The Forest Stewardship Council1 (FSC) founded in 1993- is an independent, non-profit organisation set up to safe guard the worlds forests, promote responsible forestry and ensure sustainable plantation management- -“plantation management is a critical issue for the world's forests. Whether viewed as a sustainable fibre supply, a carbon sink, a means for taking pressure off native forests or a chemical-dependent tree farming method, plantations are controversial and often divisive. The Forest Stewardship Council provides a forum to bring these divergent perspectives together and strengthen the global standard for responsible management of plantations.” The board of directors of the FSC includes individuals from internationally renowned environmental organisations such as Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF).

More than five million hectares of plantations and twenty million hectares of mixed forest have been certified to FSC standards. One such multinational company that has been certified by the FSC is Aracruz Cellulose who maintains over 60,703 hectares of eucalyptus plantations in Brazil. The plantations of Aracruz Cellulose and their pulp mill- where the cellulose is produced are mainly based in the states of Espirito Santo and Bahia Sul.
Ninety-six percent of the cellulose produced by the Aracruz paper mills are shipped to Europe, the US and Asia. Forty-five percent of their total output is bought by Proctor and Gamble and Kimberly-Clark for the production of toilet paper, paper towels, tissues, sanitary towels and specialty papers like photo paper. Also situated in Espírito Santo is Plantar ( Plantar headquarters are based in Minas Gereis- a nearby state but they subcontract and manage plantations for Aracruz in Espírito Santo)- who own 13,414 hectares of plantation land. As well as both of these companies being FSC certified2 Plantar is taking part in World Bank carbon emissions trading schemes3. Aracruz4 has stipulated that it will take a “proactive role among the worldwide group of responsible corporations concerned with the global warming trends.” As such it has adopted a multi pronged approach that includes “investigating the best way to participate in the international carbon credit market — essentially, a global marketplace for reducing and trading greenhouse gas emissions, first proposed as part of the Kyoto Protocol.” The company is currently in the process of examining opportunities for obtaining carbon credits.
The reality is that the FSC is far from strengthening global standards and bringing divergent perspectives together in order to promote sustainable forestry is corporate greenwash in action

Walking into a planted forest is a strange thing. They are not like the forests as you imagine a forest. As you walk you don’t scratch your legs on plants, or catch your clothes on a bush and carefully have to unentwine it without ripping anything. There are no low hanging branches to duck under- or ones you can swing on. There is nothing growing on the ground. And then when you listen- the only sound is the buzzing of silence, maybe when the wind blows through, the leaves are caught up in a whisper, but then it falls back to the silence- a very deep silence.

The streams and rivers that used to run through these lands are drying up- diverted into reservoirs of stagnate pools to feed the plantations. It is forbidden to plant eucalyptus trees within 50 metres of the water sources- but they do. What once were flowing streams now breed mosquitoes by the thousands. There are no birds or animals living in these forests, this is what gives them their name- forests of silence. They as a Tupinikim indigenous leader called them “a sea of dead forests that kill everything5”

For thousands of years small farmers, peasants, fisher folk, indigenous peoples and Quilombola6 communities have depended on the Mata Altantica for their livelihoods. Mata Atlantica forest has over 240 different species of trees7,, 100’s of plants, many different species of animals, birds and insects. As well as being vital for the regions water supplies and biodiversity. The people living on these lands traditionally depend on the forest for many things, medicine, food, and their religions. The forests possess many attributes that have been historically useful to indigenous and afro-Brazilians. The plantations that have replaced the Mata Atlantica at most supports 45 different species.

To say they kill everything is not to exaggerate. It is strange for the Guaraní -indigenous peoples, who for centuries have traveled nomadically throughout Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina and parts of Chile. They have had to accept many things alien to them but one of the strangest things is a ‘forest’ where nothing lives.

The Guarani depend on the forest to live. They are a beautiful people with high cheekbones and deep brown eyes who have existed for thousands of years in harmony with their surroundings- a deeply spiritual and peaceful people. They have two names- the names that they tell you and the names that they call each other. I asked Roberto what he did when their tribe had conflicts and he looked at me bemused- he shook his head and smiled. “We don’t have conflicts” he said, I asked him again, not sure if he understood me the first time, he shook his head again “we don’t have conflicts, when we make decisions” he says –“everybody comes, young and old and we talk”.

The Guaraní are matriarchal- their spiritual leaders are women. The healer from their community we visited in Espírito Santo, Donna Aurora, died a week before we got there. The Guarani8 believe believe that the 'land without evil' is the resting place of the soul after death - over the centuries many Guaraní have embarked on great journeys in an attempt to find the land without evil in this life. Because they also believe that the land without evil also exists in the world in which we all exist.

