As the sun rises over the Amazonian Island of Marajo, Renato Cordeiro laces up his boots, grabs his knife, and heads out to tap his rubber trees. Drop by drop, he collects the milky white sap, known as latex, that sustains him. The recent revival of the rubber tapper trade in this impoverished northern Brazilian region has created jobs for families who once thrived during the Amazonian rubber boom, which collapsed in the late 20th century.

A local company called Seringo has enabled Cordeiro and more than 1,500 other rubber tappers to resume their craft. The company produces goods such as footwear while also protecting the forest, increasingly threatened by deforestation. For Cordeiro, a wiry 57-year-old, the Amazon is his backyard. Behind his stilt house on the Anajas River, dozens of natural rubber trees blend with centuries-old trees and palms typical of this island, surrounded by rivers on one side and the sea on the other.

A worker handles processed rubber at the Seringo factory.

A family of rubber craftswomen, rubber extraction, and Açai fruit harvesting wave from their stilt homes on the Anajas River.

Joselma Moraes da Silva makes rubber handicrafts at her home on the Anajas riverbank.

This aerial view shows the house of Renato Cordeiro on the Anajas riverbank, municipality of Anajas.

Renato Cordeiro, 57, processes the collected rubber at his home on the Anajas riverbank.

Renato Cordeiro, 57, shows the different scars on a rubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis) that resulted from the dissimilar methods used to extract rubber over four generations, near his home on the Anajas riverbank.

A bucket hangs from a rubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis) during rubber extraction in the municipality of Anajas.

Renato Cordeiro, 57, harvests rubber from a hevea tree (Hevea brasiliensis) near his home on the Anajas riverbank.

Workers handle processed rubber at the Seringo factory, where all the raw material for the production of rubber footwear is made, near Castanhal city.

Shoes are seen at the Seringo factory, where all the raw material for the production of rubber footwear is made.

‘Family heritage’

“I started tapping trees at age seven with my mother, deep in the forest,” said Cordeiro, holding his knife, which has a protruding metal piece for making precise cuts in the bark. With each incision made carefully to avoid harming the trunk, the native Amazonian tree begins to drip its latex into a container placed underneath. As it fills, Renato moves on to the next tree. Each day, he collects about 18 liters (4.8 gallons), mixing it with vinegar to produce white rubber sheets. These hang on a rope for 10 days to dry before being sold to Seringo, which picks them up from his riverside home.

Cordeiro, a married father of three, beams with pride. After nearly two decades of scraping by through hunting and acai harvesting, he returned to rubber tapping in 2017 to protect what he calls his family heritage — the forest. “I longed for this work to return,” says Valcir Rodrigues, another rubber tapper and father of five, from a stilt house along the river north of Anajas. “We want to leave a better world for our children, so we don’t deforest,” he says. Rodrigues frequently confronts loggers who invade his land to cut down trees.

Francisco Samonek touches Acai fruit pits used for rubber processing at his Seringo factory, where all the raw material for the production of rubber footwear is made.

Piles of rubber waiting to be processed are pictured at the Seringo factory, where all the raw material for the production of rubber footwear is made.

Francisco Samonek poses for a picture at his Seringo factory.

Joselma Moraes da Silva makes rubber handicrafts at her home on the Anajas riverbank.

Piles of rubber waiting to be processed are pictured at the Seringo factory.

This aerial view shows the Amazon rainforest on the Anajas riverbank in the municipality of Anajas.--AFP photos

Valcir Rodrigues, 51, gets ready to enter the forest to extract rubber near his home on the Anajas riverbank.

Renato Cordeiro, 57, gets ready to enter the Amazon rainforest to extract rubber near his home on the Anajas riverbank.

Decleuma Seriaco Gomes shows rubber handcrafts at her home on the Anajas riverbank.

A knife used for extracting rubber is pictured at the house of Renato Cordeiro in the Anajas riverbank.

“They need to understand how much they harm the forest — and themselves — since many end up in debt to their employers,” he explains. Deforestation surged in Marajo when global demand for Amazonian rubber plummeted as countries like Malaysia began large-scale rubber tree plantations.

Today, however, rubber sustains Rodrigues’s entire family. His wife and mother-in-law skillfully craft colorful artisanal goods sold primarily in Belem, the capital of Para state, to Marajo’s east. “I was a civil servant, but the local government never gave me a job. This is my first real trade, and I love it,” said his mother-in-law Vanda Lima, a smiling 60-year-old.