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Forum against the green desert in Espirito Santo and the Extreme South of Bahia
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Report No.1:

Letter addressed to the certification firm SCS
Vitoria, 22 October 1999

To: SCS certifier of FSC

Dear Roberto Bauch and Elizabeth Lima, Salatiel Pires and Marcos Estevan

We acknowledge receipt of Roberto Bauch's two e-mails, dated respectively 12 and 17 October 1999.

Above all, we would like to justify the delay in responding to your e-mails, caused by the enormous difficulties in communication/meetings between the large number of organisations, actors and individuals who act and live around the eucalyptus plantations of Aracruz Celulose.

The contacts between this far-reaching and heterogeneous group of stakeholders is quite difficult. The majority do not have either fax or e-mail, nor even telephone, besides being spread over many municipalities, distant among them. The communication and contact between these actors and groups who suffer from the impacts of the forest management of the company, is of fundamental importance so that the process legitimates itself in transparency and in an active and conscious participation of civil society.

However, with all our difficulties, a considerable number of these actors are debating and thinking about the best strategies for the participation of civil society impacted by the company's plantation management. Meetings have been organised, always aimed at increasing the information about FSC, the national standards, the evaluation and audit process, and, above all, the conditions and pre-conditions which should conduct the certification of the company.

During October 15 and 16 1999 we organised a "Seminar of the civil society about the certification process", where we debated the social and environmental impacts of the eucalyptus-culture of Aracruz in terms of the national standards of FSC and its principles and criteria. The seminar was held at the Federal University of Espirito Santo - UFES, counting with 41 participants/organisations, among them professors of the teaching staff of the University, social and environmental researchers of the forest sector, students, members of NGOs, trade union leaders, politicians and advisors, religious leaders, besides the representatives of impacted groups like fisherfolk, indigenous peoples, charcoal workers, Afro-brazilian communities, etc.

During this two day seminar we increased our knowledge about the diverse impacts of the plantation management of the company, both in Espirito Santo and in Bahia.

Your letter of October 12 was debated on the second day of the Seminar, when the participating organisations raised some questions/observations:

1) Once again we debated the partial evaluation of the plantations of the company, or in other words, evaluating only the plantation management of Aracruz Celulose in Bahia without taking into account the impacts in Espirito Santo; this "fragmented" way of evaluation of the management operations continues being insufficiently explained.

It is clear the company is autonomous and absolutely independent and voluntary in the definition of the so-called 'units of forest management' (UFM) which it pretends to submit to certification. Although the FSC itself makes this kind of certification possible, the unanimity of participating actors in the Seminar disagreed with the fragmented evaluation process of the Aracruz plantations. We come back to this discussion, because we consider it of fundamental importance, not only for the ongoing process at Aracruz, but for any FSC certification process at a national and global level. Related with this issue we would like to make the following comments:

In terms of the "fragmented" certification, the mega-plantation companies would only take into account for certification those management units where the impacts are lesser or less visible. Or in a more precise way, a company could isolate the "focus of bad management", exactly those places where the social, environmental and economic indicators point out at the unsustainability of the company’s operations. Having isolated the focus points of unsustainability, the evaluation only takes into account the places of less impacts or even in "state of the art" units.

The discussion at the Seminar pointed out the risks which originate from this type of fragmented evaluation; risks not only for this specific certification of Aracruz, but for the very legitimacy and credibility of the FSC, as a certificate and label for "good management". Even for Aracruz itself it would not be interesting to receive a label which could be questioned by more than 50 organisations within the surroundings of the plantations. Also for SCS, this fragmented certification, hiding and veiling impacts in Espirito Santo, affects its credibility, once the process did not legitimate itself for a significant set of organisations and individuals living in the surroundings of the Aracruz plantations. Besides, we have been informed that at an international level, this discussion has also occurred, for example in Sweden, where the national standards, formulated and developed during a longer period than the Brazilian standards and within a more mature correlation of forces, prohibited this type of partial evaluation.

