The Timbira and the Frutos do Cerrado Network
The
project of production and commercialization of the pulp of fruits
native of the Cerrado - the region of savannas of Central Brazil
- aims at the consolidation of viable economic alternatives for
the Timbira communities in the States of Maranhão and Tocantins
and their neighbors.
The Vyty-Cati Indigenous association, which represents six Timbira
peoples (Gavião Pukobiê, Krikati, Ramkokamekra, Apaniekra,
Krahô and Apinayé), was created practically at the
same time of the implementation of the Projeto Frutos do Cerrado
(Fruits of the Cerrado Project) in Maranhão and Tocantins,
which includes also three associations and eight agro-extractive
co-operatives of local non-Indians. In addition, the Centro de
Trabalho Indigenista - Center of Indigenist Work - (CTI) and the
Centro de Educação e Cultura do Trabalhador Rural
- Center of Education and Culture of the Rural Worker - (Centru)
participate as advisory entities.
Activities are basically directed towards the strengthening of
the local organizations that are part of the project, the generation
of income, the preservation and conservation of the Cerrado biodiversity
and the economic sustenance of member communities through the
environmentally sound use of natural resources.
The native fruits - cashew, juçara, bacuri, buriti, cajá
and others - gathered are processed in the form of frozen pulp
and packed under the FrutaSã trademark, owned by the Indians,
and sold by the Rede Frutos do Cerrado (Fruits of the Cerrado
Network). Processing today takes place exclusively at a unit located
in Carolina (State of Maranhão), but new, small units are
being built in other municipalities of the region. This should
decentralize production and make possible processing larger amounts
of fruits. A new processing unit is also being planned for Carolina.
The idea is to increase pulp production by the incorporating new
professionals in charge of the management of the 'plant', and
contribute to building the capacity of the Timbira to manage the
process by making them familiar with it.
In addition to the activities of fruit gathering, which takes
place between September and February, each member organization
has created plant nurseries in order to increase the planting
of native species, thus optimizing the production in areas that
are already under exploration and recovering others that have
been deforested in the past.
The population involved also take part in courses of formation
and capacity building in areas such as agro-silviculture, management
and administration, accounting, environmental legislation etc.
With regards to the management of the project proper, the idea
is to create forms of collective, democratic participation and
administration, in order to eventually achieve the goal of a self-managing,
solidarity-prone macro-regional organization.
One of the important aspects of this work refers to the kind
of stewardship that is intended to be passed on to Indian and
non-Indian producers involved in the Frutos do Cerrado Project.
Planting of permanent cultures associated with temporary cultures
is being stimulated, thus developing the so-called 'capoeiras
melhoradas' (improved fields left fallow), areas that may be later
turned into orchards and woods, providing their are given the
correct treatment.
More than working with fruit trees, the idea is to work with
different species that will give support the agro-forest systems
that are being implemented in demonstrative units in the villages
associated to the Vyty-Cati. It is possible to demonstrate the
economic viability of this system, as opposed to monoculture and
the use of toxic products.
Several important aspects must be taken into account in a system
as such: the dynamics of natural succession, the time and the
extract plants occupy, plant densification, shadowing, pruning,
adequate combination of species of plants, increase in the organic
mass, employment of natural fertilization and of fito-sanitary
controls, among others.
The Frutos do Cerrado Project has brought important alternatives
for the Timbira and also for their non-Indian associates. The
result of such partnership would be the growing protection of
the area that surround the Indigenous areas that are part of the
Vyty-Cati, as viable economic alternatives are consolidated for
their non-Indian neighbors, who would no longer need to sell their
lands to soybean planters or cellulose companies. It is clear
that a global project for the Timbira should not be exclusively
ethnic but instead should have a regional and inter-cultural character.
(This page was elaborated from the text "A Organização
Timbira e a Rede Frutos do Cerrado" - The Timbira Organization
and the Frutos do Cerrado Network -, by Jaime G. Siqueira Jr.).
