Brazil Campaign

International Meeting (2023)

Overview

Goals

What Was Accomplished

Raw Footage (Videos)

Reports

Press Coverage

Background Information

Opposition Against Suzano’s Expansion Plans

Genetically Engineered (GE) Tree Approvals in Brazil

Recently Circulated Protest Letters

News

2023 News Stories

Brazil News Blog

International Meeting (2023)

Quilombola community members from Espirito Santo and Bahía joined the International Campaign to STOP GE Trees in Vitoria, Brazil for a meeting to discuss the threats and impacts from existing industrial eucalyptus plantations near their territories, and the potential impacts of proposed use of eucalyptus trees genetically engineered to tolerate the toxic herbicide glyphosate. Photo: Langelle/GJEP

Overview

During May and June of 2023, the Campaign to STOP GE Trees brought people from Argentina, Canada, Chile, Germany, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, the UK, and the US to Brazil to develop plans for the international campaign to stop the development and commercial release of genetically engineered trees, and to support and highlight opposition to pulp company Suzano’s ongoing expansion of industrial eucalyptus plantations and potential use of genetically engineered eucalyptus trees modified to tolerate toxic herbicides.

The Campaign met with Brazilian NGOs, Indigenous and Quilombola communities, and MST (Landless Workers Movement) members in order to learn, document and amplify the voices and concerns of rural communities who are on the front lines of resisting industrial eucalyptus plantations and their devastating social and ecological impacts

Goals

1. Meet as the International Campaign Steering Committee of the Campaign to STOP GE Trees to discuss goals and plan action for the coming years, including expanding participation and identifying new participants from key regions threatened with GE tree development, and potential eucalyptus or GE eucalyptus tree plantations in Brazil.

2. Expose and help stop corporations such as Brazil’s Suzano from releasing GE trees in Brazil by supporting organizations and local and Indigenous communities on the ground, building the international campaign, and helping to hold Suzano accountable for their actions.

3. Amplify the resistance of impacted communities on the ground through crafting media content such as, interviews, photographs, and videos.

4. Identify and form strategic relationships with individuals and organizations on the ground in Brazil who are interested in joining the campaign, and provide support through raising awareness about their resistance and pooling together resources to support the development of the campaign in Brazil.

What Was Accomplished

In the Quilombola and Indigenous communities, over and over we heard stories about land grabbing, the drying up of rivers and lakes due to the water-greedy eucalyptus plantations, the drift of agrotoxins into communities and onto their crops, surveillance by guards and drones intended to intimidate the communities to stop resisting, the loss of access to hunting and fishing as animal habitats are destroyed, and the migration of families into the cities because they can no longer support themselves in their traditional territories.

We shared our information about GE trees with communities.

We then took these concerns to Brazil’s capital city, Brasilia, and presented them to several ministries. Josenea, a member of one of the Quilombola communities, accompanied us to testify directly about the impacts on her community. We met with the Environmental Caucus of Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies, and had meetings with representatives from the Ministry of the Environment, the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples, and the Ministry of Agrarian Development. We submitted a list of demands to these ministries, in both Portuguese and English.

Read the List of Demands & Testimonials

There were many pledges of support for the communities from the Ministries and we will be following the progress of these pledges along with our partners in Brazil.

The MST has been continuing their efforts to take back lands from Suzano’s eucalyptus plantations to give landless families a place to farm, including education about use of agroecological practices that do not use agrotoxins. These visits were a lens into what is possible here in Brazil as the MST settlements collectively are one of Brazil’s largest food producers, demonstrating that large-scale agribusiness with its social and ecological devastation, is not necessary.

Raw Footage (Videos)

Angelim II: Resident tells how eucalyptus plantations poison her traditional Quilombola community in Brazil.

Interview given to an international delegation of the Campaign to STOP GE Trees in May 2023 with Kleber Karipuna, head of the Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon.

Note: There is also a great interview with Karipuna in Americas Quarterly

Interview given to an international delegation of the Campaign to STOP GE Trees in May 2023. PL 490 threatens to further erode land rights of the Indigenous people of Brazil.

