WEBVTT

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Good afternoon, everyone.

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That's feeble.

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You probably didn’t eat much at lunch.

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(Chuckling)

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First of all, thanks for the invitation
from my comrade, Denis.

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He said he'd be on vacation,
but he's probably here in the audience.

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Thanks, otherwise I wouldn't
have had this chance

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to tell a bit about my story.

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I see me as the thousands of extractivists

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who are underneath
the layers of the forest.

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I wouldn't have this opportunity, Denis,

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to talk to such an important audience

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in such an important moment

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when everyone is working together

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to create a better
and fairer world for all,

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because we deserve it.

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As was already mentioned,
I'm Manoel Cunha,

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from the town of Carauari
in the state of Amazonas,

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about 700-750 km from here
as a crow flies.

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It takes much longer by river.

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I was born on March the 2nd, 1968.

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I'm not that old,

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but I know much about a sad story,

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a sad and old story

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that disrupted the lives of people.

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Many interesting things
have happened in my life

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that I'd like to share with you.

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We're 14 siblings at home,

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raised by an old man called Joaquim Cunha.

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We didn't have many opportunities in life

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and one we didn't have was to study.

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At that time
- going straight to the point -

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the bosses didn't want
the rubber tappers' kids to study.

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They said that you didn't need
to study to tap rubber.

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We never imagined
that they didn't want us to study

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so as not to turn the tables on them.

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We thought they were actually right -

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that to tap rubber
you didn't need any schooling.

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Then, when I was 11,

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as I was preparing myself
to accompany my father

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to help him tap rubber,

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a neighbor of my boss managed
to arrange a school for us.

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It wasn't a proper school,
but permission for the boss' wife

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to teach the people
who lived in the country.

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It took us about an hour
and a half to get there by canoe,

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as our comrade from the Saúde
e Alegria project showed very well.

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Despite this, my dad made
a very important decision

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for his and our lives:

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he sent two of my sisters to school

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to learn how to read and write

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so they could then teach us at home.

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We couldn't go to school

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because we needed
to go on the rubber trail.

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The teacher took pity on them

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and allowed them to go to school
only three days a week,

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and would set them homework
on the other two days.

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Because I was really keen
on learning to read and write,

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I managed to learn from them

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when they got together
to do their homework.

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That was the only way I learned
to just read and write.

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That is where my whole life started.

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But I started working
in rubber production,

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in that degrading way of life.

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I still remember

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one year when Dad had some health problem

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and only managed to go
to the rubber forest in October.

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Our summer goes from July to December.

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That year, my father
arrived there in October

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with only two months left in that year.

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The boss had a rule:
on the 31st of December

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we had to clear away
all the cups from the forest.

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With all the cups taken down
we couldn't extract any more rubber.

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Dad had to follow that rule

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and we were harder off than ever before.

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There were countless humiliations.

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For example,
if we fished in Mandioca lake,

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in the São Romão
rubber forest, where I lived.

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The boss only let us fish there
after the 1st of August, for example.

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To fish for your livelihood

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on that lake before that date,

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was reason for you to lose your place.

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To lose your place in that region
was to almost lose your life

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because all the rubber tapping
places were taken

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and there were none left.

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We'd put up with the humiliations

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so as not to lose our place.

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Fishing where it was not authorized

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was also a reason to lose your place.

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In our work system

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we didn't know
the sale price of the product

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nor the purchase price of goods.

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At the end of the year,

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we'd only hear a deep voice
from behind the counter, saying,

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"You're in debt, you need
to produce more rubber next year."

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We started to realize
that the more we produced,

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the more we owed,

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so we had to produce more

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to made him richer,
as all the profit was his.

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Then I and many others

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- I'm speaking here on behalf of many -

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started to rebel against that

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and to consider that as wrong.

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But we couldn't do it differently.

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I was already grown up then,

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married and a father of three children.

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This is how I had lived
up to the age of 24,

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I had only known 14 beaches on a river,

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the equivalent of 40 minutes
by a 40 HP motorboat.

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My whole life was determined
by that place.

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I'd never had any other opportunity,

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no one ever said
anything else was possible,

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that it was possible to change the region,

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to change someone's way of producing.

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But one day, around May,

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we heard an announcement on the radio

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from an institution called MEB,
Basic Education Movement,

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linked to the Catholic Church,

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that would organize things
for the rubber tappers.

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And we waited,

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and one night, at about 8 p.m.

