The Brazil of Stora Enso: Violence against
women and made-to-measure legislation
In Brazil there are two conflicting
models: that of the large monoculture plantations (ranging from
eucalyptus, soy-beans and rice to sugar-cane), on lands held by
a few large companies; and that of the peasant, indigenous and
landless communities that build collective and diverse productive
spaces and demand the historically promised agrarian reform.
In the framework of the week of International
Women’s Day and as a way of strengthening 8 March as a day of
struggle for peasant women against agri-business and in favour
of the Brazilian people’s food sovereignty, 900 women, members
of Via Campesina in Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil) occupied 2100 hectares
of monoculture eucalyptus plantations belonging to the Swedish-Finnish
transnational company, Stora Enso –the Taruma ranch,
located in the municipality of Rosario do Sul (State of Rio Grande
do Sul), in the frontier zone with Uruguay. The fact that
Stora-Enso is the owner of these lands involves a violation of
legal provisions, which prohibit the acquisition of land in frontier
zones along a 150 km strip from the bordering country. Stora Enso
has endeavoured to elude the regulation, purchasing land through
a fictitious company, the Azenglever company, whose owners are
two important company officials (1)
The occupation of this
ranch by the women of Via Campesina had various objectives:
- To demand that these lands illegally
acquired by Stora Enso be expropriated in favour of the Agrarian
Reform.
- To demand that projects proposing
a reduction of the frontier strip be withdrawn from the Senate
and the Federal Chamber, as they will only lead to greater land
concentration in benefit of foreign companies, while involving
a threat to the ecosystems and to Brazil’s sovereignty, causing
greater environmental destruction and more poverty for the people.
- to denounce the impacts of monoculture
eucalyptus plantations – depletion of water sources, elimination
of flora and fauna due to agrochemicals applied in the plantations
– that end up by affecting peasant farming, as can be testified
by the rural population of the Municipality of Encruzilhada do
Sul, where Aracruz Celulose has an enormous green desert. (2)
The action against Stora Enso was quickly
repelled by repression. The Rio Grande do Sul Military Brigade
used extreme violence against the 900 women and 250 children who
occupied the Stora Enso plantations. Later they showed on their
bodies the marks of rubber bullets, fragments of bombs and horse-hoof
marks, among other atrocities.
The speed of the Rio Grande government’s
reaction in support of Stora Enso may be explained by the fact
that the present State Governor’s electoral campaign was partly
financed (according to official data from the High Electoral Court)
by the pulp companies, Aracruz, Votorantim and …Stora Enso.
However, in the midst of so much violence,
the solidarity of the population of the frontier town of Santana
do Livramento prevailed, guaranteeing food and medical care, lawyers
contributed voluntarily to avoid greater outrages, some few parliamentarians
put pressure on the federal and state governments, demanding the
adoption of measures against Stora Enso and the punishment of
those responsible for acts of violence against women, and number
of people from different parts of the world sent messages
in solidarity with the women’s struggles, in indignation over
the violence.
As a response to the violence the women
stepped up their commitment, expressing
that for each woman who suffered violence, ten more will appear,
willing to resist the death plans being carried out by companies
such as Aracruz, Stora Enso (through its company Derflin) and
Votorantim, in addition to the Granflor plantation company, that
are planning to plant 400,000 hectares of monoculture tree plantations
in the next ten years in Rio Grande do Sul.
Contrary to what happened with the peasant
women, the companies did not have to face any repression in order
to achieve their objectives. The result of the pressure they exerted
was that on 9 April, 19 out of a total of 29 members of the Rio
Grande do Sul State Environmental Council (Consema) voted in favour
and adopted the much questioned Environmental Forestry Ordinance,
which had been under preparation for almost three years. The original
plan established limits in the State regarding the plantation
of alien species – such as eucalyptus, pine and acacia. Throughout
2006 no licences were granted and only temporary authorizations
were issued. In 2007 the pulp industries stepped up pressure considering
that the situation was damaging to their business, arguing that
the government encouraged their projects but hindered the progress
of investments on refusing authorization for the planting of trees.
The result was the withdrawal of the ceiling on percentages of
area authorized for plantation (3). The decision “will compromise
from 500 thousand to one million hectares of our native rural
areas in one generation. When this happens, the present managers
of public affairs will be dead and no one will be able to question
them or make them take on their responsibilities” stated Celso
Marques, a member of the Upper Council of the Gaucha Association
for Protection of the Natural Environment (Agapan).
And he added “the means that the government
is using to impose the interests of the major national and foreign
companies trading in timber-pulp-paper, form a chain of legal
and administrative irregularities. These range from a real
government intervention in the state environmental body, Fepam,
successively changing its directors, imposing a regime of terror
with threats to the officials and effective persecution of the
technicians who, safeguarding public service, were not in agreement
with the government’s political impositions in the sector’s regulations,
to the culmination of irregularities and legislation and ethical
violations as was the adoption of the Environmental Forestry Zonation
in the State Environmental Council.” (4)
Two models are confronting and excluding
each other: on one hand the Brazil of profit, of transnational
corporations, of concentration that charges in with monoculture
agribusiness plantations, counting on the support of power and
violence. On the other, the Brazil of women, of peasants, indigenous
people, defending themselves with solidarity, conviction and courage.
We pay tribute to the latter.
(1) Manifesto of the Women of Via Campesina,
March 2008,
http://www.wrm.org.uy/paises/Brasil/Manifesto_Mulheres_Via_Campesina.html
(2) Letter of the women of Via Campesina
de RS,
http://www.wrm.org.uy/paises/Brasil/Mulheres_Via_Campesina_Mar%E7o.html
(3) “Zoneamento para plantio de florestas
é aprovado”, 9 April 2008, Zero Hora,
http://www.clicrbs.com.br/zerohora/jsp/default.jsp?uf=1&local
=1§ion=Economia&newsID=a1823196.xml
(4) “Perda total do Estado de Direito”,
13 de abril de 2008, RS Urgente!,
http://www.rsurgente.net/2008/04/perda-total-do-estado-de-direito.html
