
proposal has been carried out with good results among river's
dwellers. There are regions where the conservation of fishing is
helping subsistence. At the same time these lakes attract the
attention of those who see here an easy way to profit.
To implement our basic proposal in the context of a
'Sustainable Development' in the Amazon region it is necessary:
- to study the federal, state and city laws related to
environment protection in order to reinforce the community laws
and agreements for conservation;
- to spread the 'consciousness raising process' related to environment
conservation all througt the area, organizing communities groups;
As a result:
we demand that the right of communities' control over economic
activities developed in conservation areas be recognized by the
law;
we demand the municipal control of the conservation process;
we propose organizing meetings by regions, involving all
the river dwellers with the presence of organizations which support the
struggle for conservation;
we propose to organize a seminar with support organizations to
discuss the proposals of communities related to conservation of
fishing and environment's resources on a whole;
we propose to create an organization to mobilize river dwellers in
coletive defense in face of expulsion and to 'raise consciousness'
of river dweller communities;
we propose to rescue the history, cultures and value systems of river's
dwellers'
communities;
we propose to fight for the demarcation of reserves for protection
of eco-systems formed by lakes of reproduction,stocked lakes and areas
where river dwellers live and work, guarantying the right of
ownership.
Through these proposals and goals we, the river dwellers of
Amazon State, with the indian peoples, afirm ourselves as the
fundamental agents for the cause of preservation of environment
and the defense of life in the Amazon region.
Manaus, May 29th, 1992.
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