Pulp newsIn November 2008, Stora Enso announced that it plans to build a pulp mill at Paso de los Toros in Tacuarembo, Uruguay. Technical studies are still to be carried out.
Stora Enso has been buying up land in Uruguay for several years, but does not yet have a large enough area of plantations to supply the proposed pulp mill. The company’s plantations in Uruguay currently cover 12,000 hectares.
Last week, Portucel announced that it had signed memorandums of agreement to build pulp mills with the governments of Uruguay and Mozambique. In Uruguay, Portucel plans a 1.3 million tons a year pulp mill, followed by a paper plant. In Mozambique, Portucel plans a 1 million tons a year pulp mill.
(more…)
On 11 August 2008, Via Campesina Brazil and the Movement of Landless Peasants (MST) launched an international campaign against the activities of the Swedish-Finnish pulp and paper company Stora Enso. Via Campesina Brazil is asking people to write to the governments of Sweden and Finland and to the head office of Stora Enso, to protest against the company’s operations in Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina. The letter is below. Representatives of Via Campesina and MST will visit the Finnish and Swedish embassies in Brazil this week, to deliver the letter.
(more…)
(October 2007)
Pulpmillwatch.org recently learned of a new spoof Botnia website about the company’s operations in Uruguay. In a welcome new development of Corporate Social Responsibility, Botnia explains why it is so keen to expand its pulp operations in the global South: “since we won’t tolerate any further pollution in our developed countries, we are happy to have the chance to export all dirty industries to the underdeveloped world”.
INTERNATIONAL PRESS RELEASE
- September 21st: International Day against Monoculture Tree Plantations
In many southern countries monoculture tree plantations are advancing rapidly, causing serious negative impacts on local communities as well as on the environment.
By Chris Lang. Published in Robin Wood Magazine, August 2006.
Tens of thousands of people have protested against two pulp mills currently under construction near Fray Bentos on the River Uruguay. A recent WRM report documents the social and environmental problems with the FSC-certified plantations which will provide raw material to the mills.
