Evaluation report of V&M Florestal Ltda. and Plantar S.A. Reflorestamentos, both certified by FSC - Forest Stewardship Council
Brazil, November 2002 (*)

index

Chapter 5
FINAL CONSIDERATIONS

The aim of this report is not to lessen the importance of FSC or of forest certification in general. On the contrary, this work attempts to help achieve a fundamental objective that FSC has defended since its creation: to guarantee that consumers who purchases products with the FSC seal, can be certain that the product they are buying comes from a zone where the forests are managed in a sustainable way, with social, economic and environmental benefits in the local context where they are practiced. After having assessed the certification of V&M and Plantar S.A. - in 1998, V&M with over 235 thousand hectares became the largest company with the FSC seal for forest plantations in Brazil - we are totally sure that today, in the case of plantations, such certainty does not exist.

We consider that FSC members, who will be the first to receive this report, must examine - of course basing themselves on other studies and reports - in which cases the certification of forestry plantations needs to be corrected in order to ensure the seal's credibility, taking into account the principles and criteria, but also the procedure adopted at present on certifying organisations and the way in which they carry out the certification process, a subject that is questioned in this report.

As a contribution to this discussion, we would like the following to be considered:

• regarding local populations and economies, this case study clearly show the enormous contrast between the social, economic and environmental "poverty" of eucalyptus monoculture plantations and the social, cultural, economic and environmental "wealth" of managing a natural forest, in this case the Cerrado. For final consumers, it would be a lack of transparency and credibility if the product can bear the FSC seal without knowing whether the product they have bought comes from an "industrial" plantation of exotic species belonging to a mega-company located in the middle of the Cerrado or from a cooperative of local communities that manages the Cerrado and its endogenous species in a sustainable way. FSC would increase its credibility enormously if it were to establish a distinction between the certification of a zone with native vegetation (a natural forest, savannah, etc.) and a zone with monoculture tree plantations, two very different things.

• The need to establish this distinction is more evident if it is considered that FSC's first nine principles and criteria were prepared for the management of native forests and not for the management of monoculture tree plantations. Principle 10 was prepared to address, specifically, the situation of plantations, but compliance with the nine first principles is always required. This report shows that many of the objections to the first ten principles are applicable to all large-scale monoculture tree plantations certified by FSC.

• Let us look at some examples:

  • benefits from the forest (Principle 05) are limited to a single one (eucalyptus for a specific purpose: charcoal, cellulose, etc.), generating conflicts with traditional and collective use of the native vegetation made by the local communities;
  • due to the substitution of native vegetation, the instrumentation of modern monoculture management never achieves the conservation of biodiversity and its associated values (Principle 06); on the contrary, it always causes significant impact on the quantity and qualaity of water, flora and fauna biodiversity and soil protection;

  • in the regions where plantations are installed, the economic and social benefits (Principle 10) of products such as charcoal aimed at steelworks or timber for the production of cellulose are insignificant if compared with the negative social impacts on the lives of the workers and the negative socio-economic impacts on the life of local communities. This is well documented in the publications of many countries where there are large-scale monoculture tree plantations.

• the separation of the FSC seal - a new seal only for native forest products and one for tree plantation products - necessarily demands the preparation of new principles and criteria for forestry plantations. We believe that the basis for these principles and criteria can only be built on a wide-ranging debate on what is considered sustainable management in the context of modern silviculture. This debate leads to another, much more profound discussion: what type of sustainable society do we want?

• as NGO representatives from the environmental, social, indigenous and union areas, we believe that the new "sustainability" of large-scale tree plantations depends, primarily, on acceptance by the local communities; necessarily they will be the first to be invited to participate in the discussion, together with FSC members. Of course, no silviculture system is equal to the Cerrado biome, extremely rich in environmental, social, cultural and economic services. Furthermore, we are sure that the present model is very inadequate because it provides practically no benefit to the local population; on the contrary, it causes negative impacts.

• we consider that this new model of silviculture must achieve certain diversity in the composition of tree plantations, that is to say, in the cultivated land and not through "wildlife corridors." There is no doubt that the loss of homogeneity in the plantations will reduce the production of timber, but on the other hand, it will increase the possible social, environmental and economic benefits, in addition to ensuring a better ecological balance, as shown by agro-ecology. In this way, it will increase the insertion and adaptation of forestry plantations to the local environment, not only from an ecological standpoint but also from social, economic and cultural considerations.

We hope that many members of FSC, consumer groups and company representative will want to take part in this well advanced discussion, with good results in various areas of agriculture. At the same time, we know that the market rationale, for example the cellulose market, makes it difficult to have this type of discussion on a model. Competition only admits discussion if it is to further increase productivity, without considering any other parameter. However, we believe that it is necessary to make this effort, although adhesion might be scant to start with, because we would remind everyone of those who, because of the present model of eucalyptus plantations and other large scale monocultures:

- have lost their lands, their collective use land, their sources of survival;

- have had accidents or died in activities extracting timber and producing charcoal and have been poisoned by agrochemicals;

- have lost their sources of water and fish;

- have lost their employment in the companies

- have lost their childhood and their hope of a better life.

Very often, these real impacts are due to the increasing consumption by consumers, mainly from the countries of the North. This is another challenge for FSC, if we want a truly sustainable future.

We believe that FSC has two paths ahead:

- to continue certifying mega-plantations such as those of V&M and take over a large chunk of the market although receiving constant complaints that increasingly undermine its credibility; or

- to thoroughly revise its certification policy for forestry plantations and recuperate the legitimacy that so many people from the North and from the South and even us who have written this report, are still willing to endorse.

