Eco-friendly forestry and furniture production on the home turf of environmental martyr Chico Mendes are emerging as a model of sustainable development in the Amazon by combining timber management and social justice with skilled manufacturing and marketing.

Supported by state and local agencies and non-governmental organizations, the 15,000-resident municipality of Xapuri, in the western-most Brazilian state of Acre, enjoys two newfound distinctions. It hosts a community-owned and operated timber venture that has obtained international certification for its sustainable forestry. And it boasts a budding furniture-manufacturing center, anchored by an upscale São Paulo design firm that uses the community’s certified woods.

The goal is to move beyond raw timber sales by making certified wood into value-added products, thereby generating local jobs and wealth.

Two decades ago Mendes and his fellow rubber tappers used a strategy of physically occupying forestland to protect trees from predatory loggers. Dubbed “empate,” or tie, this tactic proved powerful, earning Mendes both international renown as an environmental hero and the wrath of much of the local elite. He was murdered in 1988.

Proponents call the current sustainable-development drive Empate II. The idea is to create economic alternatives that will allow citizens to boost their incomes by making responsible use of forest resources—not only trees, but also cashew nuts, rubber and other readily available raw materials. This, it is hoped, will cause a decline in slash-and-burn agriculture and small-scale illegal logging by cash-strapped forest dwellers.

“What do we have that the rest of the world doesn’t?” asks state assemblyman Ronald Polanco, a backer of the initiative. “The forest.”

Mendes’ friends and allies, notably National Senator Marina Silva and Acre Governor Jorge Viana, now hold power in the state and hope to bring an about-face in its development policies.

Says Carlos Vicente, state secretary of forests and extractive reserves: “Successive governments viewed the forest as an obstacle to development, and they subsidized agriculture and ranching. This is a new way of seeing the forest as a passport to development.”

Politicians are pulling out all the stops to attract green entrepreneurs. The right investors will find they can take advantage of tax breaks on the federal, state and municipal levels. A trade fair scheduled for this month in the state capital, Rio Branco, explicitly touts “sustainable business” opportunities.

Multilateral financing is being brought to bear, too. The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in May announced a $108 million loan to help Acre pursue its sustainable-development plans. The loan project includes a 45-mile (70-km) road-paving project, praised by environmentalists for its eco-safeguards, as well as transportation-infrastructure improvements along key rivers. Businesses will receive technical assistance and special support will be given to three programs in the areas of sustainable forestry and pasture management.

From tires to tables

Some sustainable projects already are underway. The Italian tire manufacturer Pirelli is producing truck tires from natural rubber gathered by traditional rubber tappers. A Brazilian food processor called Nutrimental developed an energy bar from cashews gathered from the Acre rainforest. Several hundred individuals are employed by such initiatives.

The model project to date has brought together the Xapuri community of Seringal Cachoeira and Etel Interiores, a leading São Paulo furniture maker that recently opened a retail outlet on Long Island, New York, and has another scheduled to open in Paris next year.

Designer Etel Carmona already had incorporated social responsibility into her manufacturing operation in São Paulo state. She started a school to teach traditional cabinetmaking skills to disadvantaged youths, and hired these newly trained artisans to produce furniture. In 1994, Etel Interiores started using certified wood. Seven years later the company won “chain of custody” environmental certification under standards set by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), an international organization based in Oaxaca, Mexico, that also created a green seal for loggers.

So when Viana won the 1998 gubernatorial race and made the rounds to attract eco-friendly investors, he found a sympathetic ear—though not a soft touch. “I got into this to make money,” says Carmona. “Philanthropy is not sustainable.”

Taking on two partners, Carmona founded the Aver Amazônia furniture company in Xapuri two years ago. She sent trainees from the Amazon to her workshop in São Paulo state. Aver Amazônia now employs 25.

When Acre’s newly renovated statehouse was formally unveiled this year, it was refurnished exclusively with Aver Amazônia certified-wood products.

Woodworking incubator

To further its new vocation in woodworking, Xapuri has organized an incubator for prospective cabinetmakers aiming to open small businesses. Called the Xapuri Forest Industry Center, it has the support of the state and municipal governments, the federally controlled Amazon Bank, the Catholic Church, small business groups and NGOs. Italian volunteers teach cabinetmaking, and students also receive training in business administration.

Meanwhile, Seringal Cachoeira’s 2,200-acre (900-hectare), community-owned forest supplies the wood. Seringal Cachoeira earned the rigorous FSC certification in March with help from the Brazil branch of the environmental group WWF, which put up the $10,000 the community needed to upgrade its operations and pay for the required audit and monitoring by an FSC-affiliated consulting firm.

Locals who once sold entire tree trunks for about $20 can now get about $1,000 for a certified tree—no small improvement for individuals whose estimated annual income recently stood at around $300.

Given the positive early results of the forestry and furniture initiative, outsiders are visiting Xapuri to learn from the experience. Two more Acre community-forest operations are attempting to earn certification in the coming months, for instance.

Says Polanco: “We’ve become a point of reference.”