HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0363.021 1996-1998 --+^-='a
Pulp, Paper and Power
How an Industry Reshapes its Social Environment
by
Anita Kerski
The dispossession, deforestation and pollution caused by the pulp and paper industn is tied
to n d~~numic of ever-increasing stole, concentration and enpitnl intensiveness Ulrich hug
RECEIVED chnrncterized the industn• since the Industrial Revolution. Crucial to this dynamic are ut-
iime_.-_-------------BY'-'-',~,,.,rtpts by the industn• mtd its allies to refns/tion the politico/ and physical infrasn~ucnrre
__,~....~..'n ugh which the}~ work, capnerutg subsidies, nrmtnging dernnnd, centrnli~ing power, and
pota_-----~~~'~n~l ~ eroding, digesting and regulating resistance. Lt such n context. the claim that the indu.rm
- helps socieh• meet its pre-ecisting needs "store e,~cienth "makes little sense.
Inrecemyears. the expansion of the pulp and paper industry has have a deep interest in forming and managing them. and ch
provoked increasing opposition throughout [he world. In Eu- rather than creating wealth for all. such firms typicaa~ ,un i
rope. South-East Asia, and South and Nonh America, cam- only through hidden handouts from public coffer,. In the
paigns are gaining momentum to reduce dioxins and other toxic circumstances. the pulp and paper industry'. defence dt
compounds producedby the use of chlorine in the paper-making through seeking profits.it is merely increasin_sncitn ~~ei
process. In Canada. 932 people artested for protesting against ciency" in meeting the pre-existing needs of its mcmben F
logging@rrpulpwoodnearVancouverlsland'sClayoquotSound comes highly questionable'
went before the courts in the summer of 1993 in the largest mass The industry's current drive towards larger scale and glob
trial in Canadian history.' In Indonesia. environmentalists and expansion cannot be explained solely by "economic,~~. P
local people are alarmed at the planned pulping of over 6.000 neither is it being driven by a political conspiracy of unse
square kilometres of native hardwood stands on Sumatra and masterminds in transnational corporation boardroom, acu
Kalimantan by the turn of the centuq~.' while the expansion of with the careless ease of omnipotence. Social structure, ,en
monoculture pulpwood plantations is rousing opposition from tive to the needs of pulp and paper elites are built expanded a
Chile. Brazil and the Dominican Republic to Portugal. Finland, improved upon only through the political efforts of ? nuiltiw
India and Australia. - of agents with different interests and motivation,. wurki
The resporoe of apologists for the pulp and paper industry to together in an nd ho<~ and sometimes uncoordinateJ ta,hi
this outcry relies partly on several assumptions about the Indus- against an ever-varying background of resistance. Clox ant
trial economy, namely that: tion to this dynamic is likely to be crucial to the ,urces,
environmentalists' efforts to reduce the damage dune M t
• Companies do not alter socieq~'s goals and needs but '
industry.
leave them untouched: they merely provide wealth. goods
and jobs which help society do better what it is doing
atready. Machine Politics
• It is the drive to do so efficiently and competitively
which causes such firms to increase the size of paper The evolution of pulp and paper technology ha, ahcus, he
machines and to seek cheaper production sites around intertwined not merely with profit but with the attempt of ,m
the world. elites to rearrange structures of power in their la~uu r. F
example, although a boom in publishing in the secentrrnth u
• Any ,Deist and environmenml disruption which results eighteenth centuries had contributed to un increased demand I
from this expansion requires a[ most some adjustments Paper which the prevailing artisanal. rag-based tcchnolu
to the market apparatus or smtc regulaton~ systems. could not easily meet. Nicholas-Louis Robert's im ention of t
not a rethink of the industry's scale. structure or political forerunner of the modern paper-making machine ne:u P.ui,
relationships with the rest of society. the late 1790s was, by his own account, neither a profit-,acki
response to demand fur more paper nor an a« empt u, repl;i
Such assumptions have long been under attack by afl'ected scarce rags with other raw material. Rather. it was;m :u tempi
people and critical wcial scientists. These critics point out that. undercut the power restive paper artisans held ;u ? tnnr
tar from passi rely responding to consumer demand. public revolution by centralizing paper-making technique m the h:v.
consensus and government regulation. modern eorpomtions of lactnrv owners.' It was not until the I:ne nineteenth-.rnu
nnita 6coki ..n lndepenJem connwCUm. deaelupmem of commercial technique, tier pulping ,,,e,d
Id2 Thc~.u~Inci.LCal-~=.~~~~-r,~i~
C ~~,n -~l
ON.. Nes '36 , I
Pile No, sicc
Ref. To: PresentRs*
Ref. Date JUL 2 2 1i
. ♦ I'.
o~•^'
matariulwhieh atulJ be han~ested ~ _ ReOt'ganizin~
a[ anc umc anJ casil~ sroreJ anJ i
.hippcJ in great volume, that the ~ ~ ~ ~ I Landscapes
I ul I potential of the new machine _ _ - ' ~ ~ Today. 90 per rem of paper
be~_an to be realized ~ ~
t pulp is made of wood. enhar
The switch to wood as a raw - - by grinding i[ up or chippinu
nm[crial reinforce) papermakers' .I and boiling it in strong chemi-
reliance on large, highly-mecha- Gals. Lareeguantities of fte>h
sized mills -for one thing, the water
and enemyare reyuiral
chipping equipment and stone for the process. which con-
^_rindersusedtoprocesslogspro- comes annually the roueh
5~!1y,
JuceJ too much pulp for small %.~r~ equivalent of the timber that
paper mills to absorb.° Ye[ the would cover 20.000 ,quire
more that the pulp and paper in- kilometres of woodeJ land.
Justr7 invested in huge, wood- -e.~.i an area half the size of Swib
adapted pulp and papermachines. ~
~ I zerland. Paper manufacture
integrated with the timber Indus- - i; It. is estimate) to account for
[n~ and Jecoupled from any other - :_4:; nearly 13 per cent of total
source of raw materials, the less li ~1, wood use. and represents one
inclined the trade became locos- I . ~ 7tit! per cent of the world' c total
cider any other approach. II' ` ] 1:. ~ x-_~w ~ ~t' economic output."
Early twentieth-century pipet ~ I '~l1 J Most of the pulped wool
machines [ended to be both stand- I'. ~ which is used to manufacture
':~ta[, ardized and profitable. But com- + A ~ newsprint, packaging boar)
ive petition among newspaper mag- ~ I ~ and writing paperflowsfrom
,x sates in North America and Brit- • a small number of sprawlim_
tat. ain to build ever-bi_ger pipet ~ plants, shining with expen-
ffi- machines soon escalated. The i,h_ / sive, computer-assisteJ ma-
he- huge machines became less and ~ ~ chinery and costing up ut
less cost-effective: not only were "r US$1 billion apiece. In [he
hal roam of them "one-offs-',but their papermaking in Europe in the seventeenth century. United States, whose world-
But huge widths and speeds - by - leading output of 58 million
yen 1937. machines cool) produce akilometre-long sheet of paper tonnes of pulp per year is supplied by a mere 203 mills, the pulp
mg 7J metres wide in little more than two minutes-also required and paper industry is more capital-intensive than any other."'
ni- sophisticated and expensive controls for efficient operation. As New mills in Indonesia. Brazil and Canada are no less capiwl-
md British paper expert A. W. Western remarks: intensive, some of them- requiring capital investments of
tJe "no logical reasons can he traced for increasing size to this US$750.000 or more for each employee."
