Brazil:
Once again opposing Plantar’s CDM project
Plantar S.A. Reflorestamentos,
a pig-iron and plantation company operating in Brazil, in the
state of Minas Gerais, has been trying hard to get money through
the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).
The company’s activities
involving large scale planting of non-native eucalyptus trees – which
are burnt to make charcoal that is then used for the company’s
pig iron operations
– have illegally dispossessed many people of their land,
destroyed jobs and livelihoods, dried up and polluted local water
supplies, depleted soils and the biodiversity of the native cerrado
biome, threatened the health of local people, and exploited labour
under appalling conditions (see WRM Bulletin Nº 145).
Already in 2004, Plantar S.A.
applied for a 1.5 million CERs (certified emission reductions)
carbon credit transaction based on “the planting of forests”.
CERs, equivalent in this case to approximately USD 25 million,
are tradable permits that certify that emissions of greenhouse
gases have been reduced by the project. Polluters somewhere else
can buy those permits and so spare the effort to reduce their
own emissions.
The argument was that the forested
area in the state of Minas Gerais was rapidly shrinking, and
that without the capital provided through carbon credits, the
company would be unable to replant on the land where trees had
been harvested for industrial use. However, Plantar has always
planted and replanted trees on a massive scale and eventually
the project didn’t get the approval.
In another try, Plantar reformulated
the project and argued that it would have to burn coal if it
did not receive the funds to (re)plant eucalyptus in Minas Gerais
for the production of charcoal. Several social organisations
opposed the Plantar project, which once again failed to be approved.
In mid-2009, Plantar resubmitted
a reforestation project, linked to the iron ore methodology, to
the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) Executive Board under the
title “Cultivated Biomass as a Renewable Source of Energy
for Pig Iron Production”. The project promises to grow “dedicated
plantations”
for the production of charcoal. If approved, the project
would enable the company to get paid for doing what it has already
been doing since 2000: planting and replanting eucalyptus
on a massive scale for industrial use.
A group of individuals, organizations,
movements and networks representing Brazilian society, together
with international supporters from the North and South, have
denounced and opposed the project of Plantar S.A.
In a letter sent by the organisations
to the members of the CDM Executive Board they claim that “a
new reworking of the Plantar CDM project promises to set aside
eucalyptus plantations on the company’s own land for the
production of vegetable coal, under the false claim of producing ‘renewable
biomass’. The company is attempting to obtain carbon credits
for trees it has already been planting since 2000, which proves
that it is not ‘adding’ anything to its usual activities.
Although classified as ‘carbon neutral’, Plantar’s
operations will do nothing to neutralize the carbon dioxide emissions
produced through its transportation and logistical operations
and above all the burning of its own wood in charcoal ovens,
not to mention the contamination caused by the pig iron industry
and the production and use of automobiles, to which the bulk
of production is devoted.”
The signatories state that “As
far as we are concerned, Plantar S.A.’s large-scale, chemical-intensive
plantations of fast-growing eucalyptus trees and their subsequent
burning can in no way be considered a mechanism for climate justice.”
On the contrary, they stress
that “the contamination and disappearance of rivers and
streams; the forced displacement of peasant farmers, indigenous
forest-dwelling communities and geraiszeiros (inhabitants of
the Cerrado savannah ecosystem); the land disputes over agrarian
reform measures and with quilombola (Afro-Brazilian) communities
fighting to recover their ancestral territory (as is currently
the case in Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo); the destruction
of native forest in the Cerrado and Atlantic Forest regions and
its replacement with plantations of a single, exotic tree species;
the repression, criminalization and intimidation of local community
leaders and resistance movements; the threat to food security
in areas around eucalyptus plantations; outsourcing, precarious
work conditions and high rates of work-related accidents and
disease (as amply documented by many sources) – all of
these are essential elements that should be taken into consideration
and lead the CDM Executive Board to reject Plantar S.A.’s
project proposal once again.”
The complete letter is available
at: http://www.wrm.org.uy/countries/Brazil/LetterPlantarCDM.pdf
