ECOLOGICALLY FRIENDLY RUBBER: ONE VIABLE ALTERNATIVE TO ILLEGAL LOGGING, SAYS GREENPEACE
Environmental organisation presents mouse pads made out of 100% natural Amazon rubber

9 May 2000

MANDIOCA, AMAZONAS, BRAZIL -- Greenpeace, together with rubber tappers from the Amazon presented today the first mouse pad ever made with 100% natural Amazon rubber (1). The ecologically friendly mouse pad is the result of a pilot project funded by the environmental group, in partnership with the University of Brasilia (UNB), the National Council of Rubber Tappers (CNS), the Association of Rural Producers of Carauari (ASPROC) and the National Centre for Traditional Populations (CNPT), to help find and promote sustainable alternatives for the development of the Amazon region.

The key innovations of this project is the use of a new technology called Tecbor. Developed by Professor Floriano Pastore, from the University of Brasilia, Tecbor uses non-pollutant pyroligneous acid to congeal the rubber, eliminating the unhealthy and environmentally damaging smoking process. The results are high-quality rubber sheets ready for use by industry. This eliminates the middlemen and adds value directly back to the forest communities.

"The rubber is sold through an association of producers, enhancing the co-operative spirit and the community's organisation," said Professor Pastore. The project included the installation of family-based production units to process the rubber and the training of 40 families from the Middle Jurua Extractive Reserve and surroundings (2), an area of more than 236,000 hectares on the east bank of the Jurua river, in Amazonas State.

"Today, this region faces a development dilemma: to favour large scale logging operations such as the WTK forestry plan (3), or to invest in finding ways to commercialise sustainably harvested forest products. That's why we chose this area to start the pilot project," explained Ruy de Goes, Greenpeace Amazon Campaigner. "Greenpeace is here to prove that keeping the forest alive can be economically viable."

More than 2 tonnes of high-quality rubber have been produced in the first cycle. These are being manufactured into 8,000 mouse pads. "We are now ending the pilot phase of the project and looking for markets for these mouse pads," said de Goes. "The goal is to expand the technology to thousands of rubber tappers (4) in the Amazon basin."

According to the CNS, this new project has improved life conditions for the rubber tappers and has restored pride to the communities that have often suffered after abandoning rubber production in the previous decades. Greenpeace's future plans for the Tecbor Project include making improvements on the technology and helping in the marketing of the Tecbor mouse pads. The Association of Rural Producers of Carauari will assume full management of the project once it is operating at a commercial level. Greenpeace will then focus its activities on finding consumers for the rubber in both national and international markets.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

- Gina Sanchez , in Amsterdam, +31 653 128907

Stills and video are available through Gina Sanchez in Amsterdam.
gina.sanchez@ams.greenpeace.org
Follow Greenpeace's campaign to 'Keep the Amazon Alive' on the web:
www.greenpeace.org/~forests/amazon/

(1) Rubber tapping is a traditional Amazonian activity that does not endanger the forest as it is not necessary to cut the trees to extract the latex. From 1900 through the 1920's the Amazon provided 97% of all internationally traded rubber. This golden period enriched the region, and money from rubber was used to build sophisticated cities in the middle of the jungle - such as Manaus. But this golden period started its slow decline when Brazilian rubber seeds were exported to Malaysia, where massive plantations were developed. By 1971, Malaysia plantations were producing 35 times more rubber than the Amazon, in an area 25 times smaller.

(2) Extractive Reserves are areas set aside by the government for non-destructive use by local communities. Activities such as logging and mining are prohibited. Rubber tapping is one of the main commercial activity in the reserves, but high costs of transport from these remote areas, combined with low commodities prices in the international markets, make it difficult for local communities to preserve the viability of their traditional activities.

(3) WTK is a Malaysian logging company that purchased 313,000 hectares of forest in the Jurua and Purus valleys in 1996. The company plans to start an industrial scale logging enterprise in the area and has submitted two forest management plans to IBAMA (Brazilian Environmental Agency), one of which accounts for 55,000 hectares on the right bank of the Jurua river. The plan is still under evaluation in IBAMA/Amazonas.

(4) The rubber-tappers' situation in Amazon gained internationally notoriety because of one man: Chico Mendes (1944-1988). Chico Mendes was a rubber tapper and union leader from Acre State. In the 70's, he created a peaceful confrontational strategy to prevent deforestation and to bring attention to the working conditions of rubber tapers. In December 1988, Chico Mendes was murdered because of his work.