The fires were a really sad thing, and I still feel that sadness nowadays.
Even today when I go out and I can see that everything is green,
I just can’t take it off my mind
It felt as if part of me died on that day.
We suffered greatly with the fires in our forest.
The fire damaged everything.
Even if it rains it is dangerous for us because it rains ash.
It came in contact with the water and polluted what little water we had.
In the beginning we arrived to help extinguish the fire,
but the sad thing is that we couldn’t do it.
Even the earth was burning.
It was really sad to us when fires arrived in the area where we had the copaiba trees.
It means a huge loss to us women
because they are our main source of income for our families and household.
First, I wanted to thank God for having this wonderful tree, copaiba.
It gives work to women and we can extract oil and water from it.
We started the association with six women who organised themselves to extract oil from the copaiba.
Now there are 14 of us.
Our ancestors had to cut down the tree to extract the oil
But they killed the tree in the process.
So, we looked for a way to try keeping the tree alive so that it can continue giving us the oil.
We go, we drill the tree, place a pipe and every month,
we go collect the oil,
bring the raw material here and extract the oil and water derivatives.
The natural oils we extract in our association are used above all for children.
The cusi oil we extract is used in children to treat sunburns, colds, it is also natural remedy to prevent hair loss.
All those were natural remedies used by our ancestors to heal faster.
We’ve been able to support our homes economically because we know that we live in the countryside
and there are no proper jobs for our husbands.
But if you have something that you can sell, you can make a living out of it.
And we can sell the products made with the things the copaiba tree gives us
We could say that women weren’t taken into consideration before here
Only men gathered, only men could leave the village for work, only men could hold meetings
That was something I had very clear from the beginning: that I would change the mentality of men
And now this is becoming a reality, we have work to do with the forest.
If we can’t change their way of thinking, we won’t be able to accomplish anything.
Being able to reforest most of the burned down areas is a dream to us.
This is what we really want.
We have the will here to work and get ahead.
But we need support from people who have that knowledge so that our work is well done.
WWF supported us from the very beginning.
They always believed us because they came to the area to check what was going on.
They are still supporting us and we’re really grateful to them for that.
In the future, we have to keep working and be careful, because whatever we do now will be for our children,
so that they don’t have to endure what we had to suffer.
I hope they keep on taking care of our forest just like we are doing now.
We have to take care of our forest, always.
Nature brings life
I’m not only talking about cutting trees for resources, there are many other things nature is offering us.
This strengthens us, being able to make the most of the forest in a sustainable way.
We don’t want our product to be sold only here, we want it to be sold everywhere,
be sold in all places,
and we want people to say “this soap, this shampoo I’m using comes from the forest
and I’m helping take care of it”
Perhaps not directly, but if I use those products
I am collaborating to help save the environment and the forest.