Belterra and mr. Ford / BRAZIL { 24 images } Created 12 Jul 2012
Belterra is a municipal seat and rubber plantation site some 40 km south of the city of Pará.
Belterra was founded as a rubber plantation, after the economic failure of Fordlândia, which had been founded in 1934 by Henry Ford. The intention of the US-Department of Commerce in the 1920s was to produce rubber in Brazil and to import it to USA. The advantage of the Belterra plantation over the plantation of Fordlândia 100 km to the south is the flat topography, which enables the use of machinery. In its peak time in the late 1930s some 50 km² were cultivated with Hevea Brasiliensis (rubber tree).In Belterra, new breeding methods with local varieties were applied, which prevented the leaf disease, a result of the monoculture in Fordlândia. This was very labour-intensive and therefore expensive. Together with the worldwide decline on demand on natural rubber, the plantation was not cost-effective anymore. Ford sold it to the Brazilian government, which is still running the plantation.
Nowadays the planation don't work anymore and Belterra is a quiet place that seems to live of his pasts
Belterra was founded as a rubber plantation, after the economic failure of Fordlândia, which had been founded in 1934 by Henry Ford. The intention of the US-Department of Commerce in the 1920s was to produce rubber in Brazil and to import it to USA. The advantage of the Belterra plantation over the plantation of Fordlândia 100 km to the south is the flat topography, which enables the use of machinery. In its peak time in the late 1930s some 50 km² were cultivated with Hevea Brasiliensis (rubber tree).In Belterra, new breeding methods with local varieties were applied, which prevented the leaf disease, a result of the monoculture in Fordlândia. This was very labour-intensive and therefore expensive. Together with the worldwide decline on demand on natural rubber, the plantation was not cost-effective anymore. Ford sold it to the Brazilian government, which is still running the plantation.
Nowadays the planation don't work anymore and Belterra is a quiet place that seems to live of his pasts
