View the original article from The Guardian: ‘Green desert’: the farmers winning a battle with Brazil’s wood-pulp giant
Eucalyptus production is dominated by large multinationals that convert farmland and forest into monoculture plantations
Razor-straight rows of eucalyptus clones flank the Baixa Verde settlement in north-eastern Brazil. The genetically identical trees are in marked contrast to the patches of wild Atlantic forest – one of the most biologically diverse ecosystems on Earth – that remain scattered across the region.
Surrounded by nearly 100,000 hectares (247,000 acres) of eucalyptus plantations, Baixa Verde is a rare example of a local victory over a multinational in Brazil. The rural settlement owes its existence to nearly two decades of legal battles over land rights – but the fight is not over yet.
After fighting to retain their land, the families now face an unprecedented security crisis marked by armed clashes, arson and death threats, part of a wave of violence driven by a land dispute that has escalated since 2024.
Photograph: Anne Petermann
Conflicts over land rights have long been an issue in the region. Obtaining property titles is commonly deemed to legitimise land grabs from traditional communities, and local people had suspected that Veracel Celulose – a pulp-production company jointly owned by the Swedish-Finnish company Stora Enso and the giant Brazilian pulp manufacturer Suzano – was planting eucalyptus trees on public land.
Find info about GJEP’s original investigations on the ground in Brazil to document and expose the impacts of eucalyptus plantations below:
• See this photo essay by GJEP ED Anne Petermann that she shot at a Veracel eucalyptus plantation in Bahia, Brazil in 2011 during a field trip connected to a Tree Biotechnology Conference nearby.
Visit this photo essay by GJEP co-founder Orin Langelle titled “Brazil’s Green Deserts and Eucalyptus Invasion,” on the fight against eucalyptus plantations in Brazil.
And don’t miss our short documentary from our 2023 delegation to Brazil: “Brazil’s Eucalyptus Invasion“