The Guaraní, like many other indigenous peoples around the world have suffered terribly from the theft of almost all their land. This theft is not just an offence to their lands and livelihoods- but also to their core beliefs. The stealing of their lands amongst many other problems has led to severe depression. Three hundred and twenty Guaraní committed suicide between 1986 and the beginning of 2000, the youngest being just 9 years old. On the 18th of March 1998 the Brazilian Government unleashed a military operation to put an end to the struggle of the Tupinikim and Guarani Indians for the demarcation of their lands and to oblige them to accept the impositions of the multinational Aracruz Cellulose.

The roads that gave access to the indigenous villages were occupied by a heavily armed federal police force in order to impede that the Indians would continue to receive support and solidarity in the self-demarcation of their lands. Trade union leaders from CUT (Central Unico dos Trabalhadores - Central Workers Union) were arrested, interrogated and treated like criminals for having shown solidarity with the Indians. Representatives of the MST (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra - Movement of Rural Workers without Land) were removed by force from the village of Pau Brasil in the early morning and transported in vehicles lent by Aracruz Celulose9.

Indigenous Leaders were taken to Brasília and remained isolated and pressured to submit themselves to the decision of the Federal Government to reduce their traditionally occupied lands to 2,571 ha In Espírito Santo. The Guaraní became hemmed into islands - their community divided into three separate plots separated by plantations of eucalyptus.

Around three kilometers from the Guaraní community we visited, lies the biggest Aracruz paper pulp factory and until now the largest running paper pulp mill in the world. The factory produces over 1.94 million tonnes of paper pulp per year and was built on sacred indigenous lands called the lands of the monkey. In order to build the factory, sacred forests, cemeteries and many other things of intrinsic value to the indigenous peoples of the area was bulldozed and destroyed.

The first thing that hits you approaching the factory is the smell- an enormous gut-wrenching stench. The people that live nearby say that when the wind changes and the fumes from the factory blow in their direction they cannot eat. The foods that they make- the preserves do not last as long as they used to. The rivers that they fish from- that they were dependent on for life have been diverted. A total of 6 rivers have been diverted to provide the 248,000 cubic meters of water needed per day to run the Aracruz cellulose factory-the equivalent of a city of 2.5 million people consuming 100 liters per person, per day.

It is not only the Guaraní who are faced with the desperate problems of the intrusion of plantations. The Quilombola are the forgotten peoples of Brazil. Long neglected, the Quilombolas have been facing extinction as the modern world closes in on them. The encroachment of plantations have made their once remote fields valuable to market forces who have been seeking to dislodge them and seize village lands for commercial development.

Aracruz- one of the companies that has forced them from their lands and surrounded their islands in seas of huge monocultural plantations does not recognize the Quilombolas as having rights to the lands they live on- as they are not indigenous. The Quilombolas are communities of people descended from slaves who ran away from the plantations during Portuguese colonial times. They have existed for 300 years, hidden from Brazil’s society in wary seclusion deep in Brazil's trackless backlands. But in the last years they have faced the most tragic irony- the plantations they ran away from [slavery was abolished in 1882] have now returned to haunt them.

As the need for plantations has increased to reach the demands of the rich industrialized nations- so they have seen the Mata Atlantica forests around them destroyed to make way for the eucalyptus plantations that surround their territories.
In one such community their mud cottages are slowly being replaced by concrete. Why, I asked “because of the ants, only ants come from the plantations and they eat they wood of the houses.”
They worked as charcoal farmers for themselves - but a law was passed forbidding then from touching the wood that was an arms reach from their houses. They are forbidden from even taking the branches cut from the trees during plantation management. Only two years ago 5 people were arrested for trespassing when they took the eucalyptus to make the charcoal.10

Now many of them are being employed by big companies to turn the eucalyptus into charcoal for the steel and pig iron industries. They work long hours- in often dangerous conditions. By the sides of the plantations are small round ovens- sometimes hundreds that are used to make charcoal. Charcoal farmers are easily recognized by their blackened hands and faces. I asked the women working in a field harvesting maniocs what health problems they suffered from as charcoal farmers “breathing, respiratory diseases, bad backs- the mosquitoes” they said. They point at the plantations.

The lands purchased by Plantar and Aracruz are rich and fertile, the best in the municipality11 The FSC stipulates in Article 10.7 of its principals on plantations that “plantation management should make every effort to move away from chemical pesticides and fertilizers, including their use in nurseries.”

