Swedish and Norwegian Pulp project in Bahia, Brazil critizised in media

March 13, 2009 by timbercommunity

The Swedish envolvment (Stora Enso 50% owner and Norway company Acracruz the other 50%) in the Brazilian company Veracel is critized in several Swedish business magazines. The campaign is initiated by the organisations >Latinamerikagrupperna, Jordens vänner and Future Earth.

The controversy in brief:

• The expansion of the plantations forces Bahian farmers from their land.
• The pulp and paper corporations appropriate land could have been used in the ongoing land reform.
• The plantations increase the price of land, thus making for the state to buy land to be used in the land reform.
• The plantations have detrimental effects on the agriculture vicinity, and the availability of water is reduced.
• The construction and operation of the pulp mills have detrimental effects on the environment.