1°~' extent Labour costs have often been quoted, but machine The giant pulping machines at such plants have to be rwt
1O° labour was then. and still is, a relatively small proportion of nearly_24 hours a day if the massive debts incurreJ in their
cn- overall costs. More likely reasons .were pride and construction are to be paid off on schedule. This reinforces the
of prestige."' mills' need for secure access to huge supplies of nearby waer
she and wood. Hence the mills must not only be sited on large ricers:
Between 1930 and 1975, as the technological race continued, but must also have access to large, more or less contiguous
the cost per annual tonne of a newsprint machine increased al
least 10-fold while the price of newsprint itself increased less timberlands. Much pulp and paper manufacture in both North
than 20-(old. Yet the m;tjor machine manufacturers' im~estment and South is thus closely integrated with the timber industn~. is
sited in countries which are strongholds of industrial forectn
in large machine tools had by now made it difficult for them to practice such as Germany. Sweden anJ Canada. anJ tends hoth
produce for anyone but the lareest paper investors. As Western
to promote and be promoted by government bureaucracies
=e11 concludes. builJing new paper machines: which grant large logging concessions to big corporations.
ud I
Fur "becmncaluxury which could be affordeJ only by multina- Pulp mills find it difficult to share the landscapes they occupy
J tional giants or the governments of developing countries. with local communities pursuing a varieq~ of aericultural.
aJeised by consultants that only scale to this degree could fishing and subsistence-gathering activities. Lame mills work
for be economic! For the consulmnts, it nos economic: they better with simplified, compact populations of factory-friendh
were now essential for larce mill Design and coordinalion.'"
trees, for example, than with native woodlands rescrccd for u
tits
in Nicholas-Louis Robert's nearly'_00-year-old dream of concen- variety of uses. They demand the construction of nr,tJs or
iit„ tracing paper-making power in the hands of plant owners, in waterways which run straight from cutting site to port or facuxc
arc short. had been realized with a vengeance. Access to the domi- instead of a web of slow systems of transport linking one local
to oast stream of papermaking knowledge was now restricted not area to another They favour the growth of mill town, here
. of just to capital but ut bi,G capitol. For many capital-short South- everyone works for the industry rather than comnumitic, wish
nJ, ern xxictics with interests in meeting their own paper nceJs Diverse livelihoods. The ideology of ?n industry dominmal M
un ef(icientl~~ with inJigenous materials and technology the impli- large mills. 1'inully. tends to be one which privileges a wppm-
cauune were parucularl}~ bleak. wily °global" demand for pulp ovor caned loco demand. her
t~
~J again to ref levels, many industry figures fear that a ne
HOW "global" is "global round of overspending is on the way. With the enornx,u.
equipment costs and long lead times required to briny huge na~~
consumption"~ millsandpulpwoodplanta[ionsonstream-overavoyean;utJ
' 10-I S years respectively - it is not surprising that the indu,tr.
Paper consumption, feels growing pressure not only to invest more wisely cooper:nr
selected countries, 1993 on pricing" and develop better relationships with bucen. hm
also to plan demand in a way which might moderate future pncc
Country Kgs per Country Kgs per dips. As David Clark of the European Confederation of Paper
capita capita Industries recently told his colleagues, the indusvy muse
USA 313 Thailand 30 "fight for our future and create our own growth ...total
Japan 225 Russia 30 demandhastobestimulated.Thealternative,todonothing.
Hong Kong 220 Brazil 28 could produce a static or even declining demand with
Finland 215 Bulgaria 20 serious implications for the industry, its reputation. it,
Taiwan 205 China 17 technology and the quality of the people it attracts."'°
Germany 190 E9YPt 11 In this way, lazge scale becomes a cause as well as an effect of
UK 170 Indonesia 10
Australia 152 Serbia 10 effons to reorganize society in ways friendly to a few central
Italy 132 Nicaragua 4 actors.
South Korea 128 Nigeria 3 Stimulation of paper demand is, however, nothing new. and i,
Ireland ~ 97 India 3 not something the industry has to undertake alone i.vee Boy.
Malaysia 62 Vie[ Nam 1 pp.146-147). Ever since wood-based pulps inaugurated an ace ui
Chile 39 Ghana <1 cheap, large-scale paper production in the mid-1800x, new com-
Poland 31 Laos <t modifies -ranging from paper shirt collars, building matena6.
Source: Pulp and Paper International, July 1994 bags. toilet paper, drinks cartons, nappies, fax and computer
paper, and export packaging -have been embedding paper the
ever more thoroughly into business and household activ itie,. - In
individual farm plots, diverse native woodlands, clean water 1991, over 40 per cent of world paper production was used for
and air, and the maintenance of fine-grained craft practices packaging and wrapping, whileon1y30percentwentforprintim_
which make possible local control over native forests and and writing and l3 percentfornewsprint, with increasing volume,
wetlands. of all three categories going for advenising.'a
The pulp and paper industry often justifies its preference Tying demand for paper to a broad range of economic
for large-scale, single-centred systems over many-centred activities outside publishing has helped free world per capita
social mosaics by claiming that they help release latent paper consumption to expand indefinitely. Rising from .l)I
economic "efficiencies". From the point of view of a fazmer in, kilogrammes yearly in 1910 to 15 kilogrammes in 1950 and
say, South-East Asia, however, the engineering of such central- around 46 kilogrammes in 1993," it shows no signs. unlike per
ized systems may well be a fighting matter, entailing capita sawnwood consumption, of levelling off. "Efficiency
uncompensated losses of water. soih fodder. fish, transpon. can no longer be plausibly described as, say. "efficiency in
or livelihood generally." For such a farmer. as for the paper producing the medium for the books which society need,". bra
artisan made redundant by Robert's paper machine, retrospec- is increasingly merely an ability to produce as much paper a,
five talkof "efficiencies' would likely beviewed as anachronis- possible as cheaply as possible.
tic. a way of writing out of history what are more accurately Unsurprisingly, per capita paper consumption is not :t good
described as bitter, prolonged political and cultural struggles index of literacy, being perhaps a better indicator of what
between radically different social systems. conventional development economists consider "economic
success" (see Table above). In 1993, the South plus Eastern
Europe, with 84 per cent of the world's people, consumed
Influencing Demand less than a quaver of its paper and board, while the North plu,
_ the fast-growing Asian "tigers", withjus[ over l6 percent of the
Just as the pulp and paper industn~. as organized today, world's people, accounted for overthree-quavers. US citizen,.
cannot easily fit its production into a social mosaic of locally- while they consume 43 times as much oil as Indians. con,umc
organized landscapes, so too it cannot easily accommodate a full 386 times as much pulpwood."'
