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The Effects of Deforestation on Rubber Tappers
Rubber is a common rainforest product. As early as 1870, a rubber boom began in the Amazon Rainforest as rubber seeds were exported to Europe to develop for plantations. And during World War II, the rubber trade in Brazil was restimulated because the Japanese took over the East Asia rubber plantations – cutting off their rubber resources from the U.S. and its allies.
One worker who struggled tirelessly to preserve both the health of the rainforest and his right to make a living was Chico Mendes. Mendes was born in 1944 in the Amazon to a poor rubber tapper from northeast Brazil. From a very young age, Mendes understood the terrible working conditions of the rubber tappers, who were treated as badly as the native Indian slaves had been through history.
Mendes became the leader of The National Council of Rubber Tappers. Since rubber tappers depend on the availability and health of the rubber trees they tend in the rainforest, Mendes worked against government policies that were encouraging settlement, deforestation, and development in the rainforest. [more]
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