About Fordlândia

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Santarém

The Rubber Boom

Fordlândia

A few hours up the Tapajós river from Santarém is a rubber plantation called Fordlândia. It was built by the famous car-maker, Henry Ford, during the 1930s. Ford tried creating a plantation similar to the successful rubber plantations of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and Malaysia. It was intended to guarantee a cheap source of rubber for the Ford Motor Company.

In addition to the plantation, Ford also built a new town for its workers – which looked smalltown USA, miraculously transplanted into the middle of Amazon rainforest.

Despite Ford’s efforts and great plans, the venture was a failure because no-one understood the problems of plantation farming rubber trees in Amazônia. Amazônia is the rubber trees’ original home, so it is also home to the trees’ natural enemies.

The rubber trees were all planted close together. If one tree got sick, or was attacked by insects, then all the other trees around it also got sick. Planting rubber tree plantations here isn’t very successful – but rubber trees growing naturally in the rainforest are safe because they grow far apart from one another (mixed in with other trees) making it difficult for diseases and parasites to spread.

Realising that Fordlândia wasn’t going to be successful, Ford sold the plantation to the Brazilian government. Today, it is used for research and training.