Where the Trees are a Desert

Where the Trees are a Desert
Stories from the Ground [PDF]
TNI/FASE, November 2003

This report is available in PDF English version and Portuguese PDF

Industrial tree plantations have had devastating effects on people and the planet. The Brazilian story is deeply rooted in a military dictatorship, oppression, and a long history of destruction.
The people of Brazil continue to struggle against the ever-expanding eucalyptus monoculture. Today Brazilians face huge debt, a dwindling economy, and a greenwashed globalised world.
This reader opens space for discussion rarely acknowledged by the decision-making elite and takes the issues of survival back to where they came from: the ground.

Eucalyptus plantations have been used for decades for paper pulp or charcoal production, devastating the environment and lives of the local population of Brazil. Since the advent of "carbon trading" under the Climate Convention, such damaging monocultural plantations are being encouraged. This report by Carbon Trade Watch gives voice to Brazilians' struggles against the ever-expanding eucalyptus monoculture. It was recently launched at a multimedia exhibition in Amsterdam opened by representatives of struggling communities in Brazil. The delegation is currently in Milan at the 9th Conference of the Parties to the Climate Convention where they will be contesting the criteria for "clean development mechanisms" and mobilising solidarity with the impoverished Brazilian communities being adversely affected.

Contents

• Neo-Colonialism. A Map
• The Monoculture of Fear
• The Embezzlement of Cellulose and Charcoal and the Impacts of Private Property
• Forcing a Rural Economy
• Carbon Trading and Certification. The Greenwashing of Plantations
• The Monoculture of Consumption and the Direction of "Civilization"