(1) This survey was made, based on a document prepared by the UFLa (Federal University of Lavras, 1995), "Survey of Cerrado plant species" showing a total of 249 plants recognised by the geraizeiros in the north of Minas Gerais.

* Lands that do not have an owner, nor are they of public use, but are not incorporated to the private domain either (Translator's note).

* Name given to the region. The word geraizeiros is derived from this name: inhabitants of Os gerais. (Translator's note).

(2) This survey was made based on a document prepared by the UFLa (Federal University of Lavras, 1995), "Survey of Cerrado plant species" showing a total of 249 plants recognised by the geraizeiros in the north of Minas Gerais.

(3) It is important to note that most of the native species of the Cerrado renew after having been cut.

Bibliography:

- PARLAMENTO DEL ESTADO DE MINAS GERAIS. Ley 13.965/01. Creates the Minas Gerais programme for the promotion of the cultivation, harvesting, consumption, marketing and processing of pequi and other native fruti and products of the Cerrado. State deputy Rogério Correia. Bello Horizonte, 27-07-2001.

- PARLAMENTO DEL ESTADO DE MINAS GERAIS. CPI das Carvoarias: relatório final. Diputado Adelmo Carneiro Leão, presidente de la CPI. Bello Horizonte, 11-06-2002.

- BASE DE DATOS TROPICAL (BDT). Cerrado - impactos do processo de ocupação. Brasilia, WWF, 1995.

- CARTA COMPROMISO DE RIACHÃO. Montes Claros, 13-07-2001.

- DAYRELL, Carlos Alberto. Geraizeiros e biodiversidade no norte de Minas: a contribuição da agroecologia e da etnoecologia nos estudos dos agroecossistemas tradicionais. Thesis submitted to the International University of Andalucia. Ibero-American Headquarters, September 1998.

- FOREST STEWARDSHIP COUNCIL (FSC). FSC Principles and Criteria. FSC, Oaxaca, Mexico, 2002 (www.fscoax.org).

- FSC WORKING GROUP (FOREST STEWARDSHIP COUNCIL) IN BRAZIL. Padrões de certificação do FSC _ Forest Stewardship Council _ Conselho de Manejo Florestal em Plantações Florestais. Brazil, 2001 (www.fsc.org.br).

- GUERRA, Cláudio. Meio ambiente e trabalho no mundo do eucalipto. Bello Horizonte, Associação Agência Terra, 1995.

- GUIMARÃES ROSA, João. Grande sertão: veredas. Río de Janeiro: Editora Nova Fronteira S/A (18ª ed.), 1985.

- MINISTERIO PÚBLICO DE TRABAJO: Fiscalía Regional de Trabajo de la 3ª Región; Coordinadora de defensa de los intereses difusos y colectivos - CODIN. Ação Civil Pública (con pedido de acción preliminar). Bello Horizonte, 03-06-2002.

- RED SABANA DE ORGANIZACIONES NO GUBERNAMENTALES. Carta de Montes Claros. Montes Claros, 20-06-1999.

- SCIENTIFIC CERTIFYING SYSTEMS (SCS). Sumário Público 01 - Plantar S.A. (Curvelo - Unise MG-02). Oakland (EUA), March 2001.

- SOCIEDAD GENERAL DE VIGILANCIA (SGS) SILVICULTURA - PROGRAMA QUALIFOR. Forest Certification Public Summary Report: Mannesman Florestal Ltda. (MAFLA) (public summaries with reports of the first, second and third monitoring). London, 17-01-1999.

- UNOS SÍ, OTROS NO. Política. Revista ISTOÉ, 15-07-1998.

- UNIVERSIDAD DE BRASILIA. Cerrado, caracterização e recuperação de matas de galeria. Brasilia: Embrapa, 2001.

- WWW.PLANTAR.COM.BR

- WWW.VMTUBES.COM.BR

Acronyms

Major AC - Major Corrective Action

Minor AC - Minor Corrective Action

AMDA - Association for the Environmental Defense of Minas Gerais (acronym in Portuguese)

PPA - Permanent Preservation Area

CAA - Centre for Alternative Agriculture

CAT - Communication of a Labour-related Accident (acronym in Portugese)

COPAM - State Environmental Policy Council (acronym in Portuguese)

CPI - Parliamentary Investigation Committee (acronym in Portugues)

CPT - Pastoral Land Commission (acronym in Portugese)

DRT- Regional Labour Office (acroym in Portugese)

EIA/RIMA - Environmental Impact Assessment and Report (acronym in Portuguese)

FETAEMG - Minas Gerais Federation of Rural Workers Trade Unions (acronym in Portuguese)

FITIEMG - Minas Gerais Federation of Workers in the Extractive Industry (acronym in Portugese)

FSC - Forest Stewardship Council

IEF - State Forestry Institute (acronym in Portuguese)

MAFLA - Mannesman Florestal Ltda. (in 2000 it became V&M Florestal Ltda.)

CDM - Clean Development Mechanism

MG - Minas Gerais (State of Brazil)

MPT - Public (Federal) Labour Ministry

ILO - International Labour Organisation

IPESCR - International Pact on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights ¿?????

RCA/PCA - Report and Plan for Environmental Monitoring (acronym in Portuguese)

PS - Public Summary Report of certification assessment

SCS - Scientific Certification Systems

SENAR - National Service for Rural Learning (acronym in Portugues)

SGS - General Society for Monitoring (acronym in French)

STR - Rural Workers Union (acronym in Portuguese)

UFLA - Universidad Federal de Lavras

UFMG - Universidad Federal de Minas Gerais

FMU Forestry Management Unit

UNIMONTES - Universidad Estadual de Montes Claros

V&M - Vallourec & Mannesman Florestal Ltda.