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they went to my father's house

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and spoke about how it was possible
to live a different way.

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I remember to this day people saying,

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"You rubber tappers
can organize yourselves,

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those at the top,
the bottom and the middle,

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and form a community.

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Then you'll be strong enough
to demand a school, a health center,

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and your kids will be able to study.

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What's most interesting
is that the communities down the river,

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the ones closest to the town,

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are already organizing an association.

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The goal is to sell our own products

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through our organizations

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and get rid of the criminal
system of these bosses."

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I think that was
the happiest day of my life,

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because I realized
that there was another way,

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a different way of living,

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and of living with dignity.

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That's how the whole battle started.

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So I'll skip ahead to 1997

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when we managed to create
the first extractivist reserve

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in the state of Amazonas,

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there in my community, in Middle Juruá.

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(Applause)

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Today, those same people

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who were so humiliated,

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as I tried to explain here,

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this association has grown
and organized itself.

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From individual rubber tappers
of the São Romão rubber forest

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we've become a community

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and I became its leader
and a teacher as well.

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Interestingly, I have
never been a student,

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but I was a teacher
in my community for four years.

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And with a difference:

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I always saw beyond
the three Rs in education,

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I saw it as a mechanism, a path, a beacon

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for the transformation of a society.

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I tried to show this to the youngsters
and adults that I started to teach.

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I think that today,
without discriminating any region,

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one of the regions with
the greatest number of community leaders

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is the community of São Raimundo,

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especially the Middle Juruá
extractivist reserve.

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Maybe I've been part of this story

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by my different method of teaching,

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preparing them to face everyday problems.

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In these communities,
- coming back to the present day -

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looking at the way we lived,

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today we sell all the production
through the association

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or the cooperative,
directly to the consumers.

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When our fellow speaker
from Natura company did her presentation

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one of the points
she mentioned was Middle Juruá.

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The Middle Juruá communities
supply about 15 to 20 tons

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of vegetable oil directly to Cognis,
in Jacareí, São Paulo.

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It goes from the factory tap
inside the extractivist reserve,

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to Jacareí, São Paulo,

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so that Cognis can process it
and then deliver to Natura.

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The rubber produced by those communities

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would either go to Sena Madureira in Acre,

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where there was a processing plant,

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or to Manicoré, in the state of Amazonas.

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The meal left over
from the family production

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is sold at the counter
of the association itself, in the town.

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The products, the other products,

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- brooms, oars, handicrafts -

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all products are sold directly
to the consumer,

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or to those who do the final processing,

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as in the case of Natura,
which turns the oils into cosmetics.

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What's interesting is that

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in that period of our lives,

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for much of my life I only had two shirts

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and I had to hope for sunshine
to dry one of them

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so I could put it on when I got home,

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because one we wore at work

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and the other our mother would wash
on the washing board.

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Today, people lead a dignified life
inside this reserve.

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And this reserve has helped to create

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more than a dozen
other conservation units.

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When people give talks

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to organize the communities
to create protected areas,

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they always cite
Middle Juruá as an example

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of a region that got rid of
its slavery conditions

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and which today is totally independent,

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a very strong and well-organized movement.

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Recently, we implemented
the Riverside Solidarity Trade

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which we call canteens.

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They are like small supermarkets,
spread throughout all the communities.

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I'm talking about a 400-km area
in a straight line,

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from the heart of the town
to the last community we serve.

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This is over 54 hours by boat

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which is our means of transport,

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going round all the bends in the river.

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So a people who succeeded
in their efforts

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- despite persecution from the police,
a part that I skipped,

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persecution from the bosses -

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who found a way of surviving.

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And most interestingly,
surviving in a sustainable manner.

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Everything that's done in that reserve

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is done thinking of the present
and future generations.

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And if you allow me,

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I'd like to tell the story
of the Andiroba tree.

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When we started,

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I was president
of the association at the time.

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We began to make a study
of the potential of the Andiroba,

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together with Amazonas State University.

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We used to see flooring
made from Andiroba in some houses,

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and we'd say,

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"Cut some other tree, leave the Andiroba,

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we're studying it."

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Andiroba was only used
for homemade medicine,

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or to make homemade soap

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which was cheaper
than industrialized soap.

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When this project
came through, even Natura,

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because the big goal was
to produce energy from vegetable oil,

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which is still done today.

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Anyone can go there and see this.

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Natura appeared exactly
at that time, in 2002,

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and was interested in buying
this raw material.

