The life and death of Chico Mendes
In 1925, Chico Mendes's family moved to west Brazil to work as rubber tappers. Rubber tappers make cuts in the rubber trees and get the rubber that comes out. In this way, they can sell the rubber and make money from the forest, without damaging the forest or the rubber trees.
Chico Mendes was born in Xapuri in 1944. His home was in the forest and at the age of nine he was tapping rubber like the rest of his family. He also looked for nuts and fruit in the forest and sold these things, too
In the 1970s and 1980s, some new people became interested in the forest. They were Brazilian ranchers: they worked with cattle and they wanted the land for their animals. They began to buy large parts of the forest, then they cut down and burnt the trees. That of course meant the death of the forest and no work or money for the rubber tappers. Chico got the rubber tappers together to fight for the forest. In 1985 he began an organization called the National Council of Rubber Tappers. bringing the workers together to protect their homes and their way of life
of course, there were people who did not agree with Chico. Some businesses and people from the government tried to stop him. At one time he went to prison, but he did not stop his fight. In 1988, Chico led rubber tappers from Xapuri to try and stop a rancher called Darly Alves da Silva. Darly Alves ruit wanted to cut down the trees in one part of the forest, but it was the same part that the rubber tappers wanted to make into a reserve. The idea of the reserve was that the tappers could take rubber, nuts, and fruits from the forest, and at the same time they could protect it.