[03/08/2006] Women of La Via Campesina Take Action Against the Green Desert on International Women's Day
March 8, 2006
Before dawn on International Women’s Day, around 2000 women from La Via Campesina invaded the tree nursery belonging to the cellulose corporation Aracruz Cellulose (the world's biggest producer of bleached eucalyptus pulp) in Barra do Ribeiro, Rio Grande do Sul. The objective of the mobilization was to denounce the social and environmental consequences of the advance of the “green desert‿ created by the monoculture of eucalyptus. The Barba Negra Farm contains the greatest number of eucalyptus and pine saplings and includes a laboratory for cloning the saplings.
“We are against the green deserts, the enormous plantations of eucalyptus, acacia, and pines to make cellulose that cover millions of acres in Brazil and Latin America. Wherever the green desert advances, biodiversity is destroyed, soils deteriorate, and rivers dry up. There is also enormous pollution created by the cellulose factories, which contaminates the air, the waters, and threatens human health‿, state the women in a manifesto issued by La Via Campesina.
The women of La Via Campesina also expressed solidarity with the indigenous people who had their lands invaded by Aracruz Cellulose in the state of Espírito Santo. In January of this year, the indigenous families were violently expelled by the Federal Police, who used the corporation’s own machines to carry out the eviction.
Aracruz is the agribusiness that has received the most public money. Almost $R 2 billion was received in the last three years. However, a corporation such as Aracruz creates only one job for each 185 hectares planted, while a small farm property creates one job per hectare. “If the green desert continues to grow, we will soon be lacking water to drink and land to produce food. We do not understand how a government that wants to end hunger can sponsor the green desert instead of investing in Agrarian Reform and in agriculture for the small farmers‿, states the manifesto.
The mobilization of La Via Campesina also was aimed at denouncing the environmental impacts of the monoculture of eucalyptus that is advancing in Rio Grande do Sul with three large corporations: Votorantim, Stora Enso and Aracruz. The green deserts of eucalyptus ruin the soil and consume a lot of water: each foot of eucalyptus can consume 30 liters of water per day.
The mobilization of the women of La Via Campesina marks International Women’s Day. “On this March 8, we stand in solidarity with the peasant women and women workers of the whole world who suffer from various forms of violence imposed by this capitalist and patriarchal society‿, concludes the manifesto.
After the mobilization at Aracruz, the women from La Via Campesina joined the International Women’s Day march in Porto Alegre that marched to the Catholic University to bring their demands for agrarian reform to the FAO Conference in session there.