MESSAGE OF CONDOLENCES
RÔMULO MELO

With your brilliant and remarkable passage in this world, to those who have had the privelege of being with you, you leave a beautiful legacy and a noble example.
In the name of the National Council for Extractivist Populations – CNS, I express all of our sorrow in witnessing this moment even knowing that it is the only certainty that comes with life.
Our terrestrial grief has one more great loss but on the other side you have made our army of light stronger.
The tears shed today will merge with the waters of these riers you know so well and will irrigate the trees and all of the forest that you have defended greatly.
Joaquim C. de Sousa Belo
President of CNS

With the objective of debating the challengers of implementing basic sanitation in Brazil in rural areas and those of traditional communities, in a participative and intersectorial manner, the National Health, Enviroment and Traditional Communities Conference -will be held on the 27th and 29th of July, in Belo Horizone (MG).

Directors of the National Council of Extractivist Populations – CNS and of Chico Mendes Memorial will participate to share the experience of implementing Sanear Amazonia.

Ambulance Speedboat, an alternative for taking medical care to traditional communities in the Amazon by river

According to the National Sample of Domiciles Survey – PNAD/2014, only 33.4% of rural domiciles are connected to potable water provision systems and only 5.1% possess a sewer system.

With the dialogue promoted at the Conference, there is the objective of getting to know and debating about strategies that may provide subsidies for implementing the National Rural Sanitation Program (PNSR) and to discuss healthcare in populations residing in rural areas and that of traditional communities.

A slot was reserved for presentations on sanitation put forth by social movements, decentralized FUNASA movements, municipal/state health secretaries and by other institutions present at the conference.  Succesful experiences, challenges and proposals for rural sanitation may be presented.

In this slot, called “Roundtable”, there will be a presentation of experiences of the Integrated System of Rural Sanitation (Sisar) of the states of Piauí, Ceará and Bahia; experiences of the Brazilian Company for Agropecuarian Research (Embrapa); the Centers of Reference for Workers’ Health (Cerest); and of Sanear Amazonia, implemented by the Chico Mendes Memorial in partnership with CNS.

Water Access Social Technology built by Sanear Amazonia in extractivist communities

Within this context Adevaldo Dias and Clodoaldo Ramos, President and Technical Director of MCM respectively, share the process of implementing Sanear Amazonia as a public policy of access to potable water and basic sanitation. Sanear Amazonia is being implemented since 2015 and will directly assure the provision of potable water for 2,800 extractivist families. The indirect impact will be felt by way of replication of the best health practices adopted by the entire population in the benefited areas, equivalent to almost 8,000 families.

Since October 5th, 1,172 extractive families residents in the extractive reserves Arapixi , in the municipality of Boca do Acre, Purus Medium (Lábrea, Pauini and Tapauá), and Auati-Paraná , received the Document Granting Right to Use(CDRU).

In addition to the Federal areas,  eight other identical documents were also delivered to communities that occupied areas of State protection. In total, the claims of this early October amount to 750,000 hectares.

The CDRU is the legal document that ensures extractivist communities installed in federal areas effective access and the right to use community protected areas where they live and work, being allowed only sustainable economic activities.

With the document, the resident populations in the reserves, in addition to regularize the use of natural resources, obtain formal recognition and can have access to public policies, especially the land reform credits and other government social programs.

The titles were granted after intense dialogues promoted between federal and State institutions by the Amazon Dialogues Forum, mediated by the Federal Public Attorney’s Office (MPF/AM). The Dialogue was coordinated by Amazon  International Institute of Education in Brazil (IEB) and by the National Council of Extractive Populations (CNS),

Founded by Chico Mendes and his companions during the 1st national meeting of rubber tappers in Brasilia, in the year 1985, the National Council of Extractivist Populations (CNS) currently has the support, the partnership and the participation of civil society entities and various government agencies such as the MPF, the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBIO), the Attorney General, the Secretary of State for Land Policy (SPF) , Secretary of State for the Environment of the Amazon, the Heritage Department of the Union (SPU).

The forum’s puprose was born from the need to address the existing problems in cases of occupation in State and federal protected areas and overlapping areas in the South of the Amazon, among other topics.

Since 2012, the Forum has been periodically holding meetings in the city of Manaus to negotiate the settlement of 13 protected areas in the State of Amazonas, including the Extractivist Reserve of Arapixi (created in 2006) and the others formalized this October.

According to MPF/AM, there are still cases under discussion by the Forum in which a consensus between the entities involved has yet to be arrived at, so the debates continue.

Original source of this story:  pram-ascom@mpf.mp.br

Source of image: ICMBio

From the dialogue promoted by the National Seminar of Health, Environment and Traditional Communities – Access to systems of Health and Rural Sanitation, strategies were presented and disucssed that may provide subsidies for the definition of the National Rural Sanitation Program (PNSR) and also for resident populations in rural and traditional community areas. According the National Domicile Sample Study – PMAD/2014, only 33,4% of rural domiciles are connected to potable water supply networks and only 5,1% have connections to sewer systems.

Among the introduced strategies, Sanear Amazonia was suggested as a successful experiment in direct potable water supply for 2,800 extractivist families. The impact of the program will reverberate by way of repliciation of the best health practices for the totality of the population in the considered areas, equivalent to almost 8.000 families. Thus, Sanear Amazonia was included in the set of public policy stategies to be adopted for the National Rural Sanitation Program.

Follow-up discussions were proposed by social movement organizations connected to Grupo da Terra (Earth Group), which emphasized the importance of an agenda that would make possible and fully guarantee the participation of all in the process of elaborating the National Program for Rural Sanitation.