What does every effort mean here- does it mean applying agro toxins by hand such as glyphosate produced by Monsanto, the applications of Tordon ( Picloran) and 2,4D. Does it mean the use of Mirex S (formicide)?
After clear cutting everything that stands in the way of the plantation (including houses and other structures) the agro toxics are applied so that the eucalyptus does not have to compete with other life such as plants, fungus, ants, mammals, snakes etc.
Maybe every effort means the death of young plantation workers such as Aurino dos Santlos Filho who died in the field whilst applying agro toxins12. Maybe it means the respiratory problems, skin diseases, growth defects, polluted water supplies, increased asthma in children– so that they are undrinkable and unusable, that effect everybody that lives near the plantations. Is every effort what makes Mr. Antonio say “Eucalyptus have been grown with blood,” He is the main witness for the poisoned from agro-toxics and the mutilated from the chainsaws.13. Mr Antonio worked for over 15 years with Aracruz. He has lived under constant threat from the companies and authorities in the region; the work left him an invalid- his foot full of screws. He is fearful for his house was shot at. His family is hidden. He watches his back constantly with no one around, because he spoke out against the company.14

Threats, corruption, bribery, violence are all too common in this area as the companies seek to silence their critics. Those that speak out so the world can hear the stories of Espirito de Santo are threatened, exposed in the local press as hindering development in the region; they live constantly under threat of arrest, surveillance, violence and sometimes death.

Plantar with its 23,100 hectares of plantations in the Espirito de Santo and Mato Gross do Sul region is part of the World Bank carbon trading prototype (PCF) scheme. It is one of three climate funds, for which the World Bank acts as trustee. The PCF invests in companies, governments and projects designed to produce emission reductions consistent with the Clean Development Mechanism under the Kyoto Protocol. “These allow companies and governments to trade carbon credits, in effect buying themselves a license to continue polluting”15
Six governments and 17 corporate investors have invested US$180 million in the Fund, including: British Petroleum – Amoco, Deutsche Bank, Gas de France
Governments of Canada, Finland, Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands
Japan Bank for International Cooperation, Mitsubishi Corp,Norsk Hydro
Statoil
The commodifying of carbon is a billion dollar industry waiting to explode on to the markets as the Kyoto Protocol takes effect over the coming years. - The world’s forests are officially up for sale.
“Argentina has important forestry potential to be developed, 33 million ha… favorable for foreign investment and fully competitive with traditional world forestry regions” 16

“Carbon offset and CDM projects through forestry are one of the most cost-effective ways of climate mitigation” 17

In December 9, 2004 — The International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, signed a $50 million loan agreement with Aracruz Cellulose S.A. The 10-year loan intends to support one of the world's leading company’s in sustainable business practices and support specific social and environmental investments.
Peter Woicke, Head of IFC and Managing Director of the World Bank, noted, “This transaction fits well with IFC’s strategy for the forest products sector, which focuses our efforts on competitive projects that emphasize sustainable forestry management, eco-efficient technologies, and environmental investments.18

The devastation wreaked by these plantations is impossible to quantify. The story that has unfurled in Espírito Santo over the last 30 years is the making of nightmares. In every aspect of their lives the people living near the plantations of Aracruz and Plantar have been plunged into a war not of their making, their lands have been ripped from them, their livelihoods destroyed, their families suffering from the use of agro toxins- to compensate the companies employ some of them- in appalling working conditions with little to no regulations for health and safety. Opposition is met by state repression, violence and prison.

The tales that the people of Espírito Santo are not unique, they are replicated thousands of times over all over the world. What is unique about Espirito Santo are the levels of resistance to the plantations and the companies. United through the social movement ‘alert against the green desert’ , indigenous peoples, small farmers, fisher folk, Ngo’s , landless peasants have screamed their message to the world- you are killing us, our land, our water, our skies, our food, our medicines, our lives.

"This used to be one of the best fishing areas in the country but local fisheries
have been devastated, 50,000 people in the area used to eat fish every day they eat fish no more; some fishermen have stopped fishing because there are so few fish to catch". 19 Jaoa Pedro Stedile of Brazil's Landless Workers Movement

“They took everything! They took and took and took. Everything”
Leovegildo Tupinikim Indian expelled from his land in order to make way for the Aracruz paper pulp factories in Espirito Santo20
“They brought two bulldozers and a big chain, destroying everything ahead of them. We found all sort of animals dead. Then the forests finished, the birds died, and the rivers dried...”
The statements of the Indians, who were present during the Aracruz invasions of their lands21
These eucalyptus trees are planted so that in the west- in rich industrialised lands people can wipe their arses with toilet paper, so that cars can be driven, so that we can live our comfortable lives, so that oil can be consumed. So that international banks, governments, financial co-operations, companies and NGO’s can carry on leading us on a merry dance convincing us that steps are being taking to solve the environmental catastrophes we face as a world.

