September 21st is the International Day Against Tree Plantations (Sign on by 26 September!)

Sign your group onto the letter denouncing tree plantations to the IUFRO World Congress (International Union of Forest Research Organizations)

World Rainforest Movement, which is on the Steering Committee of the Campaign to STOP GE Trees, helped organize this letter which emerged from meetings in Porto Alegre, Brazil last April that GJEP participated in.  The letter was written collectively by groups and communities along with Quilombola and Indigenous Peoples across Brazil to denounce the social and ecological impacts of industrial tree plantations and future GE tree plantations, as well as the deadly role President Bolsonaro is playing in promoting them. They are looking for organizations to sign on in support of the letter. You can find the link to do this below.

Support this Open Letter Against Tree Monocultures – Brazil 2019

Dear friends,
A threat spreads across our territories in Brazil. Under the misleading name of “reforestation”, which sounds quite nice, huge plantations of exotic – and even genetically engineered – trees have been set up in Brazil by transnational corporations. True “green deserts” lead to the extinction of countless species of our fauna and flora and changed the very character of our incredible natural and cultural landscapes, with clear social and environmental impacts, threatening the traditional ways of life of peoples and communities.

As the first country in Latin America to deregulate a genetically engineered tree (a eucalyptus species) and with a favorable political environment, Brazil has become a reference for transnational companies to carry out their projects. Precisely for this reason, the World Congress of IUFRO – International Union of Forest Research Organizations – will be held in Brazil, between September 29th and October 5th, in Curitiba, Paraná. We reject this corporate event, where false solutions and new ways to increase corporate profits will be discussed, at the expense of the commons.

Therefore, a public letter will be launched against tree monocultures on September 21, International Day of Struggle against Monoculture Tree Plantations. We invite you to sign this letter with us to strengthen our struggle and resistance. Let us say loud and clear together: PLANTATIONS ARE NOT FOREST!

You can access the letter and sign-on here https://wrm.org.uy/actions-and-campaigns/support-this-open-letter-against-tree-monocultures-brazil-2019/