Brazil

Subject: The proposal of the California government to include REDD+ offset credits from the state of Acre, Brazil, and from other states and countries with tropical forests. Montevideo, November 16, 2015

"Nobody eats eucalyptus."  With this statement farmers expressed their outrage when the company Aracruz Celulose expanded its monoculture eucalyptus plantations several years ago on arable land in Espirito Santo, Brazil.  While the objective was  to produce and export more pulp, Aracruz and other companies publicly promote their practices as "smart.” They claimed they only plant trees on "degraded" or "abandoned" land, for example.  And now with the climate crisis, the FAO suggests adopting "climate-smart forestry" practices.  The question that arises: Can we really consider current company

In the middle of the biggest continuous area of Brazil’s Atlantic Forest, southwest of Sao Paulo, researchers of the University of Sao Paulo and the State University of Campinas accompany the changes in the region’s quilombola communities since 2003.

On September 21, about 300 indigenous peoples occupied the Nedila property in the municipality of Prado Bahia, Brazil, where the Suzano Company has a eucalyptus monoculture plantation. The main demand of the indigenous peoples is the immediate closure of the plantation, which is already causing great environmental destruction. The plantation is still not fully developed, but it is already showing its harmful effects on humans as well as on fauna and flora.

In 2013, the Rapporteur on human rights to the environment (RDHMA, for its Portuguese acronym), from the DhESCA Platform, conducted a Research and Advocacy Mission in the state of Acre on the green economy problematic and its political and territorial effects. Different state governments, especially in the Amazon, have already established or are in the process of defining state policies contemplating proposals for payments for environmental services and REDD+. Acre is one of the pioneers.

On August 25, 2015, employees of the Fibria Company in Tres Lagunas, Mato Grosso do Sul, made public the recent layoffs made by the company - one of the largest pulp producers in Brazil. “In the last few weeks alone there were almost 18 layoffs. And the worst is that some workers with occupational diseases were also dismissed.” The dismissals are thought to be a retaliation due to workers’ mobilization surrounding the creation of a new union organisation.

 

Last April, the commercial use of GE eucalyptus trees was approved in Brazil, despite the strong local resistance and evidence of GE eucalyptus trees intensifying industrial plantations’ impacts. This is the first approval of GE trees in Latin America. The application came from FuturaGene, a subsidiary of pulp and paper company Suzano.

A recently released documentary exposing the world's largest iron ore mining project shows the life of the communities impacted by the “Programa Grande Carajás” (Great Carajás Programme), located in the Brazilian states of Maranhão and Pará. In this region, people affected by mining projects are supported by the Justice on Rails Network, a coalition of impacted communities, organizations, pastoral groups, social movements and academic research groups seeking environmental justice in northern Brazil.

Currently, the mining sector is one of the main engines of the world´s economic system. In several countries, expropriation cases from native populations are recurrent, including loss of territory, disintegration of community solidarity bonds, pollution of territories and water sources, exploitation of workers, and criminalization of groups who dare to withstand large corporations.

People may be exposed to excessive levels of agrotoxics at work and through food, soil, water or air. Through the pollution of groundwater, lakes, rivers and other bodies of water, agrotoxics can pollute drinking water supplies, fish and other vital sources to human welfare. The “Alert about the impacts of agro toxics on health” is a huge contribution to the fight against silence.