If you thought that slavery and colonialism did not exist in our world any more, if you thought that global capitalism was improving the lives of everybody. If you believed that the G8 was intent on tackling climate change, if you believe the media hype. If you thought that big companies were concerned about their workers, that they were concerned for the environments in which they operated, that corporate social responsibility was worth more that the paper is was written on. If you thought that when you donated money to the big environmental NGO’s like Greenpeace and WWF they were protecting the environment. If you believed the certificate on your newly brought piece of furniture was from sustainably managed forests. If you have placed your faith in the Kyoto protocol as a means of reducing emissions and combating climate change, if you ever even thought it was a step in the right direction- walking slowly through the forests of silence tells a very different story.

Put together by Kim
www.trapese.org


Post Note

The resistance that exists in Espirito Santo is amazing- and that is how I had the privilege to meet the people from the Movement against the Green Desert who have been campaigning relentlessly against this massive exploitation of their lands.
In 1997 the Tupinikim and Guaraní were forced to make the agreement with the Aracruz Cellulose , In 2005 they will break this agreement after 8 years of continued margianlisation and exploitation. On the 19th of February they produced this public letter.



Dear friends,
hereby follows a public letter of the leaders of the Tupinikim and Guarani indigenous Peoples in Espirito Santo, Brazil. In a historical meeting on 19 February with representatives of all the villages, they decided to prioritize once again the
land struggle against Aracruz Cellulose, the biggest eucalyptus pulp producing company of Brazil and the world that still occupies 11 thousand hectares of already by the government identified indigenous lands. In spite of this occupation of indigenous lands, Aracruz has FSC and CERFLOR certifications for part of its plantations. It also succeeded recently to get a 50 US$ million loan from the IFC-World Bank, being considered a 'socially sustainable' company. Aracruz constructed its first pulp mill exactly on the place of the Tupinikim village called 'Macacos', and also expelled people from another more than 30 villages. The struggle of the Indians who resisted started in 1979 was the first big resistance struggle in Brazil against large-scale tree plantations, and from this struggle on,
slowly, the Alert against the Green Desert Movement was 'constructed' and strengthened itself, and is now present in five states of Brazil.
We are fully committed to support the Indians in this important decision, and hope to count with your support, and please, help to spread now this important news.
Alert against the Green Desert Movement - Brazil
4 March 2005


Open Letter


OUR LAND, OUR FREEDOM

On February 19, 2005 we held a General Meeting of Tupinikim and Guarani People in the village of Comboios. With the presence of around 350 indigenous people of all the villages (Pau Brasil, Caieiras Velhas, Irajá, Três Palmeiras, Boa Esperança,Piraquê-Açu and Comboios), we analysed the current situation of our communities and we discussed about the recovery of our lands, which at present, are in the possession of Aracruz Cellulose.

As a result of our discussions, we make the following issues public: Formerly (until 40 years ago) we used to live well, hunting, fishing and planting our bean, corn and manioc fields. We were not dependant on anybody and lived on the fruits of our
land and we were free. With the arrival of Aracruz Cellulose we lost our lands, our forests and our rivers. We gradually became poorer and "prisoners" of the Aracruz project. - In 1979, we started to struggle to recover our lands, always certain of our right. In 1997, the FUNAI identified 18,071 hectares as customarily occupied by us, the Tupinikim and Guarani people. Up to the present we have been able to get back only a small portion of our land. Approximately 11,000 hectares are still in the possession of Aracruz Cellulose, under an illegal Agreement that authorizes the company to exploit and degrade our land, which is our mother and on which we have built our dignity and identity.

- But we clearly state that everything that Aracruz Cellulose has returned to our communities is due to our struggle and our right. We also state that our struggle has not ended and that it will continue throughout our existence. Today, after many debates in our communities we have arrived to the conclusion that the Agreement with Aracruz has not been able to solve our problems, but on the contrary, it has caused even more difficulties for us, by creating economic dependence, splitting our villages and weakening our culture. The death of our
culture is the symbolic death of our people. We have much responsibility as chiefs and leaders. We know that we cannot continue existing as indigenous people if we have no freedom and autonomy and if our lands are not demarcated, so that our children and grandchildren may have a safe future. 500 years ago they cut the trees that represent indigenous people and cultures; at present, due to our struggle, indigenous roots have sprouted again in the State of Espirito Santo.

In view of all this, we have unanimously decided in this Indigenous Meeting, to struggle for the recovery of our lands, currently occupied by Aracruz Cellulose. The struggle for the land, that is also a struggle for the physical and cultural survival of Tupinikim and Guarani indigenous people will be, as from today, our main goal and we will not rest until we recover our lands completely.

LAND IS A RIGHT OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLE
Tupinikim village of Irajá, February 28, 2005
Tupinikim and Guarani Chiefs Committee/ES


For more information
Carbon trade watch-www.tni.org/ctw/ www.carbontradewatch.org
World Rainforest movement www.wrm.org.uy
FASE ( Alert Against the Green Desert Movement www.fase.org.br

Other relevant links
Groups working on cliamte change issues www.risingtide.org
Popular education collective www.trapese.org