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Burned eucalyptus plantation in the community Manquo in Florida, in the zone of the wildfires near Concepción, Chile

Monday, 21 September marks the International Day of Struggle Against Monoculture Tree Plantations. Global Justice Ecology Project has compiled a list of resources to help stop the advance of tree plantations internationally and nationally. Massive tree plantations are falsely promoted as a solution to both climate change and our dependence on quickly depleting fossil fuels. However, tree plantations coupled with accelerating climate change and poor forest management practices are creating apocalyptic fire conditions. As we watch with horror the historic fires engulfing California and the Pacific Northwest, we are reminded of the devastation experienced by rural communities globally due to vast monoculture timber plantations.

Photo: Langelle

GJEP was part of an expedition in Chile in 2017 that witnessed and documented the aftermath of the worst fires in the country’s history.  These fires were fueled by eucalyptus and pine plantations, combined with drought and heat waves. As in the US, these fires wiped out entire communities and burned huge areas of native forest. That same year, in Spain and Portugal, similar conditions led to historic wildfires and firestorms in explosively flammable eucalyptus plantations, killing dozens.

Today peasants in Brazil are being attacked and their villages burned to make room for future timber plantations by companies like Suzano, a company in Brazil actively pursing GE trees for plantations (see sign on letter below).

If companies like Suzano and Monsanto get their way, future plans for tree plantations will include use of genetically engineered (GE) trees. In the US right now the US Department of Agriculture is taking  a request by researchers for the unrestricted and unmonitored planting of the first genetically engineered forest tree.  This proposal must be stopped if we are going to prevent the onslaught of industrial GE tree plantations. https://stopgetrees.org/take-action/
It is critical that we stop the planned development of GE tree plantations that will intensify groundwater use and lead to hotter, more destructive and more deadly firestorms.

The first step to stopping this disaster is keeping the door shut to GE trees. GE trees have never been approved in the US and we must ensure they never are. For more information visit https://stopgetrees.org/take-action/

 

Webinars on the Impacts of Industrial tree plantations on women, forests, water and communities

TimberWatch Coalition: The Impact of Monoculture Tree Plantations in Africa (21 Sept 2020)

Take Action

Organizational Sign Ons
Campaign to STOP GE Trees
*Sign on by Friday, 25 September 2020
Petition
Campaign to STOP GE Trees
Listen
Earth Radio Segments on Sojourner Truth with Margaret Prescod
*You can find all GJEP’s Earth Radio segments here

From the Archives

A photo essay from Langelle Photography. For Spanish click here
Interview with a militant of the MST /Entrevista com uma militante do MST (2017)
For the original GJEP post, including background on the interview click here

MST Women in Brazil Take Action Against Tree Plantations on International Women’s Day (2016)

CTNBio Meeting to Approve GE Trees Cancelled – FuturaGene Taken Over (2015)

About 1,000 women of the MST occupied the Suzano company (parent corporation to GE tree company Futuragene) in Itapetininga, Sao Paulo, Brazil.

10th Anniversary of the International Day of Action Against Monoculture Tree Plantations (2014)

“Plantations are not forests” Protest at the World Forestry Congress, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2009 Photo: Petermann/GJEP-GFC

Timber Plantations Wreaking Havoc on Forests (2010)