March Paper prepared for presentation at the “ANNUAL WORLD BANK CONFERENCE ON LAND AND POVERTY” The World Bank - Washington DC, March 18-24, 2016 EXTRACTIVE RESERVES AS ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY AND LAND GOVERNANCE IN THE WESTERN AMAZON 1

CAVALCANTI, Francisco C. S.¹ MACIEL, Raimundo C. G.² CAVALCANTE FILHO, Pedro³ 1 Economist (UFAC), Doctor in Economical Development (IE/UNICAMP), Professor at University of Acre, Brazil, 2Economist (UFAC), Doctor in Economical Development (IE/UNICAMP), Professor at University of Acre, Brazil, 33Researcher at University of Acre

Source: 3

4Fonte:

5

6

7

8

Introduction: This article discusses some of the main issues regarding the Extractive Reserves (RESEX) and its relationship with the environment, particularly issues related to Land Governance. The main concerns the role of RESEX as an innovative proposal for resolving land problems while environmental policy for the natural resources preservation. The Extractive Reserves (RESEX) has their proposed creation from the rubber tappers's struggle, initially as a political response to the exclusion of which they were victims for soon after incorporate the environmental dimension.

RESEX are public domain areas and their use is granted to traditional extractive populations, whose livelihood is based on the extractivism, on the subsistence agriculture and on raise small livestock. The methodolof this study is based in two points: the first part is based in Extractive reserves literature, especially the material collected during the preparation of the doctoral thesis: CAVALCANTI, (2002), The other source is the project database entitled Socioeconomical Analysis of Basic System of Rural Family Production in the State of Acre, known as ASPF, developed by the Centre for Applied Social and Legal Sciences (CCJSA) in Federal University of Acre (UFAC) since

2.The rubber tappers’s struggle, the Resex and the environmental issues The Resex should be understood as a resulting from the rubber tappers political struggle to the frame of insecurity generated by the indiscriminate sale of Acre's lands and their expulsion of these lands. These were the result of this resistance movement aimed in generating value without the environment degradation, transformed into public policy. The RESEX are a direct result of the land struggle 11

3. RESEX as environmental policy vector One of the important points of the proposal of Resex, as it was emphasized, is the environmental dimension. Based on this, it's possible observe them as a form of environmental policy from the environmental preservation viewpoint. Figure 1and 2 shows the RESEX Chico Mendes area in Acre State, which covers seven cities of the State. It is noticed that the surrounding area has undergone a major environmental degradation by the year 2002, however, within the RESEX area it was observed only small deforestation spots. This confirms that RESEX Chico Mendes has been fulfilling its role in environmental preservation. 12

13 Source: PRODES/INPE (2015). Figure 1 – Deforestation image in RESEX Chico Mendes among the years

14 Source: PRODES/INPE (2015). Figure 2 - Annual Deforestation in Acre during the years

15 YearDeforestation (ha)% Total 1997* , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ** ,96 Table 2 - Deforestation in RESEX Chico Mendes Deforestation, in hectares, during the years * Accumulated deforestation until ** Accumulated deforestation until Source: INPE / PRODES (2012).

Table 1 shows the access to land in RESEX Chico Mendes, based on three periods 1996/1997, 2005/2006 and 2013/2014. Is possible to notice that in the first period, although at that time the RESEX have about eight years of establishment, the community already had high rates of lack of land tenure, ie, more than 60% of the population didn't have any document that would guarantee the land property. 16

17 Type of access1996/ / /2014 Land Title18,75%13,24%4,00% Tenure64,06%60,29%88,00% Lease4,69%7,35%0,00% Concession Use12,50%19,12%8,00% Table 1 - Land access types in RESEX Chico Mendes in the periods 1996/1997, 2005/2006 and 2013/2014. Source: ASPF (2015).

Table 3 shows how is defined the land use forms by the families within the RESEX Chico Mendes. It is noted, as it was to be expected, that forests make up the bulk of family production units. However, we can see a small decrease comparing the period 2013/2014 to the period 2005/2006 and an increase in open areas. 18

19 Area type2005/ /2014Evolution (%) Forest 95,13%92,28%-3% Agriculture (tilage, planting, orchard) 0,44%0,32%-27% Pasture 1,50%1,52%1% Open area (capoeira land, pond, garden, unusable) 2,93%5,88%101% Total area 100% Table 3 - Area types' participation in Family Production Units (UPF's) in RESEX Chico Mendes, in the periods 2005/2006 and 2013/2014. Source: ASPF (2015).

Table 4 shows the production's economic performance in RESEX Chico Mendes. The research showed that in the period 2005/2006, there was an increase of 29.79%. The Net Income (RL) had a positive variation of 40.84%. This advantage presented in the last period was mainly due to increased representation of extractive products in the composition of household income, the main source of production within the RESEX, which uses low-tech in its exploration. This performance also focused on the results presented in Familiar Gross Margin (MBF), which showed a positive variation of 33.85%, which it was possible to increase the family's consumption potential. However, even with this increase in income from production, it was noted that these indicators are median values lower than the minimum wage (R$ ). 20

21 Economic IndicatorsUnit1996/ /2006Variation (%) Gross IncomeR$/month474,76616,2129,79 Net IncomeR$/month333,81470,1340,84 Familiar Gross marginR$/month422,47565,5133,86 Total Gross IncomeR$/month435,59776,4678,25 Market Dependence LineR$/month428, ,13214,93 Self-consumptionR$/month1.445,23664,72-54,01 Living LevelR$/month1.891, ,89-28,75 Economic Efficiency Indexunit1,360,7-48,53 Table 4 - Economic Performance in RESEX Chico Mendes (1996/ /2006). Note: Results median per Unit of Family Production (UPF). Monetary correction until December 2015 (INPC/IBGE). Source: Projeto ASPF (2015).

 The growth of environmental awareness coupled with the growing importance of the Land Governance indicates the need for changes, especially in the redefinition of relations man- nature property.  The RESEX shows important lessons, both for environmental policy in general, as for the Land Governance aimed at securing land tenure for farm workers and thus contribute to stop the Amazon deforestation process.  This experience also emphasizes that a central component in forest preservation is the definition and regulation of the land access. Final Remarks 22

 The persistence of some problems such as the provision and supplies food and the products marketing put in danger the Resex survival.  The existence of income differentials in the reserve and places with difficulty in access, there are some families which still live just by rubber extraction.  The creation of extractive reserves, although could guarantee land ownership, they couldn't represent major changes in terms of life quality. 23

 This process defines the productive activity of livestock as responsible for the current situation of high concentration of income and land in Acre region.  One important change of them would the land of guarantee that, in addition to providing natural security, allows access to finance, which results in raise of diversification of production, income expansion and improvement of living conditions of population.  The road seems long and requires an effective participation of the government in defining policies involving improvements in the lives of extractive populations 24