itself to "market demand". What with the easy availability
of debt finance, the lack of need to buy inm brand names, the
sheer scale of each new state-of-the-art milk and the temptation Surfing on ROSIStBnCe
of many firms to become price-severs, any surge in demand
during the last few decades has invariably resulted in more Opposition to the pulp and paper industry's plans and opcr;uion,
investment in productive capacity than is actually required to -like demand. infrastmcture, labour unrest and state reguluunn
meet it." -constitute an important pan of the industry's evolwiun:u,
One consequence is a savage boom-and-bust cycle. ht 1993, environment, one which it is constantly seeking to modify.
for example. after the most
recent dui
o-f overin,~estmenh pulp Certain types of resistance are fairly easy for large actor, ~n
prices dropped to halt of what they
had~,_ been four veara previ- the industry to eliminate orcircumvent. simply by redistribuunt_
ously."leading to rampant losses.cost-cutting. closures. merg- their ample resources from one place to another. By thanr
ers and takeovers. Although prices haee now climbed once selves, such types of resismnce often even wind up fay uurus
I~}4 The Eudnmel. Vnl. 'S. C~i AJuh L~u•ani iO°'
(t
Paper does not intrinsically require
huge machines, large technocracies,
extensive road networks, interconti-
I, nental marketing mechanisms. or the
mining o/vast amounts of raw
material in single locations. China, for ~i
instance, still supplies its immense
paper needs largely through small
local mills which use mainly surplus I~
local agricultural wastes such as
straw. support community economies.
require no advanced infrastructure to
~ support them, and, like village
bakeries, can safely shut up shop
temporarily when no one is buying
without the proprietors needing to
worry about paying oJl their machinery
investments. While a/fluent treatment
is negligible, there are no overwhelm-
~ ing technical or economic obstacles to
i running such mills cleanly.
~ Paper manufacturing expert A. W.
Western. moreover, has argued that in
India and other Southern countries,
"detailed comparisons between the 's
large mill and the equivalent capacity ,
in small mills overwhelmingly /avour s,,~.w.. t,.r~,€t44
the smaller unit in economic terms". :per" -'s''~'?r'_~i~~'",
According to researcher Maureen ~ ~ ' ~ ~ a
Smith, there are no purely technical : ~ i r ` " ~
obstacles even to US paper and `t""`r'• F ~ [
paperboard needs being met by a ~ ~
more decentralized network of small- ~ :"=3r°'+' z.', ~ ~ ~I ~ ~ a
to medium-size mills using a raw :~as'fir,1, - O1
material base of approximately hal/ .
E
waste paper and hall non-wood crops : ~
including straw, hemp, or other
regionally-appropriate materials.1p
conditions which lead to increased concentration or centraliza- transporting huge amounts of waste paper between the US and
tion of the industry and its support networks - a development China.='- The dumping of large amounts of waste on the in[erna-
which, in the end, may be far from environmentally benign. tional market, as happened as a result of recent environmental
In Europe, to take one example, agitation and legislation legislation in Germany, can also easily disrupt small local
against the industry's airand water pollution is being treated by paper-collection attempts.
a few far-sighted companies not as a political threat but as an Environmentalist resistance to the pulp and paper industry's
economic opporunity. Hoping to transform anti-chlorine semi- exploitation of forests in one country, similarly, by itselRends
ment into a huge demand for totally chlori~ulp._(pr merely to encourage companies with sufficient resources to try
instance, the Swedish firm Sodra Celh has invested insr3~er to organize fibre production on a hemispheric or global scale.
technology of a tvoe affordable only by the biP°e
t
rnr~~ra- The most striking instance of this tendency is the expanding
tins. If companies such as Sodra succeed, they are likely only wood-fibre network centred on Japan.
to strengthen their centralizing hold on land, forest and other The growth in Japanese annual paper consumption from a7
resources. to 121 kilogrammes per capita between 1960 and 1970 was
By the same token. honourin_ the call for more paper recy- largely dependent on developing sources of raw material in the
clin_ is not an unmana_eable strain for an industry accustomed US Pacific Northwest as alternatives to expensive local fibre.
for overacentury to using waste paperasaraw material and now But as these sources started, in turn, to become less economi-
being given increasing economic incentives to do so. Due tally. politically and biologically accessible in the l9AOslducto
largely to environmental pressures, the ratio of waste paper to sawmill slowdowns, domestic competition for wood residues.
other raw materials rose from 18 per cent in 1970 to 32 per cent forest depletion, and, finally. environmental resistance and
in 19RA. and continues to climb (though it has always been high legislation 1. Japanese industry consortia becan to buildup joint
in many Southern countries 1.=' Yet because recycling is now fibre ventures in Canada. Oceania. South-East Asia and L:uin
conducted within a regional or global economic system inte- America-many of them lavishly subsidized by "forcien aid".
~~rated largely around the interests of a few central actors, it By 1989, when a second surge in domestic consumption had
often involves such environmenally dubious practices as brought yearly per capita consumption of pulp:mdpopeno_'2_
The ~".uiioeni. v~,1. 'S. ~„a. fun /Aueu.~ Hwy I -1?
s
A Web of Actors
Large as pulp and paper firms are - been a guest of Poyry in Finland and influence environmental regulation. anc
50 paper companies today account was reportedly preparing to open a prevent environmentalists from dividinc
for half of world production, and the branch of the firm in India upon his industry over issues such as recych ng
sales of the biggest, International retirement from the civil service. and chlorine-free paper production.
Paper, rank above the Gross The better they succeed in using Sweden's pulp and paper associations
Domestic Products of more than 75 public monies to establish or expand eager to gain more political clout in
countries -they cannot by them- industrial forestry or pulp and paper Brussels at a time when the industry is
selves open the far-flung sites of sectors, the more private-sector work rapidly internationalizing throughout
production they exploit or capture consultants are assured in the future. In Europe, were influential in persuading
the subsidies they require. Lending 1984, for example, Poyry won a the country to join the European Union
a hand are a flock of other private contract from the World Bank to make Bilateral AId Agencies
and public organizations, each with recommendations for the pulp and While aid departments are driven by
its own interests. paper industry in Indonesia; a decade conflicting bureaucratic, foreign policy
later, the company was in the thick of
Forestry and Engineering and "foreign aid" goals. their principal
Consultancy Firms an unprecedented boom in massive function in the nexus of pulp and paper
Consulting companies help propose, pulp-related private sector projects on is to "launder" public monies used to
plan, design and set up pulp and Sumatra and Kalimantan. pay for the work of Northern corpora-
paper mills or logging and plantation Suppliers of Pulp• and Paper-Making [ions in the South. Finland's FINNIDA
operations for the rest of the Technology and Sweden's SIDA, for instance. havE
industry, along the way lobbying The dominant suppliers of machines to bankrolled Finnish and Swedish firms'
governments, finding subsidies and the pulp and paper industries tend to be plantation and pulp and paper mill
linking the interests of international based in the same Northern countries planning, exports and technical service
and national business and govern- as the consultancy firms. Finland's for countries such as [he Philippines.
menu. Ahlstrom and Valmet-Tampella, for Thailand, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Zambia.