Excerpt of an interview given to an international delegation of the Campaign to STOP GE Trees in May 2023.

The Quilombola are descendants of escaped slaves. Quilombola communities are fighting for land sovereignty and against eucalyptus plantations. Eucalyptus plantations have been called “green deserts” as they rob the environment of biodiversity and poison the environment with agrotoxins. Genetically engineered eucalyptus threaten to worsen the destruction.

Excerpt of a talk given to an international delegation of the Campaign to Stop GE Trees in May 2023. The Camp was named after Galdino Jesus dos Santos who was brutally assassinated in 1997.

Excerpt of an interview given to an international delegation of the Campaign to STOP GE Trees in May 2023.

The MST create farms and communities on eucalyptus plantations. Eucalyptus plantations have been called “green deserts” as they rob the environment of biodiversity and poison the environment with agrotoxins. Genetically engineered eucalyptus threaten to worsen the destruction.

Excerpt of a talk given to an international delegation of the Campaign to STOP GE Trees in May 2023 by instructors of an Ofaié school on land which the Ofaié People were forcibly relocated.

Interview given to an international delegation of the Campaign to STOP GE Trees in May 2023. PL 490 threatens to further erode land rights and autonomy of Indigenous people of Brazil.

Excerpt from interview with Anne Petermann of the Campaign to STOP GE Trees, July 2023.

Excerpt of a talk given to an international delegation of the Campaign to STOP GE Trees in May 2023 by instructors of an Ofaié school on land which the Ofaié People were forcibly relocated

Reports

Breaking Green Podcast: Green Deserts of Brazil with Anne Petermann

Deforestation of Brazil’s Amazon rainforest is a well-known threat to the world’s environment, but the loss of natural biodiversity to so-called “green deserts” resulting from expanding non-native eucalyptus plantations for pulp and paper production, is a lesser known ecological and social disaster that is likely to worsen if genetically engineered trees are used.

The July 14, 2023 episode of Breaking Green featured Anne Petermann, co-founder and international coordinator of the Campaign to STOP GE Trees and the co-founder of the Global Justice Ecology Project. Breaking Green is produced by the Global Justice Ecology Project and is made possible by tax deductible donations.

Report Back: GE-Free New Zealand in food & environment (Rage Inc.)

June 13, 2023: GE-Free New Zealand in food and environment (RAGE Inc.), who were part of the delegation representing USA, Canada, Japan, Europe, New Zealand, Brazil, Argentina and Chile, wrote a report on their experience in Brazil. GE-Free New Zealand’s report can be read here.

Read GE Free New Zealand's Report

International campaign “Let’s stop GM trees” met in Brazil (May 31, 2023) (OLCA)

An article about the meetings held in Brazil can be found on OLCA’s website (available in Portguese and English through Google Translate).

OLCA is an organization that accompanies communities in socio-environmental conflict, which in conditions of deep asymmetry, face a predatory economic model imposed on the territories.

Press Coverage

Cultivation of transgenic eucalyptus in MS threatens health and the environment (June 27, 2023, MS Notícias)

A June 27, 2023 article, originally published in Portugese on msnoticias.com.br, focused on the delegation’s meeting with representatives of the Public Ministry of Labor, indigenous leaders, directors, professors, and university researchers. The meeting took place at the Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul (UFMS) in Brazil

During the meeting the expansion of transgenic eucalyptus plantations for pulp production in the Bolsão region was discussed, as well as concerns about the risks and negative impacts of genetically modified trees on small farmers, indigenous communities, and the environment. An objective of the meeting was to identify spaces for resistance against the cultiivation of transgenic trees.

The article contains multiple quotes from participants at the meeting. Some participants, citing similarities with the situation in Argentina, shared research experiences that highlight the detrimental effects of transgenic crops on agriculture.

The article can be read in its entirety on the msnoticias.com.br website.

