Claims to the Government of the State of Minas Gerais

These “claims” have arisen from the III National Meeting of the Green Desert Network, held in Belo Horizonte on May 6 and 7, 2004, that gathered tens of entities and social movements of Minas Gerais, Espírito Santo, Bahia and Rio de Janeiro. The Green Desert Network articulates the landless, rural, indigenous, quilombolas (slave descendants), geraizeiros (inhabitants of the Cerrado) traditional populations movements, with the support of entities of the Brazilian civil society, the Green Desert Network requires the curing of a number of economic, social, cultural and environmental rights, directly breached by the industrial tree plantations in large scale, either for the cellulose or steel and iron sectors. They are as follows:

• Termination at maturity of lease contracts of the private companies throughout the State of Minas Gerais;
• Return to the communities of 280 thousand hectares of public lands that were leased to private companies together with an agro-extractivist restructuring program;
• Specification of public lands that have been appropriated by “reforestation” companies in the region of Rio Doce and Vale do Aço;
• Suspension of deforestation and stump removal licences of areas in regeneration, used for the plantation of eucalyptus;
• Prohibition of chemical wedding and strict supervision of the use of agrochemicals in the monoculture of eucalyptus;
• In the areas of monocultures of eucalyptus, increase to one thousand metres, the areas of permanent protection, including springs, streams, rivers and lakes;
• Release of the lakes located in areas of eucalyptus monocultures so that the communities may use them through a management plan, aiming at the food security, generation of income and employment in the region of Rio Doce and Vale do Aço;
• Reordering of the surroundings of the Parque do Rio Doce, converting areas of eucalyptus monoculture into agroforestry projects, aimed at rural workers’ agriculture;
• Compliance with environmental legislation as to the socio-environmental impact assessments for eucalyptus monoculture projects and permanent monitoring of the same;
• Performance of local public hearings, with the participation of achieved communities, aiming at debating the problems related to the eucalyptus monoculture;
• Suspension of PRONAF (National Program for the Strengthening of Family Agriculture) forestry projects for the plantation of eucalyptus, redirecting the resources to agroforestry projects;
• Restructuring of the DRT (Regional Labour Office), aiming at preventing slave, degrading and child labour, as well as supervising the legal procedures in case of labour accidents;
• Fighting the coal mafia, by eliminating the sale of notes by the companies;
  Fight and penalize the labour systems for task/production in the exploitation of the eucalyptus monocultures;
• Penalize the outsourcing of the services related to the activity that is the purpose of eucalyptus exploitation by the companies: plantation, wedding, cut, coal production, etc.

Belo Horizonte, May 07, 2004
ALERT AGAINST THE GREEN DESERT NETWORK
(REDE ALERTA CONTRA O DESERTO VERDE)