Finland's Jaakko Poyry is the instance, are among the world's leading Kenya, Viet Nam, Mozambique and
largest such firm in the world, with suppliers of pulping and bleaching Tanzania. Japan's JICA. meanwhile.
over 60 offices in 25 countries equipment, while the Swedish-Swiss has provided handouts for Japanese
around the world, an estimated 40 giant, Asea Brown Boveri, manufactures plantation research, planning and trials
per cent of the forest industry power and process control machinery. in Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay. Inr~
consultancy market worldwide, and Most of the hundreds of millions of Thailand, Malaysia and other c:
a 1994 turnover of US$300 million. dollars spent to build and plan the wood while its Overseas Economic CooF.
P6yry's networks are wide and its supplies for each giant new pulp mill, lion Fund has subsidized Japanese
record one of constant political South or North, winds up in the hands corporate wood chip consortia. Without
machination. In 1994, for example, of such suppliers, with the majority such subsidies, many forestry consult-
the firm, although it had no previous share going repeatedly to Scandinavian, ants and pulp and paper equipment
experience in India, was selected Japanese and North American firms suppliers would not survive. Accord-
over 15 Indian bidders to carry out and consortia. ingly, bilateral aid agencies often
World Bank forestry projects in Industry Associations and Alliances compete fiercely with each other to
Kerala and Uttar Pradesh. The Organizations such as the European ensure that their corporations' service=.
officer in charge of Bank forestry Confederation of Paper Industries are the cheapest offered to Southern
programmes in India was a former (CEPI), the American Forest and Paper elites.
vice-president of the Jaakko Pdyry Association, and the Thai Pulp and State Investment or Export Cred
Group, Christian Keil. India's Paper Industries Association help firms Agencies
Inspector General of Forests, A. K. win subsidies from governments, tackle Other official organizations provide
Mukerji, meanwhile, had recently public relations, assess markets, additional assistance. When apaper-
kilogrammes. Japan was importing wood chips or pulp from pulpwood, this proportion is bound to rise, given defornuuio
sources as far-flun_ as Brazil. South Africa. Fiji. Finland, Thai- the limitations of recycling (fibres can only be reined a Ic
land and the South-Eastern US. Faced by rural protests in Thai- times before disintegrating into dust 1. and the resiscmec
land, and fearin_ rising environmentalism in Australi?and Chile. much of the industry to non-wood materials.='
Japanese companies were also layin_: plans to secure supplies This shift to plantation pulpwood provides more inccmi+
from the interior of northern Canada. Viet Nam. Siberia. Araen- for the industry to move raw fibre production to new rc~_iur
tine. Venezuela and West Papua. Today, the avemee wood f fibre especially to the South. In countries such as Brazil and Indan
embedded in a sheet ot7apanese paper or cardboard has travelled sia, trees such as eucay Ivptus
~r acacia grow faster. Lmd
more than 6,000 kilometres from its point of ori.in.=' cheaper. and companies are able to benefit from Iuwer-n
As native forests are exhausted and local resistance pro- labour and severer political repression than in the tionh.'
yoked, nulp and paper industries are turnim~incrcasinely to this entails low prices for wood, which, as Roben \\'ilsun
industrial tree plantations to furnish terse amoun~f_fmsh, the Anglo-French conglomerate Arjo Wiggins Appleton i
unilbrm raw material on a smgl.~r land base. avoiding conflict marks. is "rhe strategic driver in the industry the ti
with other land uses. Althouch industrial plantations currently competitive differentiator."'"
supply considerably less than a quarter of world demand for Pulp mills arc often integrated with the nc++ Soothe
cycle-related economic recession for example, have been instructed to "Economic theory tells us rt s all
engulfed Finland in the early 1990s, for impress on the banks the virtues of right to subsidize education
example, the country's Premixed "one-stop shopping" at US firms. while a because it benefits the whole
Concessional Credit Scheme helped satellite industry of consultants -many society. But while eucalyptus and
equipment suppliers such as Tampella, of them former World Bank staff or the pulp and paper industries earn
Valmet. Sands Defibrator and Ahlstrom spouses of current staff - is on hand to Profits for some, they cause
hod new outlets in Asla. Annual Finnish help supply inside information on MDB problems for society. Therefore. 'i,
machinery exports to Indonesia surged procurement. MDBS and Northern economic theory tells us. they
from nil to over US$95 million between governments, in addition, hold regular should be taxed. But instead the
1990 and 1993, while those to Thailand meetings in Northern capitals to help. government does the opposite.
increased nearly fivefold over the same the Banks and prospective Northern This is matter of influence and
power'.
period. Similarly, the state Finnish Fund contractors get to know each other. Many forestry departments. in
for Industrial Cooperation is backing the In recent years, industry consultants addition, diver[ the vast swathes of j
partly state-owned Finnish paper giant have received funds from MDBS and
Enso Gutzeit in a joint venture to other multilateral agencies such as FAO land over which they have junsdic-
develop a 1.390-square-kilometre and UNDP to research business lion towards industry, and away from
acacia pulpwood plantation in western opportunities or plan or execute their occupants or from other uses.
Kalimantan on a site riven by conflicting industry-benefiting forestry development In Indonesia. 70 per cent of whose
land claims. schemes in more than a dozen African. land is managed by the state
The US's Overseas Private Invest- Asian and Latin American countries. forestry bureaucracy, industry is
meat Corporation (OPIC) and Export- charged as little as US$0.30 per
Import Bank, meanwhile, are helping to National and State Governments square kilometre per year for the
lubricate an inter-governmental deal use of plantation land, and planta-
Governments end up furnishing some of lions are further subsidized with
which will result in the US industry's the most important subsidies for the revenue gained from logging.
sending billions of dollars' worth of pulp pulp and paper industry. In the last Costs of land and labour are also
and paper. logging and other machinery decade, for example, the Canadian kept down in many countries
to Siberia in exchange for Russian province of Alberta has bestowed over through subsidies provided to
wood. Britain's Commonwealth Devel- $145 million in infrastructure gifts and military and police forces by local or
opment Corporation (CDC), which $400 million in debentures on Ja anese
draws around 45 per cent of the more P foreign taxpayers. State university
paper corporations and joint ventures. forestry faculties or research
than £150 million it invests annually An additional $47.1 million has been
directly from the British "aid" pro- organizations -often run by
committed by Canadian governments foresters trained exclusively in
_ gramme and the remainder largely from for public relations for overseas forest industrial forestry in countries such
profits made on aid-budget @eed industries extracting Canadian pulp- as Finland, Canada and the UK and
money, has invested in pulpwood wood.
plantation companies in Asia and Africa. sometimes even benefiting from
Under the prodding of MDBS, direct industry support -can be
Multilateral Agencies meanwhile, Southern governments have relied upon to provide useful
set up or augmented state institutions lobbying and technical support for
Multilateral development banks (MDBS) which subsidize the growth of local and commercial schemes.
