Police expel MST from area of Veracel Cellulose

For the past three months, landless farmers from Brazil’s Movement of Landless Peasants (MST) have occupied an area of land used by the company Veracel. The land is classified as devolutas land, which is land that has no official land title and therefore belongs to the state. The state is supposed to allocate these lands to small-scale farmers, never to private companies. Despite the protests, despite the devolutas land issue and despite the ongoing problems that Veracel has created for local communities, Veracel remains certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.

This press release and photos come from the Alert against the Green Desert Network in Bahia.

Update on MST occupation of Veracel land

More information and photos from the Movement of landless peasants (MST) in Brazil.

MST occupies Veracel area in Bahia

The Movement of Landless Rural Workers (MST) occupied 4,700 hectares of land in Eunápolis, state of Bahia, including land planted with Veracel’s eucalyptus monocultures. Statement from the Alert Against the Green Desert Network (8 April 2009):

Aracruz suspends construction of new pulp mill in Guaiba

Aracruz has announced that it is to “temporarily suspend” the construction of its new pulp mill in Guaiba, Rio Grande do Sul province. Construction at the proposed new pulp mill started in August 2008 and the planned start of operations was 2010.

The Secret Life of Paper

Inform recently produced “The Secret Life of Paper”. The video promises to answer the questions, “How is paper production related to forest destruction and global warming?” and “Why is recycling and buying recycled paper important?”

Federal court rules that Veracel must uproot its trees

A Brazilian Federal Court ruled in June 2008 that Veracel must uproot 96,000 hectares of eucalyptus plantations and replant the land with native trees. Veracel was also fined US$12.5 million for deforesting areas of the Atlantic Forest with bulldozers and tractors during its first years of operation.

Veracel: FSC’s Death Certificate

Statement from WRM, 19 March 2008:

Yesterday we were notified by the Forest Stewardship Council certifying body SGS (Société Générale de Surveillance) that they have awarded an FSC certificate to Veracel’s eucalyptus plantations in Brazil. What they did not announce in the e-mail was that together with that certificate they were also giving the FSC its death certificate.

Veracel expansion

Stora Enso sees the expansion of Veracel as more important than its other operations in Brazil and Uruguay, according to Stora Enso’s financial vice president Hannu Ryopponen. The decision whether to double the capacity of Veracel is to be taken this year, Ryopponen told the Finnish financial newspaper Kauppalehti.

Stora Enso appears unable to see the problems caused by its operations in Brazil and seems determined to make things worse.

Veracel to expand?

According to RISI, Aracruz may be about to announce plans to install another pulp line at its Veracel pulp mill in Bahia. Veracel is a 900,000 t/yr pulp mill, built and run as a joint venture between Aracruz and Stora Enso.

Stora Enso’s operations in Brazil are socially and environmentally unsustainable

World Rainforest Movement recently received a letter documenting the impacts of Stora Enso’s operations in Brazil.

Pataxó demand an end to eucalyptus plantations

Pataxó indigenous people in the Extreme South of Bahia are demanding that Veracel stops planting eucalyptus on Pataxó land.