Still about this matter, and even based on the "information meeting" in Teixeira de Freitas, we reached at least the following consensus: if the UFM's of Aracruz are differentiable in space (states, municipalities, water basins, etc.) the Management Plans of the company, even not being the same, possess at least "identical policies". This deals with norms, policies, directives and culture which govern the company management, in both Bahia and Espirito Santo. The out-contracting policy, the qualification and training of plantation workers, the policies which rule the use of chemicals and pesticides, the culture which rules the policy of "good neighbourhood", the claims of the workers, the policy of acquisition of lands, the destination of the plantation waste, etc. So within the management plan of the company, what is exactly specific for the extreme south of Bahia? Only the rotation period, which for cellulose is about 6 up to 7 years and for the sawmill 14 years. Even so, the plantation management in Bahia, according to your previous letter, serves "especially to supply the sawmill in Posto da Mata"; so what does the company pretend to do with the rest of the wood from Bahia? And what about the destination of the thinner wood (for cellulose)? The plantations in Bahia are going to be managed for the sawmill, and for what else?

When the company bought lands in Bahia, in 1988, it aimed to produce wood for cellulose and with this aim it realised the forest management. The sawmill project only appears in the strategic plan of 1994, according to the words of Luciano Lisbo himself (director of Aracruz Celulose) in the "information meeting" in Teixeira de Freitas. For this reason, since April 1988 the company is planting and managing its plantations in Bahia aiming at the production of cellulose, exactly the same as with the rest of the plantations in Espirito Santo. Even knowing that the sawmill is the more recent pretended use of this wood, the management plan of Bahia was formulated originally to supply of cellulose the plant B in Aracruz, Espirito Santo.

Another point of discussion within the partial certification debate refers to the social and environmental similarity between Espirito Santo and the Extreme South of Bahia. They are the same workers who manage these plantations, the environmental conditions are very similar: the water crisis (the north of Espirito Santo was recently incorporated in the SUDENE - federal programme to combat the drought in Northeastern Brazil), the substitution of native forest by eucalyptus, pastures, sugar cane, etc., the situation of the unemployed workers in the surroundings of the plantations, the precarious situation of the families of small producers who still resist around the UFM's, the injured plantation workers, the weakness of the local and municipal authorities in their relations with this mega-company; what is still left of fauna and flora in the region...how to separate realities so similar and nearby?

Finally, we would like to stress that the plantations in Bahia are inseparable from the plantations in Espirito Santo, since they are the result of the prohibition of the acquisition of new lands by Aracruz Celulose in the state of Espirito Santo. These plantations correspond with an extension of the UFM, taking into account that the practices are the same, the policies are the same, the clones are the same, the aims and goals are the same. The only difference, the only relevant aspect to take into account is an imaginary line which determines the political division between two states of the federal republic. So if it is only one unit of management, it should be, submitted entirely to the certification process.

2) With respect to your letter of October 12 1999, now dealing with the specific contents of this letter, we discussed the lack of information, pertinent to the certification process, already required previously in our letter of September 1st 1999. Besides the already provided information, we still did not receive the following information/documents:

- the legal name and logotype of the company responsible for the UMF and its address;

- the characteristics of this plantation operation;

- the maps which refer to the UMF but also to the surroundings;

- the origin of the possession of the lands submitted to evaluation;

-information about the surrounding communities;

- policies of the person in charge of the UMF in relation with the workers of the UMF and the surrounding communities;

- presence or not of indigenous and traditional populations, within or near the UMF.

Even if your latest letter of October 17 1999 announces the sending of these materials within this week (17 to 22 October), we point out that the minimum period of 30 days in which the interested parties can analyse all the documents and information, guaranteeing a real participation of civil society, has not been considered. Apart from the fact that the established period for the receipt of information already expired, the letter of October 17 did not repeat a communication of the previous letter of October 12, concerning the final phrase of that letter which read "As Aracruz is responsible for setting all the interviews, in the case of changing the sequence of the dates, we will communicate this in advance": what is the meaning of this? Is Aracruz therefore responsible for setting "all" interviews? To what extent does this not interfere with the independence of the process?

In this way, we wish to conclude demanding a new date for the field evaluation and for the public meetings, at least 30 days after receiving the entire information required. We also demand a response to all the questions and observations raised in this letter, which necessarily suggests e new agenda for the process, with its legitimacy and transparency being at risk. We consider the discussion about the partial and fragmented certification not as concluded, but instead only initiated, and it must necessarily be taken into account in the evaluation process to be carried out by SCS.

We look anxiously forward to your reply, hoping for a transparent, participatory and independent process.