such as the Asian Development Bank, foreign commercial elites. Thailand's
the World Bank and the European Bank Board of Investment, for example. Sources: Pulp and Paper Inrernattonal:
for Reconstruction and Development provides tax write-offs, technology World Resources Institute: The Nahon
also shower tazpayers~ money on import exemptions, and rent-free loans (Bangkok); The Statesman (Delhi):
consultancy, construction and machin- to pulpwood or pulp industries whose Financial Times; Jaakko Ptiyry: Finland
National BOartl of Customs; Jakarta Post;
it ery firms. Northern firms, backed by activities often erode [he livelihoods of Commonwealth Development
their government bureaucracies. have a rural dwellers. As Thai economist Pasuk Corporation; World Bank: UK
particular advantage in competing for Phongpaichit notes, such actions fly in Department of Trade and Industry;
these windfalls. US directors of MDBS, the face of economics: Interforest; Taiga News.
plantations. This is not onh~ because it makes more economic presents the industry with still mare problems. Providing i[ i,
sense to combine wood and pulp production than to keep them scattered. however, it can often be handled fairly easily. Pulp or
separate, and to export fibre in the more concentrated form of pulpwood businesses in South-East Asia, for example, hove
pulp than in the watep~ form of wood chips, but also because blunted community resistance by approaching individuals with
environmental regulations are looser in [he South than in the money, land. goods orjobs, or by setting up gambling schemes
North, foreign aid subsidies easier to oMain. and consumption. to relieve plantation opponents of their money. \ktre intransi-
especially in the Asia-Pacific region.likely ut :row (aster. Thus gent opponents have been subjected to beatin_s. murder threat,.
i, Brazil. Chile. Portugal. New Zealand and South Africa, none of accusations of treason or Communism, or harassment of their
"t whom pace been traditionally strung in the pulp and paper families b7 government employees or even reliciom lender. It
.II industry, are now among the lop nine exporters of pulp. their resistance to seizures of land for plantations i, stuhhurn ycl
of pnnnpal customer heim_ in industrialized countries. Indone- isolated.small-scale.poorly-coordinated.andouuiF[hedons,-
,ia. meanwhile, whose production of pulp grew ;u an average tic or international public eye. military suppression may rcsulc
c~ rate of '_9 per cent yrtrh~ between 1980 and 1991, i. already one if protests are more widespread and well-coordinated. anvr:a'i
ul the urp ,eycn world paper shippers.' farmin_ schemes may he rolled out instead as a wac al gaimn_
rn Resistance provoked by [hi, spilt to the Suwh. of course. local people's active collaboration in me malerialpmJuruun
Freedom to Plant • the ir. .ry is little interested in investing in "deeraded
land" but rather, in the words of Shell International, in
Other ,worts of resistance are more difficult to deal with. Nn "land suitable for superior biological growth rates for
paper corporation. faced +vith coordinated, publicly-visible those species the market wants" as well as "year-round
opposition [o the development of lame-scale. new indusnal water" and easy access to nearby processors or ports."
pulpwood plantations across large wrens of the globes can buy it
of f everywhere it arises. smash it completely. or shift its starch
for raw materials to another planet. Nor can the indus[r}. as Engineered Consent and Astroturf Groups
presently constituted. countenance an open and persistent dis-
cussion of reducing or even stabilizing demand for pulp and To help colonize democratic discussion and replace it with
paper in industrialized coumrie~. Ske+ved world paper con- more predictable type ofinterchange.pulpandpapercompani
sumption must remain, for paper executives, evidence not [hat and industry associations have also set up public relations (PI
high consumers are consuming too much but that low consum- operations in all major national markets. -The object is n
ers are consuming too little. merely to _engineer consent"-using such means as adverts
Just as today's pulp and paper industry cannot acquiesce in ing, lobbying, purchasing expert testimony, distributin_ pre
existing demand or existing social mosaics, so. too. it cannot releases. commissioning books. manipulatingjoumalis[s. launc
simply "surf' on these more threatening types of opposition. ing opinion polls and creating "community advisory panels""
translate them into "economic signals", or evade [hem by but also to monitor industry critics. with an eye [o +veakenii
shifting operations elsewhere. Rather, its network must actively their links [o other sectors of the public.
colonize the society of such resisters just as its network infil- In 1993, for example. Finnish consulting firm Ja_akko Pov
(rates societies of consumers or of subsistence farmers. began publishing a confidential quarterly_intelligence report
Here a subtler strategy comes into play: that of divide and environmentalist thinking and activities, aimed at a clientele
conquer. The idea is [o discredit or suppress critics: cultivate wealthy companies. Industry-retained PR firms also mainta
critics potential. but as ye[ uncommitted. allies; and block ;files on activist groups, their leaderships, methods of oper
communication and alliances between the two groups -for Lions, anticipated reactions to new products. funding sours
instance. between critics of plantations in the South and their and "potential for industry relationship", with a vie+v to finds
potential alliesamongem•ironmental organizations in the North. out "what's motivating them, how serious they are, what th
Thus Arjo Wiggins Appleton pulpwood pl:mtation executives0 +vill consider 'success"'." Such firms advise pulp and pap
Fernandez Carro and Robert A R'ilson urge their colleagues not corporations and their allies on how to offer financial support
to target "apparent opposition" if that means "forgetting the cast environmentalist groups which need funding and "respectab
mass in between: the public". Politics. [hey continue: sty", as well as how to go about putting critical individt
"provides the packaging and the vehicle [o achieve the Indus- environmentalists or former regulators on their payrolls.
trial objectives. Success is measured by the freedom to plant PR companies may also infiltrate environmental meetings
fibre crops. recognizing the sum total of all the political forces the guise of activists or "housewives" to gather information
linthe broadest sense 1. There are twoelements to the political "guide" discussions; pose as journalists in order to obr.
subsystem: the message and the target. The message needs to previews of research results which might be damaging to indt
he short. nontechnical. and fundamental: for example. 'Trees try: or sabotage promotional tours of books critical of induct
are good. We need more trees not less.Our objective should pne such firm. [he US's Burson-Marsteller -which, w
heto create and move inside an ever-increasing friendly circle annual feestotalling over US$200 million. over?,000 empl
of puhlic opinion ees. 62 offices in 29 countries. and its own "Enviromnen
In creating such a "friendly circle of public opinion". the Fmctice Group',isthe world's largest PR company-inclu-.
industry often benefits from a global reach longer than that of its among its clients Scott Paper. TetraPak. Alliance for Bevr.
critics in the South. Industp spokespeople. for example, fre- Cartons andthe Environment, Shell the Government of lndo~
yuen[h~ attempt to seek support from urban ur Northern wadi- sia, and the British Columbia Forest Alliance la forest Indus
ences. including environmentalists, by affirming that pulp pro- front group created by Burson-Marsteller).'"
duclimt has nothing [o do with log_ing natural forests in [he The practice of setting up of fake "environmentalist" grot
Suu[h. insisting disingenuously that new u'ees which have been +cith apro-industry agenda lincluding "as[roturf' grossro
planted on "degraded" and "unused" land are used instead. groups. named after the artificial grass used in some US sp
Isolated Irom grassroots groups in the South and from internal arenas), well-established in some Southern countries. is c
industry discussions. most Northern cnvironmemalicts have rently spreading in the North." Among the founding donor
been unable to reply +cith the facts. namely dear. the Center for Defense of Free Enterprise, the leadingthinku
• :md training centre for "Wise Use" groups, are Georgia-Par.
most of the giant new Scandinavian-planned export pulp and Boise Cascade. the world's third- and twelfth-I:vest p
mills in Sumatra are being fed in their initial stuees b~ and paper firms (see "The'Wise Use' Backlash°, pp.190-I_
mixed tropical hardwoods:"' The ploy of cultivating public hostility towards activists
• in Chile. Brazil and Indonesia. the +cay has uflen been framing them for various outrages including bombings
cleared for monoculture pulpwood plantations by logginE corruption-historically used widely by Southern secu~
natiyc forests;" ~ apparatuses against local environmentalists. by the Fedt
Bureau of Investigation against US black, native American,
• in Thailand and clse+chere, the establishment of civil rights movements, and by the UK's MI5 against tr
plantations on fonnlund. posture or commom h:u often uniom - is likely he used more extensively in the fW
driven the inhabitantsmclear natural linrsts et>cwhere:`~ against Northern envimnmentalists as well.'"
