State of the Rainforest 2014

We have been able to bring the turtles back to the river, tells Benki Piyanko from the Ashaninka Association of the Amônia River in Acre

are left unattended, and children are taken out of school. These new social benefits are undoubtedly important, and they bring much- needed income redistribution in Brazil. However, they are not well adapted to local indigenous realities, and they generate new social inequalities and dependencies´, she concludes. In Acre, the demands voiced by social movements’ for coherent policies and better coordination are slowly influencing public policies. One example is the regional school meals. National policies specify that at least 30% of the meals provided at schools should be supplied by small farmers. In Acre this is happening, with benefits for the indigenous peoples. The cooperative Ayôpare, representing Ashaninka families of the Indigenous Territory Kampa of the Amônia River, has an agreement with the municipality, which buys what the families produce and uses it in school meals. All the families benefit, and the agreement with the municipality supports a whole value chain - fromproduction, and commercialization to consumption - and ensures fair redistribution of benefits. The policy also contributes to reducing rubbish and waste from industrial food production, which is a growing problem in the indigenous territories. For the indigenous peoples of Acre, having secure territories is the basis for establishing sustainable development strategies. They are now struggling to promote coherent policies that reinforce what has already been achieved, and as OPIAC president Francisca de Oliveira de Lima Costa puts it, it simply does not make sense to separate economic, environmental and education politics from each other. They are all intertwined.

territories. But the chickens depended on food not available locally, and most of them died.

`The Acre government lacks the knowledge necessary to understand the special features of the territories´, explains Marcos Catelli Rocha from CPI-Acre. For Josias Pereira these shortcomings underline the importance of involving the villagers and the indigenous forestry agents. `The Acre state must value the training, knowledge and experience of the indigenous forestry agents, recognize them as professionals, and allocate public resources to employ them´, he says. Need for coherent, locally adjusted policy Lack of coordination between different government policies is a major problem. `Each ministry works within its little box. Even the promising National Policy for Territorial and Environmental Management of Indigenous Lands (PNGATI) may become a useless paper unless better coordination is achieved´, says Vera Olinda from CPI-Acre, referring to a decree passed by the federal government in 2012. She continues: `Also national policies, such as the social welfare program Bolsa Familia, maternity benefits and retirement pensions, can have unintended consequences for the villagers and the sustainability of the territories. Whole families have to make long and expensive trips to the cities in order to collect their social benefits. Since the payments often do not even cover the costs of the journey, people usually stay for three months, in order to receive the next payment before going back home. Their fields and plant nurseries

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STATE OF THE RAINFOREST 2014

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