Where are Rubber tappers found in the amazon rain forest?
In the wild, the trees are generally found along the Amazon and Orinoco Rivers. The tree requires a climate with heavy rainfall and without frost. In Sao Paulo State alone, 90,000 acres have been planted, largely around this city. In Brazil’s biggest project, the Michelin tire group of France has planted rubber on 21,250 acres of Mato Grosso State. They are planting in areas like this cool, dry plateau 280 miles northwest of Sao Paulo. Hot during the day, temperatures drop into the 50’s on winter nights, cold enough to kill the fungi and insect predators endemic to the Amazon. Plantation production costs largely set prices, and rubber tappers now find that they cannot make money harvesting rubber from wild trees. Walking for miles through a traditional rain forest lot, the average Amazon rubber tapper collects 1,100 pounds of rubber a year. On a Sao Paulo planation, the average worker collects 11,000 pounds a year.