I;~~ The Ecolu^_i H. Vnl _5, Vo.J. luh/AUCUa
Y
Creating 8 Social $nVlt'OII[ It local land while e' 'ding the realm of uniform rules of ax-
chanee:consvucti? .ewfinancial.physical.legal.andcutrural
Today's large pulp and paper firm, like a biological organism, networks by which resources and subsidies can be pumped to
is constrained by its inheritances -including immense, un- central locations and new forms of influence exercised o\'er
wieldy machines and a reliance on wood fibre -and owes its workers and resisters: recanalizing customs and dreams into
survival largely to other organizations with which it has evolved formssatisfiable[hrough paper consumption: and attemptin~u>
in cooperation or symbiosis Isee Box, pp.146-147). Like a plant substitute public relations for the risks of democratic debate.
ur animal, such a company does not adapt passively to a fixed Large, destructive technologies, rocketing consumer demand
environment. but. with the help of its allies. constantly recreates and the growing phenomenon of globalization are products less
it -undermining forms of power necessary for stewardship of of "economics" than of politics."
Notes and References
I. Maclsaac. R. anJ Champa¢ne, A.. eds.. led.l. Global Issues and Ourlonk m Pulp and tional Trade in Forest Prodacn. Searle. 11-11
C'lacuyuor Mass Trials: Defending Jre Pnper. University of Washingmn. Searle. 1988: Sepember 1994.
Rain(orer, New Society Publishers. Gabriola The Ervnrnrnrsr. 14 January 1995: Firmnnnl '_5. Grant 1. et al., Pnper and Boarxl hfnny( Harr.
Island, BC. (Jon Carpennr. Oxfordl. 1994. Tunes. 17 February 1995. British Paper and Board Industry Federation.
Pulp and Paprr /nrcrnarinnal IPP/1. September I1. Wnght. R.. "World Pulp Markel: Forecasu and London. 1978: Axber¢. G. and Smhl. P. H..
1994. October 1991: W riehr R.. "New Markets: Prospects as at Mid-199?". Paper mrd ParkaRVlg "How Much Wood Does Your Forest Yield^" in
Ncw Developments- Indonesia", presentation Annl~sr H, 1993, pp.13-19. Krran'-How Wire. lanuaq'. 1989, pp.l 1-13:
al Finm¢ial Times conference on World Pulp I5. Under pressure from newspaper buyers. EC Graham. Alastair "Wood Flows around the
and Paper. May 1994: Rasmusson. U_ Swedish/ investigators recently launched investigations Pacific Rim: A Corporate Picture'. \V W'F.
Sonndinurian Inralcerneru in /ndoreesinn Foresrn' imo alleged price-lixin¢ among newsprim Cygnet Tasmania: Shell Imernadonal Pevohum
-The /ndusrrinl Fnrrsr PI<uunrian and Pulp ~produers. See financial Timer.'_7 April 1995. Company and World Wide Fund for Nature. Trrr
Mill Serrnr. W WF. Stockholm. 1994 16. Clark. D., "Editorial". Appira Journal, 17. 3. Plantation Rn'iev. Study Na. 3' /ndusrrial 11'ooJ.
3. Such critics include economic anJ social 1994. Shell and W WF. London. 1993.
hismnam wch as Karl Polanyi and E. P. 17. Hunter, D., op. cit. 5, p.385. ''-6. Wilson, R. A.. "Managed Forests: Economic and
Thompson, economists such as 1. K. Galbraith. I8. IIED. op. cit. 9. Ecological Aspects". paper presented to the
and a wide range of an[hropologisis and 19. World Watch Institute. Vila( Signs. Norton. New World Pulp and Paper Envronmentai Confer-
sociologists. York. 1994. - core. Leningrad, 16-17 Aprii 1991.
1 Buchanan. A.. Ethics Efficiency and the Market '_0. IIED. op. cit. 9: Pereira. W. and Seabrook. 1.. 27. IIED, op. nt. 9: PP/. July 1994: United Nauom
Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1985. pp.36-06. ReJ brk in the "Bhreprirv Jor n Green Ernnnrnc import-export fieurcs. 1991: WrieM. ft., op. cit.
5. Hills. R. L.. Pnpermaking ire Britain /43R-19RR, CH$. Bombay. n.d. 14.
Athlone Press. London 1988: Hunter. D. ? I. Olson. R.. op. cit. 11: Niku. P.. "Worldwide 28. Canere. R. and Lohmann. L, Pulping the Smith:
Pnpennaking: The Hrsron' and Trdmique of nn Review of Recycled Fibre". Knorr-Nosy Wire: Tree Plnnrnrinns in the ThrrA W'urld. World
Ancirnr Craft Dover. New York. 1978: Junkka Piim' Client Magacine I. 1993. The Rainforest AJovemem anJ LeJ Books. Ifornc~om-
Clappetton, R. H.. The Pnper-MnkipG Mnc/rine.' technical upper limit for this ratio is probably not ingl.
/ts /nvenrinrr. Ernlurinrr mrd Drrelrrprnern, much more than 50 per ttnr because wswd ?bres 29. Fernandez Carto, O. and Wilson, R. A.. "Quality
Perguman. Oxford. 1967. become shorter and weaker as a resuh of Managemem wish Fibre Cropi'. TAPP/ Journal.
6. Western. A. W.. Snmll-.Sonlr Puprrnrnkigg, recycline. pulp made (ruin wasm paper must February 199'_, pp.19-51
Intermediate Technology Informminn Services. often he mixed with fresh. lone-fibred pulp J0. Canere and Lohmann, op. at. 28.
Rueby. 1979. belorc heinc manufactured into paper. 31. Ibid.
