Extractive reserves were originally conceived as a way of addressing a social problem, specifically the expropriation of the customary lands of forest peoples by deforestation and ranching. The concept was powerful because it resulted from a social movement and became strong for the same reason. The original concept, however, has always been based on a specific social class and its scope limited to areas situated in the Amazon where populations exploit extractive resources in a traditional manner. The extractive reserves began to be considered as an element of the question of regional development after two clearly defined events: • Chico Mendes' death, because it revealed the existence of an extractive reality to both Brazil and the world; • The intensification of research and debate on the intrinsic economic value of the forest compared to its use for farming activities and timber extraction. Rubber tappers have always compared the advantages and disadvantages of living in the forest, to that of farms or outskirts of towns. They believe, and research seems to corroborate, that their real income was higher as forest dwellers. Urgent custom paper writing of high quality for those students who would like to order custom research papers completed from scratch The result of this comparison was evident at the "empates" to protest against deforestation. Although the main aim of the first cooperative programs put into practice in Xapuri was not economic sustainability but political organization to defend the forest, they proved that the commercialization of forest products was profitable to those involved in extractive activities. However, the analysis of the relationship between extractivism and regional development requires the consideration of other variables which have not yet been used by the rubber tappers' movement. First, the economic and social dynamics of extractivism should be better understood, both from the point of view of collection and processing of products and their commercialization and industrialization. Second, linkages should be established between extractive activities and other regional economic impacts should be more thoroughly understood. All extractive products collected in the Amazon follow the same organizational rules: aviamento, the barter system. This means that the products are collected in the forest and exchanged for industrialized goods, in an operation which does not involve money. But one should understand that the barter system is a specific social relation which differs from all others existing in Brazilian rural areas such as wage-labor, share-cropping, and leasing. The main features of this barter system is that there is no prior definition of the prices on which the exchange will be based. In the case of wage-labor, for example, the worker knows in advance how much his hourly salary is and that he will receive the equivalent amount in goods. In the barter system, the rules of exchange are established a posteriori, which allows for dealers to easily manipulate prices. The main result of activities organized according to a barter system is indebtedness.
