Brazil’s government hopes that land reform in the Amazon will slow deforestation. Greens doubt it
THE tiny village, where naked Ticuna Indians live in wooden houses raised on stilts, looks out over one of the rivers that becomes the Amazon. No place seems farther removed from the ups and downs of the world economy. But this is misleading. The Ticuna, who now have a large reservation at Novo Paraíso near Brazil’s borders with Colombia and Peru, took their first steps towards globalisation when they had the misfortune to encounter Portuguese raiders several centuries ago. Later, rubber drew the Amazon into the list of hinterlands that could be tapped if supplies were tight elsewhere, allowing growth to accelerate in much of the world from the 19th century onwards. And today new demands on the Amazon’s riches will determine the future of the forest.
About 900 miles (1,500km) downriver to the east, in Amazonas state, stands Manaus. Rubber barons built the city from the 1860s onwards. Its early residents made up for their distance from the European centres of fashion by trying to outdo Paris during the belle époque in drinking and debauchery. Now Manaus’s Zona Franca is the workshop for most of the televisions, washing machines and other white goods sold in Brazil. Special arrangements allow firms such as Sony and LG to import parts tax-free from elsewhere in the world and assemble them there. Despite being surrounded on all sides by thick forest, Manaus hums with manufacturing.
See full Article.
Posts
