Rethinking and Rebuilding Common Property Systems in Brazil

Abstract

"Traditional systems based on communal forms of access to natural resources should not be seen as issues of the past. In Brazil, some of them are in a process of disorganization, but many of them are being recreated by the commoners. The recreation of commons is, generally, the result of a social reaction vis-a-vis processes that threaten livelihood of traditional communities such as Amazonian rubber-tappers, small-scale fishermen and forest dwellers. One of the classical examples of creation of new commons is the recent establishment of 'extractive reserves' by the rubber-tappers in Amazonia, as their livelihood is threatened by the new capitalist entrepreneurs of southern Brazil who buy the land in which traditional communities live out of the extraction of rubber and harvest of Brazilian nuts. Riverine populations also are creating new commons in the Amazonian lakes as their traditional fishing is threatened by commercial boats coming from urban areas. Another example is the creation of commons by traditional dwellers in areas where environmental protected areas are established. The paper argues that collective actions can be more successful when they are supported by strong social movements on a national basis, as it is the case of the National Movement of Rubber-Tappers which provides wide social mobilization and ideological support. In this paper three types of 'new commons' are analyzed: 1. New commons supported by a national movement of commoners, as it is the case of the extractive reserves of rubber-tappers in Amazonia; 2. Autonomous new commons established without a national movement, as it is the case of the extractive reserves to fisheries proposed by small-scale fishermen in the Amazonian lakes; 3. New commons, created without a national movement but with support of NGOs such as the one established in the Ecological Protected Station, in Mamiraua, State of Amazonas."