Brazil

For Immediate Release, 20 August 2014

"They consider us the periphery of the periphery"

FSC Watch . In July 2010, Suzano Pulp and Paper bought the biotechnology company FuturaGene, which for the past 8 years has been carrying out field trials of genetically engineered eucalyptus. In January 2014, FuturaGene applied to Brazil’s National Technical Biosafety Commission (CTNBio) for approval to plant GE trees on a commercial scale. Suzano is FSC-certified and plans to plant GE trees on a commercial scale.

The Movement of People Affected by Dams (MAB) in the Madeira River region, made up by hundreds of rural and urban workers, farmers, fisherpeople and community representatives and leaders, held a People’s Assembly on April 17 in the city of Porto Velho.

Only available in Spanish. Entre los días 28 y 31 de mayo de 2014, en la ciudad de Macapá, Brasil, los pueblos de la región amazónica celebraron el VII Foro Social Panamazónico. Llenos de coraje y solidaridad, los participantes se comprometieron a luchar por la transformación de la Amazonia en la tierra sin males soñada por sus abuelos, como lo expresaron en la Carta de Macapá.

(Sign on before 15 June!) Dear friends, FuturaGene, a biotechnology firm owned by Brazilian pulp and paper company Suzano, has requested authorization from the Brazilian Biosafety Commission (CTNBio) for the commercial release of its genetically engineered eucalyptus trees in Brazil.

To: Brazilian National Technical Biosafety Commission (CTNBio) We, the undersigned, have been informed that FuturaGene, a biotechnology firm wholly owned by the pulp and paper company Suzano, has submitted a request for commercial planting of its yield enhanced genetically modified eucalyptus trees. Suzano/FuturaGene, as well as other companies like Fibria (ex-Aracruz) and ArborGen, have been conducting research and field experiments on GM Trees for years.

“It is the rural women’s movements that have been at the forefront of massive public actions aimed at fighting back against the big corporations in the agri-food sector (pharmaceutical laboratories that produce transgenic seeds and toxic agrochemicals) and defending biodiversity.” (SILIPRANDI, 2013, p. 239)

On March 8, 2014, peasant farmers from organizations including the MPA, MST, MMC, Quilombolas, the Union of Rural Workers of Mucuri and Montanha and Fetaes, along with youth activists and other social movements, took to the streets of Montanha, in the state of Espírito Santo, Brazil, to denounce the pact between large landholders, the public administration and multinational corporations like Fibria (formerly Aracruz Celulose) to transform the region into an “enormous desert of eucalyptus”.