'Sustainable' green deserts

Vast eucalyptus monocultures are taking over giant swathes of the Brazilian landscape, feeding the pulp/paper and iron industries. Now 'forestry' corporations are claiming carbon credits for these green deserts, giving Western companies a license to burn more fossil fuels, at the expense of the indigenous people with a rightful claim to the land.

Corporate Watcher Claire Fauset met up with activists fighting the plantations while on a trip to paper giant Aracruz's Gua íba mill in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.

Approaching the Aracruz pulping mill in Gua íba we passed a huge lot filled with rows of eucalyptus logs stretching as far as the eye could see, each log uniform in length, width and and colour. It wasn't hard to see why indigenous people in Brazil are calling the plantations these logs come from 'green deserts', or why the Mapuche in Chile refer to pine plantations as 'planted soldiers', the sheer lack of diversity was breathtaking and you could picture thousands of hectares of these trees advancing on communities as the corporations seek to expand their plantations.

The mill, where the logs are converted into 400,000 tons of pulp and paper, primarily for export to the European and US markets, dominates the town. Before the arrival of the mill, Gua íba's economy relied on fishing and tourism, with people travelling from nearby Porto Alegre to swim in the river. Not so now. On arriving we wandered around the neighborhood chatting to residents about the impact the plant is having locally. We heard many reports of water contamination and dead fish in the river. The plant was closed for its maintenance period but residents complained that when the factory is working the area is plagued by constant noise and a strong stench. People were suffering from breathing problems and allergies, and reported that the area was usually covered in a layer of white sticky dust that they couldn't identify. The people were afraid of making any complaints about the factory because of the size of the company, and for fear of job losses. They also said that attempts to test the toxicity of the water and the dust were frustrated because of the connections of this huge company.

Yet for some Aracruz is a leading light for 'sustainable development'. Aracruz is the world's largest producer of bleached eucalyptus 'kraft market pulp' and operates the world's largest pulp mill. The company's plantations in Rio Grande do Sul are certified by the Forest Stewardship Council and the company won an award for social responsibility from the Brazilian Ministry of Technology, Industry and Commerce. Aracruz is signed up to the UN's Global Compact and has had loans approved by World Bank's International Finance Corporation on the basis of its environmental record, and this is simply more evidence of international bureaucracy's blindness to the local impact of large scale plantations and its deafness to the voices of community activists.

A further cause for concern is the research these companies are putting into genetically modified trees. Many companies including Monsanto have pulled out of this research seeing it as not economically attractive, but the prospect of subsidy through carbon credits is likely to reawaken interest in GM trees. However bleak prospects may look, the fight is on, and international movements opposing monocultures are increasing in strength.

To find out more about opposition to plantations in Brazil and internationally visit the World Rainforest Movement site at www.wrm.org.uy