7 IbiJ.. p_'b. Fairlie. S.. "Lone Distance- Short Life: Why Big 32. Ibid.
8 IbiJ Bmintss Favours Recyclin_e". The Ecolo,gisr 22 33. Shell and W WF, op. nt. '_5.
9. Internalionul Institute (or Enrironmenl anJ Ihl. November/December 1992, pp.276-83. 34. Weyerhaeuser Company. Wecerirnemer Reparr
Development The Sunainnhle Paprr [colt. Jra1t 23. Calculamd (ram Japan Paper Association. Pulp 1994. Tacoma. 1995.
report for the Business Council on Suuainuba unJ Paprr .Strrrivira /991. JPA, Tokyo: Japan J5. Puhlie Relations Wnrrh IPRWI. Orb Dec 1993
Development IIED. London. 1995: Ayres. E.. Nulp anA Pnprr 301 I1; Penna. L. Jnpnn's Pnper and Second Quarter 1994.
"Mukinp Paper withoutTrcei'. IVnrldlVno-h, Induvrc: An Orrn'iew firs Srrucnve and 36. Ibid.
September/October 1997, pp.S-8: Durnine. A. T. dlurker Trends, Friends of the Eatth Japan. 37. PRW. Fourth Quaver 1991.
' and Ayres. E.. "The Story rt a Newspaper". Tokyo, 199'_: Marchak. Y7. P.. "Latin America 38. Churchill. W. and yon der Wull. J.. Aearu.c o/
WnrldlVarrh. Nm'embcr/Denmber 1941: pp?(1- :mJ the Creation of a Global Forest Industry' in Repression, Sowh End. Bo.ton. 1988: Nrv
i?; Wright. R.. peoanal communication, ti0.•en. H. K. unJ Tucker. R. P.. eds., Chugging Srnrennnn. 25 Novembtr 1991.
10. Van Honk. At., presenntion at Finnnrud Tirrrre T+~grind Furears: Hismric<rl Peesperrirvs nn 39. The author woulJ like to thank Teresa Brooks.
confcrcncc on W'orlJ Pulp and Paprr. May I`/91. Tuduc s Chnllrnges in Crnrnd and Snutlr Ricardo Currcrc. Aluswir Graham. John Hamon.
I I. Olson. R.. eJ.. 7hr Logn TarJa• A Rrpnn tin rhr :l rnrrn ~r. Fnreury History Ssxiery and Sonoko Kawakami. hf.Patricia Marchuk. Saskia
PrnJurrinn. C'unsungaurn nnATruJo nl Rnrrul Inmrnuiional Cnion of Forotry Research Ozinga. Ian Penna. Noel Rujesh. Ulf Rasmus.nn.
lVruul Prvuluorc. Tmgu Rescue Network. Om:uuzauons. New York. 199?: Schreuder. G. Sarah Roberts. Maureen Smith. Rowan Tilly,
Jokkmnkk. Sweden, 1995; PPC July 1991. .~nJ AnJCnon. E_ "Inmmational Wool Chip Jeremy Whiiham. Alex Wiiks. AI W'nng, the
I'_. Zemcr. C. bulicrmnu Porrs'r-TJrrrllirlg "(raJc Paa Developments and Future Trends. Heinrich Biill FounJauan. the Tmea Rescue
C'nnununiurs rn Indunrvu'a Outer /.JunJ.: with F,inphusis on Japan" in Schreuder. Q. led.l. Network. and many others Orr im aluahlt help.
Lirrlilu.uJ. Righu. Dual Ernirunmrntrd op. at. 13: Japan Tropical Foresi Action 10. Western. A. W'., up. r rt. h: Smith. ht.. "The Paper
Munuerrrrrm /nsrinoinns in rhr Ern nr lnduunrrl Nb its urA. "Report tin Eucalyptus Planation Indusry. AgenJa for Reform". in Ruinlorca
P,nra E:prlurruuun. unpubbsheJ report tichant. m Brazil and Char by Japanese Action Nttwod. ('ur IVnvr. Nur Tn•rc Hu.. n.
tononlssumcJ by the WarIJ Bunk. 199^_: Cungsanur". ]ATAN. Tokyo. 1993. Snce fnrrser. C'w Pulluunn unACrrurr tutu. Sea
Lehmann. L.. "Pea.ann. Planruurm and Pulp". '_J Hagler. R.. "Glnhal Fnresi'. Pnprrrnnker, May Francisco. 1495. Wane, A.. "Ncw Direction. in
Bullnur n{CunrrrnrA aeuur tirhnluo '_l, 1- 194 i, p~ 1(1-1h; Haeler.'W hm a Determining Indusvy Devclopmcm and Envaomncnml
1441. pp. 3-I7. In¢mauunal Competitiveness mthe Glubul Pulp Promaum for Non-Wool Pulp M1till. in
13. Eleanor. H.. "The Pulp anJ Paper InJUStrI". A anJ Piper InJUntry Prrnz•rArnes nl rhr Third Devclopme Cuumne.i'. Arhnkcm. Inc.
Ncw 7
vlunJ Pmpecticc'". in SchrtuJcr. G. F . lrurrnuuunul.ti crnpnourn. Ccnmr for Intcrw- Vancnurcr, 140'_.
The Fcolocisl. VuL 25-Nu.1. Juh/:Au~sist 1409 I-]k)
w"'3Sfl- L ,/~~~L
Pulping the South
Brazil's Pulp and Paper Plantations
by
Ricardo Carrere
To feed growing paper' consuntprion worldwide, rash n-ee planta~ioits are being established iii
the Soudt. Brazil is now home to the second-Icrrgest area of indusn'iah fast-growrttg nee
plantations, prhrtnrily of eucal~•pnts. in the nor(d and has become a major supplier of
encal~~pnts pulp. The indusm_ ~ has had a great impact nor onh~ on land, vegetation and water.
but also on people and theh' lirelihnods. An erannnation of the histon~, china and records of
du'ec of the must fregteently-praised of Bra~iCs pulp operations -Aracru:, CENIBRA and
Jarr (Monte Doeu'ado) - rereals the ectent of dais impact.
Paper consumption is rising worldwide: 80 years aeo. I S mil- newspaper columns and government negotiations with the aim
lion tonnes were consumed: in 199-1. that figure had leapt to 368 of reaching consumers, environmentalists and officials \chosc
million tonnes. If current consumption patterns remain un- day-to-day lives are not affected by production operations and
changed, it is predicted to increase by another80 percent by [he who have little time [o acquaint themselves with the technic))
vear 2010. with more than 60 per cent of the rise taking place in issues and particular facts. As a result. they may be less incLna.
Europe,North America and Japan. Also increasing istheamount to forge alliances with grassroots groupsfigh[ingmonoculnu-c
of pulp made from waste paper- recycled paper now accounts pulpwood plantations.
for over 30 per cent of the material input for the world's paper.
