RouteRio Branco

Chico Mendes: The Amazon's Greatest Martyr & Rio Branco's Hero

Rio Branco is the capital of Acre — the state where rubber tapper Chico Mendes lived and died; his assassination in 1988 became the Amazon's defining environmental moment and a global conservation turning point

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1
Casa de Chico Mendes Museum
The house where Chico Mendes lived in Xapuri — 185 km from Rio Branco — is now a museum; the simple rubber tapper's house where he was shot on his porch is a pilgrimage site for environmentalists worldwide
2
Chico Mendes Environmental Heritage
Mendes invented the "extractive reserve" - a protected area where traditional communities can live and work in the forest sustainably; the concept he created now protects millions of hectares in Brazil
3
Memorial dose Autonomistas
The Rio Branco Memorial celebrates Acre's unique autonomy movement – the state was purchased from Bolivia in 1903 and has a strong identity built on that acquisition and its forest culture
4
Seringal Village Museum
Seringal Vila Paraíso in Rio Branco reconstructs the rubber tapping forest village - the isolated home, the smoke house (defumador), the rubber roads (estradas) and the community life of the seringueiro
5
Francisco (Chico) Mendes Institute
Instituto Chico Mendes – Brazil's National Agency for Protected Areas – was named after the martyr; the work to protect the extraction reserves and national parks advocated by Mendes continues in his name
6
Amazon Environmental Justice
The murder of Chico Mendes brought international attention to Amazon deforestation – the global conservation response to his death includes the creation of organizations and policies that are still active today