Signatures:

a.. ACAPEMA - Association of Espirito Santo for the preservation of the environment

b.. Ana Clara Paz - IDEA/ Dept. of Ecology - UFES

c.. APLB - Trade union of education - extreme south of Bahia

d.. APPA do Prado - Association of Prado for environmental protection/BA

e.. AGB - Association of Geographers of Brasil - Espirito Santo

f.. Association of Padre Gabriel in Defence of Life - Espito Santo

g.. Casa Augusto Ruschi - ES

h.. CECUN/ES - Centre of Studies of Negro-culture

i.. Celeste Cicetone - DCSO/UFES

j.. Centre of Defence of Human Rights of Baixo Guandu - ES

k.. Centre of Defence of Human Rights of S. Gabriel da Palha - ES

l.. Centre of Defence of Human Rights of Serra - ES

m.. CEPEDES - Centre of Studies of Development extr. South of Bahia

n.. SESESB - Centre of Superior Education in the south of Bahia

o.. Claudio Zanotelli - Dept. of Geography UFES

p.. CIMI -Indigenist Missionary Council - Extreme South of Bahia

q.. CIMI - Indigenist Missionary Council - Espirito Santo

r.. CJP - Commission Justiça e Paz - Arquidiocese de Vitoria/ES

s.. COMIN -Council of Mission and Indigenous Peoples - Espirito Santo

t.. Commission of Human Rights - Diocese of Colatina - ES

u.. COOPEME - Cooperative of farmers of Jaguare

v.. CPT/ES - Pastoral Land Commission - Espirito Santo

w.. CPT/MG - Pastoral Land Commission - Minas Gerais

x.. CUT/Extreme South of Bahia - Central Workers Union

y.. CUT/ES - Central Workers Union

z.. Decimar Schultz - Project BASES

aa.. State member of parliament Claudio Vereza Workers Party

ab.. Federal member of parliament Joao Coser Workers Party

ac.. Erly Euzebio dos Anjos - Social Sciences - UFES

ad.. Agricultural School km41

ae.. Agricultural School Pinheiros

af.. Cultural Peace Place - Teixeira de Freitas - Bahia

ag.. Biological Sea Station - Santa Cruz - Espirito Santo

ah.. FACI - Federation of community associations of Iuna and Irupi / Espirito Santo

ai.. FASE/ES - Federation of organisations for social and educational assistance

aj.. FASE/Itabuna - Federation of organisations for social and educational assistance

ak.. FETAES - Federation of Land Workers in Espirito Santo

al.. Rural and urban land forum

am.. Luteranian evangelic Church - Synode ES and Belem

an.. Joao Batista Marre Agrarian Secretary Workers Party/ES

ao.. Marcelo de Andrade - Student of social sciences - UFES

ap.. Marcia Regina Branki - Luterian Church

aq.. Maria Luiza Britto - Association of habitants and friends of Manguinhos

ar.. Marilda Teles Maracci - AGB Vitoria/ES

as.. Movement in Defence of Porto Seguro/BA

at.. National Movement of Human Rights/Regional East I

au.. National Movement of Street Children

av.. MST - Movement of Landless farmers/ES

aw.. OJAB - Organisation of negro-youth

ax.. Osvaldo Martins de Oliveira - anthropologist

ay.. Father Jose Koopmans - Centre of Human Rights - Teixeira de Freitas -  BA

az.. PT - Workers Party - Jaguare/ES

ba.. PT -Workers Party - Sao Mateus/ES

bb.. Rural social pastoral of the Diocese of São Mateus/ES

bc.. Paulo Cesar Scarim - Dept. of Geography/UFES-AGB

bd.. Paulo Roberto Ferreira - councillor Workers Party - São Mateus/ES

be.. Rogerio Medeiros - jornalist

bf.. Rosebel C. Nalesso - DERN/UFES - Dept. Ecology

bg.. Sandro Jose da Silva - Anthropologist

bh.. Simone R. B. Ferreira - SAPI - Itaunas/ES

bi.. SINDEC - Trade union of workers in the commerce of Teixeira de Freitas/BA

bj.. Trade union of bank employees in the Extreme South of Bahia

bk.. Trade union of traders of São Mateus/ES

bl.. Trade union of petrol workers of Espirito Santo

bm.. SINDILIMP - Trade union of cleaning workers - São Mateus/ES

bn.. Trade union of rural workers of S. Gabriel da Palha - ES

bo.. SINTICEL - Trade union of workers in Cellulose and Paper Industry

bp.. Tarcisio Foeger - AGB - Vitoria

bq.. Terra Viva - Centre for agro-ecological development - Bahia