Advances at RDS Cujubim
With managed arapaima fishing, extractivists strengthen their association.
Manaus (AM) – Now more organized, the residents of the Sustainable Development Reserve (RDS) Cujubim, located in the Alto Rio Jutaí region – about three days by boat from the city’s municipal headquarters of the same name; A week from Manaus – they fished 113 arapaima. Part of the fish was sold to a company in the capital and around 300 kilos were sold directly to the public at the Feira Urbana de Alternativas (FUÁ), at the headquarters of Sustainable Amazon Foundation (FAS), also in Manaus. With the resources acquired they will get family income and conditions to invest in their community organization. Taking advantage of the flow of fish, the residents sold handicrafts during the fair.
The president of the Association of Extractivists of RDS Cujubim (AERDSC), Edivar Bezerra de Moura, explained 10% of the resources gained will be used to improve the functioning of the Association, as have been agreeing throughout the year, for notary expenses and other bureaucratic procedures, in addition to maintaining the common goods, such as electronic equipment and boat, for example. In addition, the partners agreed to settle their delayed monthly fees for the years 2016 and 2017 with AERDSC.
“Slowly we are getting things done. It has changed a lot”, said Moura. Now the next step towards strengthening the RDS is the reform of the association’s statute. One of the reasons is the need to issue an invoice so that it is through it the trade of its sustainable products, which is not yet provided for in the documentation.
AERDSC has a new board, made up of members of the past management and new members, some young people and who contribute an extra energy. Ronaldo Lopes dos Santos, 20, is one of them, in the role of secretary. He highlighted the opportunity to do a good job in the next four years and that one of the needs is to strengthen the union of the residents. “We are wanting to bring the people together more,” he said.
This year’s handled fish, according to Santos, has a better quality, including the protection of the lakes they performed in all areas. “The management is good from an environmental point of view”, said the indigenist of Opan Leonardo Pereira Kurihrara, coordinator of the project Arapaima: Productive Networks, executed with resources from the Amazon Fund. Rodrigo Tawada, also an indigenist at OPAN, commented that the fish were larger than what normally occurs in other management regions, which is probably due to the fact that they do not regularly fish for arapaima and therefore have older fish.
Even with the gains, there are still needs to improve activity, improving procedures and acquiring better structures for salting and treatment of fish, highlighted the indigenists and directors of AERDSC.
Articulated sale
The fair featured the trade in handicrafts produced mainly by women and by Antonio Torrado Bezerra dos Santos, which has been making miniature boats and oars, among other arts. They started the clothing with a workshop of the Arapaima project and already intending to make the articulated sale with the flow of other products, which, being put into practice, also shows the improvement of the internal organization in the RDS.
For the specialist in Environmental Education at INCITÉ, Kelly Cristina Pereira de Souza, who has been working with the residents with the support of the Arapaima / OPAN project and FAS, the sale has a result for the cultural appreciation of the communities: “The handicrafts associated with the management were important for the population of Manaus to know the others forms of production, the other forms of work of the members of the traditional communities of the RDS”, she said.
The activities of the RDS Cujubim – Handicrafts, Management, Strengthening of the Community Organization – receive support from the Department of Climate Change and Management of Conservation Units (DEMUC), the Secretary of State for the Environment (SEMA), the Amazonas Sustentável Foundation (FAS), technical support from Incite Consultoria, in addition to of OPAN with the Arapaima project, executed with resources from the Amazon Fund.
Contacts with the press
Daphne Spolti
daphne@amazonianativa.org.br
(65) 9 9223-2494