A Critical Conversation on Climate Change ... - Green Choices

308 development dialogue september 2006 – carbon tradingPlantar: Local People Speak‘Plantar has planted all over, even up to theSeu Zé do Buritim river spring. Thirty-fivethousand hectares of land…they sprayedpesticides with a plane. There used to bedeer and other animals in the area. The nativefauna lived together with the cattle.But since they applied the pesticide, everyone of them got killed… The eucalyptusplanted over here is meant for charcoal. Itis a disaster for us. They say it provides jobs,but the maximum is 600 work places in aplantation of 35,000 hectares. And, whenevereverything has been planted, one hasto wait for six years. So, what work does itgenerate? … We used to produce coffee –the Vera coffee – and pasta and cotton. Severaldifferent little factories in their suitableregions. Nowadays, there is only the eucalyptus.It has destroyed everything else…Why do they come to plant in the land suitedfor agriculture instead of more suitableareas? Because there it takes 10 to 20 yearsand over here only seven. All the best piecesof land went to the eucalyptus plantations,pushing the small producers away and destroyingthe municipalities… These companiesdon’t want unions. They immediatelyco-opt the union leaders and they beginto make them part of their inner circle ofmanagers and directors… The eucalyptusgives the water back to the earth after someyears. But when it is time to give it back,they plant a new one that will absorb thewater returned by the old one. This newplantation will develop really quickly, because,besides the rainwater, it will receivethe water from the old eucalyptus…they areusing the carbon credits to plant these eucalyptusthat will grow very quickly.’Local man who asked for anonymityout of fears for his safety, 2003‘Eucalyptus has been grown with blood.’Antonio, local farmer, 2003Unbowed, the local movement has subsequently appealed directly toEuropean investors not to put money into the Plantar carbon project.Peasant and trade union representatives travelled to Cologne to intervenein the Carbon Expo trade fair held there in June 2004, in whichthe Bank participated. 193Throughout the disputes over the carbon project, the World Bank hastaken the side of Plantar. For example, in 2003 it posted on its websitea letter from Plantar to PCF investors replying to dozens of localgroups, without posting the original letter to which it was a reply.What about FSC? How are they involved?FSC has certified only 32,232 hectares of Plantar’s operations – less than18 per cent of its landholdings. 194 These hectares are used to producebarbeque charcoal, as well as charcoal that would be used for the PCFproject. However, Plantar has not hesitated to announce on its websitethat certification ‘ensures that our forest is managed in an environmentallyresponsible, socially beneficial and economically viable way’. This