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We said, "No, wait a minute.

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Natura wants to buy
at eight Brazilian reais a kilo of oil,

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diesel costs about 0.92 reais a liter.

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Listen, you can buy the diesel
and still have money left over."

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Then we started to use it in the motors,

00:14:52.454 --> 00:14:54.531
but we sold a good part.

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Now there is a contract,
quite fair and organized,

00:14:59.472 --> 00:15:03.759
between the community and Natura,
the cooperative and Cognis.

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The Rubber Tappers' Council
is always present in the negotiation,

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it's very well considered.

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Now they are even discussing
the Middle Juruá fund

00:15:15.782 --> 00:15:17.648
with the aim of presenting projects.

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But, going back to the subject.

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The families started
to sell this raw material

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at 8, 10, 14, 18 reais,
and today it's sold at 24 reais

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a kilo of Andiroba oil or Murumuru butter.

00:15:30.078 --> 00:15:32.487
Now, that same family

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that didn't see the importance
of Andiroba trees

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and sometimes cut them
for housing material and not to sell,

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now they want to know,
when they look at the Andiroba tree trails

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what insolent kid walked along there

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and cut the roots of their Andiroba tree,

00:15:50.158 --> 00:15:53.288
because they fear
it will ruin the fructification.

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I tell this story to show
our responsibility

00:15:57.715 --> 00:16:00.845
in finding the true value of the forest,

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in finding a way of valorizing
the forest conservation work

00:16:05.633 --> 00:16:07.190
that our people do.

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Because when we find this

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like Middle Juruá found
in the Andiroba, in the Murumuru,

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they need no laws or inspectors.

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The best inspectors
is the community itself,

00:16:20.312 --> 00:16:23.089
the users of the environment

00:16:23.089 --> 00:16:26.024
when they understand this process.

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This shows me...

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I started talking about my own life,

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I was the association's president

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and became president

00:16:35.888 --> 00:16:39.478
of the National Council
of Extractivist Populations.

00:16:39.478 --> 00:16:44.246
Until July last year, it was called
the National Rubber Tappers' Council.

00:16:44.246 --> 00:16:45.759
I don't think it was because...

00:16:45.759 --> 00:16:49.133
first, because I'm very ugly
and not literate enough,

00:16:49.133 --> 00:16:54.246
but maybe it's because
I seriously defend the importance

00:16:54.246 --> 00:16:58.252
of living in harmony with the forest.

00:16:58.252 --> 00:17:00.540
Climate change is here

00:17:00.540 --> 00:17:03.701
affecting our communities very badly,

00:17:03.701 --> 00:17:06.115
and despite that, many people,

00:17:06.115 --> 00:17:07.822
- not this audience here -

00:17:07.822 --> 00:17:09.461
don't understand this.

00:17:09.461 --> 00:17:15.516
I brought some water here,
just to close my story.

00:17:16.496 --> 00:17:19.709
I want to invite you all.

00:17:20.809 --> 00:17:25.386
The Rubber Tappers' Council
is a non-profit grassroots organization

00:17:25.386 --> 00:17:27.798
supported by donations,

00:17:27.798 --> 00:17:29.928
that does great work in the Amazon.

00:17:29.928 --> 00:17:33.502
One project has almost
20 million hectares of forest

00:17:33.502 --> 00:17:35.567
with extractivist populations,

00:17:35.567 --> 00:17:42.106
and the Rubber Tappers' Council
pushed this policy with the government.

00:17:42.106 --> 00:17:44.838
To finalize, I just want to tell you

00:17:44.838 --> 00:17:51.447
that I want us all here
to help spread this message.

00:17:51.447 --> 00:17:55.768
People think that the great
devastation of the Amazon

00:17:55.768 --> 00:17:57.768
is through greed for money.

00:17:58.548 --> 00:18:00.521
People don't understand

00:18:01.071 --> 00:18:04.657
that when the drinking water is gone,

00:18:05.367 --> 00:18:09.944
when this fresh air we breathe is gone,

00:18:11.704 --> 00:18:15.426
this here in my pocket
will be worth nothing.

00:18:15.426 --> 00:18:20.002
It won't save my life,
nor that of my children,

00:18:20.002 --> 00:18:21.833
nor the planet.

00:18:21.833 --> 00:18:25.453
It's this money that makes us greedy.

00:18:25.453 --> 00:18:26.914
Thanks, everybody.

00:18:26.914 --> 00:18:29.085
(Applause)