Amazon Condoms To Preserve Forests and Reduce Imports in Brazil
by Paula Alvarado, Buenos Aires on 04. 8.08
(Picture: Acre news agency.) The Brazilian government has inaugurated yesterday the first factory to produce condoms with latex from Amazon trees. The company, called Natex, is located in Xapuri, in Acre State (Northwest Brazil).
According to Acre's news agency, these will be the first condoms to be produced with natural materials from seringai trees. This initiative will help preserve the Amazon by ensuring the sustainable exploitation of the materials, and will reduce the amount of imported condoms to the country, which are distributed freely to fight AIDS as part of a national campaign. Brazil is the largest importer of condoms in the world, the Health Ministry informed according to BBC Mundo.
Initially, the factory will produce 100 million condoms a year, creating income for 700 resident families (who make latex from the natural material), and sourcing from a product that's abundant in the forest. Xapuri holds a population of about 15,000, 160 of which will have a direct job in the factory, a Brazilian blog informs.
The same source says the condoms have been already tested and are to be approved by the National Sanitary Security Agency.
Acre's news agency also informed that the Natex condoms are 10% more cost-effective to produce and that native latex is also more resistant for having 50% less minerals than cultivation latex.
For other resources of sustainable 'love', don't forget to check our How to Green your Sex Life guide.
::Original news release (in Portuguese) ::BBC Mundo article (in Spanish) ::Additional information (in Portuguese)
I appreciate that they're not importing, which reduces the distance travelled, but how is using trees from the rainforest sustainable?
The material is abundant in trees and is sustainably collected by native families, who have been living out of the collection of this material for decades, only not earning enough.
According to the news agency, the price of the rubber for them will increase in 250%.
The area where they work is the Chico Mendes reserve.
Using trees can be perfectly sustainable. The fact that they're in the rainforest doesn't change that at all. It all comes down to what you do with them. Getting latex from a tree doesn't kill the tree you just drain a bit of its juices (so that ultimately your own juices don't get mixed with other juices, in this case).
Josh V - I'm assuming that the trees are tapped and the latex drained at regular intervals, a process which means the trees are not cut down and can live out their lives. It's in initiatives like this that some of the greatest ecological gains may be made. Another would be in teaching people that their animal population is something to treasure as a source of tourist revenue and not as something to hunt for sport or for food.
The added benefit here is that its like killing three birds with one stone! Yep, not two, but three -
1. locals benefit from employment opportunities.
2. AIDS is actively being fought
3. the rainforests are preserved
Yes, if only we could find initiatives like this around the globe, our environmental, conservation, and human rights issues would get a tremendous boost. Not to mention raising awareness of such issues to those directly involved, so educating them and generations to come.
Good news.
Steve N. Lee
author of eco-blog http://www.lionsledbysheep.com
I have to admit...I find the phrase "sustainable exploitation" a little funny. I don't know about the rest of you, but I usually associate bad things with the word "exploitation." But it'll be great if these condoms do support Amazonian conservation, provide revenue to the local economy, and encourage safe sex! I'm definitely going to add that to this other Green Love and Sex wiki.
The problem with the word "explotation" is that economy usually develops without much concern about "limits of growth".
The Wrigley industry of natural gum (chicle) already devastated huge extensions of jungle in Mexico and CentralAmerica in the last century, working in a semi-salvery production system of the Amerindians, who were collecting this gum from the trees.
Can collectors and trees in brazil supply the amount needed for this industry SUSTAINABLY? That depends on how brazilians treat their workers and trees.
Yet, I have the hope: it would be great to see sustainable forest managment programs, working in the shouth.
Best
I am very sorry, but any iniciative that promotes the "exploitation" of the amazon forest should never be consider green or ecological. the Amazon should be protected and left alone out of any kind exploitation, as well as its indegeneous people that will loose their roots and know-how by working in factories and trying to achieve "white men" goals.
with this i'm not saying that these condoms aren't a material more natural alternative to regular ones. surely they are - but they envolve a serious contradiction by exploiting the amazon, and this should never ever be forgot or out of the discussion.
i suppose that these might be really cool hi-tech hi-quality made out of natural materials condoms.they are made out of natural materials and more cost-effective..... but we should always try to read between the lines - get in to the root of the issue and don't just think as a consumer - on the price that nature pays for our consuming products, even the green ones.
don't think you're green or conscient just because you buy luxurious green products. besides tha, try to promote really fair and eco mininum damage to the stiill few virgin nature
I am very sorry, but any iniciative that promotes the "exploitation" of the amazon forest should never be consider green or ecological. the Amazon should be protected and left alone out of any kind exploitation, as well as its indegeneous people that will loose their roots and know-how by working in factories and trying to achieve "white men" goals.
with this i'm not saying that these condoms aren't a material more natural alternative to regular ones. surely they are - but they envolve a serious contradiction by exploiting the amazon, and this should never ever be forgot or out of the discussion.
i suppose that these might be really cool hi-tech hi-quality made out of natural materials condoms.they are made out of natural materials and more cost-effective..... but we should always try to read between the lines - get in to the root of the issue and don't just think as a consumer - on the price that nature pays for our consuming products, even the green ones.
don't think you're green or conscient just because you buy luxurious green products. besides tha, try to promote really fair and eco mininum damage to the stiill virggin nature
Of course it beats the pants off your toxic pursuit of 'green' biofuel. I know some of you hate the thought people's lives will be saved by this, and would rather they die than feed them or give them condoms. Green can be the new mean!