Foreign and indigenous environmentalists discuss cultivation of transgenic eucalyptus in MS (June 27, 2023, ITAPORA News)

A June 27, 2023 article, originally published in Portugese on ITAPORANEWS.COM focused on the delegation’s meeting with the Public Ministry of Labor, indigenous leaders, directors, professors and students, at UFMS (Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul ) from Três Lagoas.

During the meeting concerns were raised about the cultivation of transgenic eucalyptus (the fastest growing crop in the state) and the use of pesticides. The municipality is home to several pulp industries, and the industry is expected to expand.

Researchers pointed out that transgenic trees can impact small farmers, indigenous and traditional communities due to the use of pesticides in plantations, such as eucalyptus. Participants reported experiences with the negative impacts of genetically modified crops.

The article can be read in its entirety on the ITAPORANEWS.COM website.

Danger due to the expansion of transgenic trees: Brazil hosted an international meeting to stop their spread (June 14 2023, Resumen)

This article by Nicolás Salazar Maleras appeared June 14, 2023 on the Resumen website.

Note: Nicolás was part of the Campaign to STOP GE Trees delegation.

Movement criticizes mega pulp factory and cultivation of transgenic trees in Brazil (June 01 2023, ((O))Eco)

((o))eco, a non-profit journalism vehicle founded in 2004 dedicated to documenting the challenges, setbacks and advances of issues related to nature conservation, biodiversity and environmental policy in Brazil wrote about the work we are doing in Brazil. The article can be found on the ((o))eco website.

Background Information

Opposition Against Suzano’s Expansion Plans

Social movements, Indigenous Peoples, NGOs and others have been opposing the expansion of Suzano’s industrial tree plantations across Brazil for many reasons, including the following:

The pulp mill will increase poverty.

Plantations pose serious environmental risks (monoculture plantations host little biodiversity and, in Mato Grosso Do Sul, plantation expansion is rapidly destroying the native Cerrado ecosystem).

Deforestation will further increase as cattle ranching will be pushed further into the forest frontier to meet the global demand for meat.

Plantations deplete local water supplies by consuming up to 30 liters per tree per day, on a scale of millions of trees.

Suzano is using the plantations to produce carbon credits, providing additional profit for the company, while allowing climate changing carbon emissions to continue. If instead, native vegetation were preserved or allowed to regrow in these areas, much more carbon would be stored for a much longer time – especially since the plantations will be cut for pulp in only a few years, re-releasing much of the carbon. For these reasons, the eucalyptus plantations actually reduce the overall amount of carbon being stored on the land.

Eucalyptus trees have been called “explosively flammable.” Because they also dry out the land, they increase the risk of massive forest fires. This is exacerbated by the eucalyptus bark, which in the presence of wind, may carry burning embers many kilometers away.

Suzano’s pulp mill will pollute the air and discharge persistent organic pollutants (POPs) into local water supplies. The local environment will further be poisoned with pesticides, sprayed from the air over the plantations.

If Suzano’s recently approved glyphosate herbicide resistant GE eucalyptus trees are used in their plantations, the amount of toxic chemicals sprayed on the plantations will increase dramatically. The toxic herbicide glyphosate is already causing devastating health and ecological impacts in Brazil due to its use on soya monocultures.

Suzano has had many conflicts with affected communities who resist their plantations, including forcibly removing them from their lands.

Genetically Engineered (GE) Tree Approvals in Brazil

In 2022, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank approved $725 million USD of funding for Suzano to build a massive pulp mill in Mato Grosso do Sul, in Brazil’s Cerrado biome. Eucalyptus plantations in the state are expanding rapidly, devastating the native cerrado ecosystem and impacting local communities.

In 2021, CTNBio, the Brazilian Biosafety Commission, approved a request by the pulp company Suzano to commercially grow a eucalyptus tree genetically engineered to resist the toxic herbicide glyphosate. As of June 2023, no genetically engineered trees have not been planted in Brazil.

Environmental groups, Indigenous Peoples, social justice movements and others have been opposing the expansion of Suzano’s industrial tree plantations across Brazil for decades.