Brazil:
Historic federal court decision sentences Veracel
Celulose (Stora Enso-Aracruz) for environmental violations
On 17 June 2008, a federal court in
the city of Eunápolis, in the state of Bahia, passed sentence
in a public civil suit filed in 1993 by the Brazilian Federal
Public Prosecutor's Office against Veracel
Celulose – known at the time as Veracruz
Florestal – and the government environmental agencies CRA (Centre
for Environmental Resources, responsible for environmental licensing
in the state of Bahia) and IBAMA (Brazilian Environmental Institute,
the national environmental authority).
Under the federal court sentence, Veracel
has been ordered to replant, with native trees, all of the land
encompassed by the licences it was granted between 1993 and 1996
to plant eucalyptus trees. This means that an area of 96,000 hectares
currently covered by the company’s eucalyptus plantations must
be cleared and reforested with tree species endemic to the Atlantic
Forest, one of the planet’s most biologically diverse biomes,
as well as one of its most seriously endangered. The company was
also sentenced to a fine of BRL 20 million (USD 12.5 million)
for deforesting areas of the Atlantic Forest with tractors and
bulldozers during its first years of operation (1991-1993). Veracel
has announced that it will appeal the decision.
Veracel Celulose is a joint venture
formed by two of the world’s biggest pulp and paper companies:
Swedish-Finnish pulp giant Stora Enso and Brazilian-based Aracruz
Celulose, each of which owns 50% of shares in the company. Veracel
controls approximately 205,000 hectares of land in the extreme
south region of the state of Bahia, with monoculture eucalyptus
plantations accounting for around 96,000 hectares. Its pulp mill
produces roughly 900,000 tons of pulp for export annually. Half
of this production belongs to Aracruz, and the other half to Veracel.
This recent Brazilian federal court
decision can be described as historic for a number of reasons:
-
The decision means that justice has been done in the struggle
waged for the last 15 years by the Socio-Environmental Forum of
the Extreme South of Bahia and the Alert Against the Green Desert
Network to have Veracel Celulose sentenced for its role in the
destruction of the Atlantic Forest in the region. This destruction
was documented in a videotape released by Greenpeace, which led
then Minister of the Environment Fernando Coutinho Jorge to order
a halt to Veracel’s eucalyptus plantation project, despite the
company’s attempts to deny and camouflage the environmental damage
caused. At the same time, this is the first time ever that a court
decision has penalized an environmental violation committed by
a large eucalyptus plantation company. While other companies have
committed the same crimes, none have ever been sentenced for them.
-
The decision means that justice has been done in the struggle
waged by the Socio-Environmental Forum and the Alert Against the
Green Desert Network, which have always maintained that companies
like Veracel have been authorized to operate illegally, without
complying with the rules and criteria for environmental impact
assessments (EIAs). In 1994, three years after it had begun planting
eucalyptus trees, Veracel commissioned an EIA for its plantations
and the construction of a pulp mill, under orders from the Ministry
of the Environment. The assessment was hastily prepared by the
Finnish firm Jaakko Poyry (currently known as Poyry), which subsequently
benefited from the plantation project by being contracted for
consultancy services. At the time, the EIA was harshly criticized
by auditors hired by the CRA and by NGOs. Nevertheless, the CRA
granted the licences that the company needed to further expand
its plantations and build the pulp mill.
-
This decision marks the first time that the courts have stood
up against the political and financial power of companies like
Veracel and its owners, Aracruz and Stora Enso. These companies
seize unlimited control over vast areas of land, finance political
campaigns at every level and use their influence over public officials
to obtain rules, incentives and financing to facilitate their
investments, and hire the best legal firms in the country to avoid
culpability for damages in environmental, social and labour-related
lawsuits.
It should be stressed that this is
not the first time that Veracel has been fined or questioned
by the competent agencies for committing illegalities:
- In March 2007, Veracel was fined BRL
400,000 (USD 250,000) by the federal environmental agency, IBAMA,
for the illegal use of a toxic substance (the herbicide Roundup)
on 31.6 hectares of land in a permanent preservation area.
