September 21st is International Day of Struggle Against Monoculture Tree Plantations. It is a day in which diverse communities reaffirm and celebrate their resistance to industrial tree plantations that invade their territories.
Companies, governments and financial institutions are promoting tree plantations all over the world—not only to produce wood, pulp, rubber, palm oil, fuel and biomass, but also to do business in carbon markets.
For communities that live in territories where plantations are established, this expansion means the destruction of forests, the invasion of fertile lands, the depletion of water, dispossession, violence—especially against women—, contamination from agrochemicals, and other serious impacts.
Monoculture tree plantations reduce and destroy spaces that are vital to communities, thereby threatening communities' ability to produce food and undertake their activities. At the same time, the plantation industry reinforces racism and patriarchy, while deteriorating collective relationships and interactions. As a result, communities lose autonomy and sovereignty over their territories and their bodies, all while poverty, disease and inequality increase.
In the face of this situation, indigenous, peasant, quilombola*, and many other communities are organizing and resisting this onslaught in a fight for land and life.
This September 21st, we once again express our solidarity with this resistance, and we share some materials that can help in understanding the importance of these struggles.
No more monocultures!
In solidarity,
The WRM Team
* Quilombola communities are those formed by descendants of African people who were subjected to slavery and escaped to start quilombos in Colonial and Imperial Brazil.
WRM Bullentin articles
- Quilombola communities recover land and water after 40 years of eucalyptus monoculture in Brazil
- Reclaiming land in Misiones, Argentina: A Fight for Social Justice and a Dignified Life
Podcast
- Mexico: Women of the Chiapas coast facing oil palm
- The Voices of Women Living around Socfin’s Oil Palm Plantations in Sierra Leone
Publications
- 12 Replies to 12 Lies about Industrial Tree Plantations
- What you need to know about Suzano Papel e Celulose (Produced by the ‘Alert Against the Green Desert’ Network, from Brazil)
- What could be wrong about planting trees?
Find more information and materials here.