Mega projects in the Amazon provide few people with employment, about one worker per 3000 hectares on a cattle ranch, where the forest provided for the livelihood of a few hundred people on the same area of land. The social devastation created by mega projects in the Amazon is a serious problem, not only for the indigenous communities, but for the local communities who do not benefit from the profits being made by the large corporations. In order to prevent agrarian reform, the government of Brazil has developed settlement schemes for landless peasants who clear forests of everything to cultivate subsistence crops. These settlement schemes are also socially disruptive, displacing and coming into conflict with populations that live traditionally in the area. The colonization schemes displace the indigenous populations and the rubber tappers alike, both of whom have lifestyles that are compatible with the rainforest.
Forests offer more resources than timber.
The idea of extractive reserves may provide the greatest hope for the Amazon. It offers commercial development of the rainforest while offering long term economic choices for the forest dwellers and the forests themselves. We recognize that the environment is the pillar of development, and observe that it is the resource basis that provides the elements for subsistence. It constitutes the material basis for wealth and prosperity of all people. We express our deepest preoccupation for the actual state of destruction of the planet - disappearance of forests, loss of biodiversity, global warming and ozone layer thinning.