- In December 2007, the company was
fined BRL 360,900 (USD 225,563) by IBAMA for obstructing the natural
regeneration of the Atlantic Forest through eucalyptus plantation
projects on 1,203 hectares of land within this endangered biome.
- The company has 7,428 hectares of
plantations bordering the Monte Pascual and Pau Brasil National
Parks, in violation of an explicit recommendation from the Federal
Public Prosecutors Office in Bahia for companies to refrain from
planting more eucalyptus trees within a 10-kilometre radius of
the region’s natural parks, in compliance with federal regulations.
What is most remarkable of all is that,
despite these antecedents, in March of this year, SGS QUALIFOR
granted Veracel Celulose FSC certification of environmentally
appropriate forest management for its monoculture eucalyptus plantations.
The certification was issued in spite of severe criticisms voiced
by local and international civil society, expressed in a letter
signed by 347 organizations in August 2007. Moreover, even though
an audit conducted by the FSC’s accreditation agency ASI in March
of this year documented various reasons for which FSC certification
should never have been granted, the audit report did not recommend
revoking the certification.
It is obviously in the company’s interest
to enjoy the legitimacy granted by the FSC label, given the fact
that it is currently in the process of doubling its plantations
and building a new pulp mill. The 2007 annual report of one of
its two shareholders, Aracruz Celulose, quoted in the daily A
Gazeta on 16 January 2008, states that: “Before the end of 2008,
approximately 70% of the forest base needed to double Veracel’s
operations will have been acquired. The new production line will
have a capacity for 1.4 million tons of pulp annually, which will
raise the unit’s nominal production to 2.3 million tons annually
(50% for each of the partners, Aracruz and Stora Enso).”
In addition, Aracruz’s own website announced
that “USD 65 million has already been invested in the acquisition
of 35,000 hectares of land and forests.” (http://www.aracruz.com.br/show_press.do?act=news&id=1000557&lang=1)
This expansion will mean the continuation
of the negative impacts on the environment that have long been
denounced by local communities living near the company’s monoculture
tree plantations. It is extremely troubling when the FSC notes
in its own audit report that “the company does not have appropriate
procedures for monitoring water and environmental impacts, before,
during and after forestry operations…” This in itself is more
than enough reason for not certifying the company.
With regard to the doubling of the company’s
plantations and the new pulp mill, announced in the official Aracruz
annual report, Veracel made this surprising claim: “At the end
of the ASI audit, Mr. Alípio (forestry director of Veracel) stated
to the ASI and SGS auditing teams that no decision had been made
regarding the expansion of Veracel’s activities. He indicated
that for the moment the shareholders had only given the green
light for initiating a viability and impact study for this project.”
(FSC Surveillance of SGS Qualifor in 2008, Forest Management Audit
to VERACEL, Brazil, 26-28/03/2008)
Does this mean that the previously quoted
statements by Aracruz are false? Or is the forestry director of
Veracel lying?
These blatant contradictions, in addition
to the facts outlined earlier, should be more than reason enough
for the FSC to immediately revoke the certification granted to
Veracel Celulose.
At the same time, it is crucial for
Brazilian and international civil society to take action to ensure
that the Brazilian federal court’s decision is upheld, given its
significance for all those who are opposed to the activities of
these companies, and its special importance at this time of rapid
expansion by Veracel and its owners, Aracruz and Stora Enso, which
will mean even more negative impacts on local communities and
the environment caused by projects of this kind.
It is for this reason that the Socio-Environmental
Forum of the Extreme South of Bahia has formulated a motion of
support for the Public Prosecutors Office of Bahia, to congratulate
this Brazilian public agency, as well as the Federal Court of
Bahia for its ruling in this case. The Socio-Environmental Forum
invites everyone to sign this motion, which can be accessed at:
http://www.wrm.org.uy/countries/Brazil/motion_support.html
By Winnie Overbeek, Alert Against the
Green Desert Network/Brazil
