The Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve was created through Federal Decree No. 99.144, on March 12, 1990, covering an area of 970,570 hectares in the state of Acre, with the goal of ensuring the sustainable use of natural resources and safeguarding the livelihoods and cultural heritage of traditional forest communities.
It is important to emphasize that the Chico Mendes Reserve (Resex) is a territory of high relevance for the economy of the state of Acre, contributing a wide variety of extractivist and agroforestry products (such as Brazil nuts, rubber, açaí, vegetable oils, among others). Additionally, its vast area of native forest plays an important role in mitigating the climate crisis and in water generation, supplying the municipalities across its territory. It can be considered the "water tank" of the Acre River Valley region and its surrounding villages, cities, and rural areas.
The management of Federal Conservation Units (UCs) is the responsibility of the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio), whose mission is to protect natural heritage and promote socio-environmental development through the administration of these areas. This responsibility includes establishing and editing management norms and standards, proposing the creation, land regularization, and management of conservation units, and supporting the implementation of the National System of Conservation Units (SNUC). It also involves monitoring public use and the economic exploitation of natural resources in conservation units where such uses are permitted, and implementing policies for the sustainable use of renewable natural resources in support of extractivism and traditional populations.
Management of these conservation units must occur in a participatory way, through advisory or deliberative councils, where the majority of representatives must be the beneficiaries themselves. In other words, management should be shared, achieved through dialogue and active participation of residents via their associations. ICMBio holds a Concession Contract for Real Use Rights (CCDRU) with the residents' and producers' associations of the Chico Mendes Reserve. These contracts are intended to promote land tenure regularization for traditional populations, facilitating access to public policies and programs, providing security for investments in production, and encouraging shared management of the unit. However, this CCDRU is not being respected and has been completely ignored by the directors and coordinators of the managing body.
In recent years, we have clearly and persistently witnessed actions by the management of conservation units that undermine their institutional mission. Examples include support for bills aimed at removing parts of the reserve to benefit land invaders and illegal occupants; the absence of public policies, programs, and projects that support and improve economic activities and, consequently, the quality of life of families; and the dismantling of management instruments, rendering them non-functional, ignoring the interests of the beneficiaries (residents), and denying them participation in decisions that affect the Resex and their lives.
In recent years, individuals without the technical qualifications needed to manage a complex reserve like Chico Mendes have been appointed to lead the unit. Several concerning actions were observed, such as protecting illegal occupants inside the reserve. When reports were made, ICMBio simply replaced the head of the unit with another individual lacking the necessary qualifications.
It is worth highlighting that in recent months, ICMBio finally appointed a career civil servant to lead the reserve — Fluvio de Sousa Mascarenhas — someone who is familiar with the unit, its problems, and its challenges. However, without clear justification and for the second time, he was removed from his position without consultation or communication with the residents' associations. Instead, ICMBio listened only to a group of invaders and irregular occupants of the conservation unit — the same group that, during the administration of former Environment Minister Ricardo Salles, was received and heard in his office in Brasília.
These facts reveal that the current management of the conservation unit is led by an executive body that does not respect its civil servants and ignores the important institutional mission it is legally bound to uphold. It is a leadership that clearly excludes dialogue with dissenting voices, eliminating the possibility of collaborative, participatory, and community-based work. This makes it evident that ICMBio’s current leadership completely disregards its institutional mission, instead prioritizing the interests of those who destroy the Amazon rainforest and its inhabitants.
It is important to warn that Mascarenha’s sudden removal may jeopardize the scheduled meeting of the reserve’s deliberative council, which was set to address the following key issues:
Completion of the 2019 Census;
Registration of residents;
Strategies to combat environmental crimes such as wildfires;
Creation of a Youth Chamber;
International cooperation for database management and community conciliation.
Therefore, we fully repudiate this method of managing a conservation unit and request an emergency meeting with the president of ICMBio to address these urgent matters.
Signed by:
Comitê Chico Mendes
SOS Amazônia
Comissão Pró-índio do Acre
Conselho Nacional das Populações Extrativistas
Grupo de Trabalho Amazônico
Sindicato dos Trabalhadores e Trabalhadoras Rurais Brasiléia
Sindicato dos Trabalhadores e Trabalhadoras Rurais de Xapuri
Associação dos Moradores e Produtores da Reserva Extrativista Chico Mendes de Brasiléia
Associação dos Moradores e Produtores da Reserva Extrativista Chico Mendes de Xapuri
Associação dos Moradores e Produtores da Reserva Extrativista Chico Mendes de Assis Brasil