BABASU BREAKER WOMEN: "FREE1 BABASSU" AND EXTRACTIVE RESERVES

Abstract

Since its establishment in the early 1990s, the Babassu Breaker Women Movement (MIQCB) has been discussing measures to end the process of devastation of babaçuaia"s, as well as ensuring free access and common use of palm trees. In the discussions on the guarantees of free access to the babassu palm trees prevailed the proposals of the laws of "free babassu" and extractive reserves. While the first is the result of the demands of the movement itself, the second one stems from the struggle of the rubber tappers of Acre, incorporated into the National System of Conservation Units (SNUC). Thus, this article aims to reflect on the struggle to guarantee access and common use of natural resources based on the experience of the "free babassu" laws and extractive reserves. In order to fulfill the proposed objective, the methodology used was based on techniques of direct observation and semi-structured interviews with the leaders of the Babassu Breaker Women Movement. Although the movement has achieved several laws, which guarantee the rights to free access, these have been disregarded.