But other sources. mostly trees, still have to provide the rest of
the pulp. Roger Olsson of the Taiga Rescue Network calculates Brazil - A Eucalyptus Pulp Giant
that, even if recycling rates go up to 50 per cent by the year 2010,
world pulpwood consumption will still increase by 33-41 per Brazil is [he South's pre-eminent pulp and paper exponer.~
cent over 1990 levels.' The country firs[ began making pulp and paper on a considerable
To feed pulp and paper mills, vast monocultures of conifers, scale in the 1950x, when annual pulp production reached "_'50.0011
eucalyptus, acacia and other tree species are being established, tonnes. During the 1960x, the figure rose [0 780.000 tonnes. but it
particularly in the South where fast tree growth, inexpensive was in the 1970s[ha[Ihesectorreallytookroot.ln 1980. more than
land and labour. and lavish subsidies combine to make wood three million tonnes of pulp was produced, with short-fibre euca-
especiall'y cheap. (Wood represents 40 to 7U per cent of the lyptus predominating over long-fibre conifer pulp. In the 1980x.
variable cost of making pulp which is, in turn, the must impor- when export pulp production became the industry's driving tixce,
[ant cost in making paper.) The industry is also shifting its pulp total output rose to four million tonnes. By 1994. Braiil w;u
and paper mills to the South where environmental regulation, supplying half the world's eucalyptus pulp.'
particularly of air and water pollution. tends to he looser than in Today, the country is home to what are considered outswnd-
many Northern countries. - ing examples of large-scale, industriah fast-growing tree plw~
As exotic trees invade native woodlands. grasslands and rations, harbouring the second-larger[ area of such plantauum
farmlands, impoverishment, environmental degradation and in the world. Publicized as the "leading supplier of eucalyptm
rural strife have invariably resulted. In addition [o confrontu- market pulp in the 1990x', Brazil ships nearly two million
[ions with local people over pollution and the use of land and umnes abroad each year' and boasts pulp-making costs anxrm`
water. negative publicity about the pulp and paper industry's [he lowest anywhere in the world.`
deforestation, dioxin emissions and landfills has threatened the The pulp mills can be lound Irom north to south. but Ulc
industry's market shore and profits. majority arc in the cast :md north near large plantations. Such
The industry has learnt to take the offensive on social and locations enable the industry to avoid large-scalepopularresist-
environmen[ul issues. one of its favoured tactics being to once to the pollution which would h:rve resulted it Facnlrics were
"greenwash"its activities. In particular. companies deploy bite- Iortted near major urban centres. In addition, by building nlill~
sized "messages' -plantations relieve pressure on natural near the coast. transport costs from plant to port, from where thr
forests; plantations increase overall tree cover. plantations use pulp is exported abroad, can he kept down."
only degraded or unoccupied land; plantations help curh global The pulp ?nd paper industry has had a great impact not onl\
warming: plantations create employment - in public debates, un land, vegetation and water in Brazil but also on people anJ
their livelihoods. An examination of the history, claim.:ut~
Ricardo tCarMn`, a IitK~ler by Vuinin wurl.~ al the tll\III WII del 1-erect rl'e Urd\ UI Ihree UI lhL' eUUlllr\' 1 111051 trey UellllV-iral std pull'
\hr•.Ju in ~Lnact idea, L''rup uay. Ile i. nnmlin;tlur of the \vorld R.mtlurc~l
Vin incnl and a`-uulhni nl Pu1pm¢ Jlr lnuni' Indu, mr;/ ~ Plan nrtu nl, Upl'r;lllUlri-i~i'aCRIC.CENIBRA llnd earl II~Ulltl` I~UU18dUl -
~~I~. Iv<~r6i ~~~tl". ~-`,""^`I zed tt, i`ru,_ reveal. the cvtent ul tuts unpaet.
\racruz
~racntz h not onk Brazil's foremast pulp and paper producer: FRENCH
;i is u6o the lamest producer of bleached eucalyptus kraft GULAVA
market pulp in the world and operates the world's largest pulp _ _ , ~
null In 1975. it inaugurated its fiat 400.000-tonne-per-year 1 Rner mr,
plant i later enlarged to ~U0.000 tonnes per vest(, followed by a
second one in 1991. The company accounts for more than half ~
of Brazils pulp exports-more than 8jQ000 tonnes'-with
Europe m [he main destination, followed by the Oni[ed Stales
and ~apan.~• - ~ Bl\~~~~
Arac ruz~s mills feed off its extensive eucalyptus plantations in annu
the coastal smtes of Espiritu Santo and Bahia. where rapid growth
rote, hay c been achieved throu~~h the selection and cloning of the mtNgs
fastest-erow'in~ species and the individual trees best suited to the ceRnts
~ESPIRCPO
needs of industrial processes (those with the least bark and snNtTo
branches i. Thus Aracruz's wood consumption per tonne of pulp ~ BRAZII. Rm de Jane~m
produced dropped between 1985 and 1991 from-t.~to-l.l tonnes"' j
while average tree growth in the plantations rose from 25 to 35 -
cubic metres per hectare per year." ' a
.Aracruz~s pre-eminent position in Brazil and the world is _ ~ a
often ascribed to i[sbeing ahighly-successful private undertak- o
ine. In tact. the organization was conceived and developed
through direct and indirect state assistance. One of Aracruz's Q
original partners in 1967° was the ECOTEC consultancy com-
panywhich had strong government (inks. It not only pressed [he privatization "represented a good deal for those groups assum-
gocernmen[ into approving fiscal incentives for plantation for- ing control of the company",but was un "absurd move" from the
estn ,but also advised the slate eovernment of Espirito Santo to point of view of the state. which thereby abandoned its strategic
promote the activity. In 1974. [he government approved a position in a lucrative undertaking, handing the taxpayers
decree allowine an 80A00 hecare afforestation project to be set inheritance over to [he private sector."
up in Espirito Santo. One of the sienatories was the then Aracruz, perhaps more than any other large pulp producer.
Minister of tilines and Energy. Antonio Dias Leite Jr. - an has taken seriously the need [o respond to pressure from [he
ECOTEC partner." environmental movement -above al] through its publicity
By the middle of the 1980x. Aracruz had acquired so much materialswhich have been widely disseminated by [he company
land in Espirito Santo that the state government was forced by itself, through the Business Council for Sustainable Develop-
the public [o come to a "gentlemeds agreement" with the firm moot (big business's lobbying group set up for the 1992 "Earth
to proven[ it buying any more. Aracruz's response was to invest Summit")'" and by friendly journalists and researchers.
in 50,000 to IOO,OOOhecturesintheneighbouringstateofBahia. In its publicity, the company claims not only that it uses
A new Forest Development P«naramme, moreover allowed the "clean" industrial processes but also that it has planted eucalyp-
compam• and the state to promote eucalyptus planting on the tux only in areas where the natural forest was cleared before its
land of third parties." As of 1994. Aracruz owned 1.86 per cent arrival and that it is making every effort [o conserve remaining
of Espirito Santo's territory: it commanded, in total. 203.000 native stands. [t states that 27 per cent of its land has original
hectares there and in Bahia of which 132.000 hectares had been forest cover and that for every 3A hectares of eucalyptus, one
planted with eucalyptus." hectare of natural forest is preserved.
Aracruz has also benefited Iron direct state subsidies. In Aracruzhighlightsthefactthatithasalwaysusedwoodfrom
1975. for instance. Brazil's National Economic Development itsownplantationsorhasboughteucalyptuswoodfromfarmers
Bank iBNDE) aarecd m contribute USS337 million [o the provided with free seedlings by the company."' At the same
cons[ntction of Aracruz's lust paper mill. The financial pack- time. it states that its plantations do not compete for land with
ase_ ~~ranted un exceptionally lavourable terms and the largest agriculture or other activities.'"
e ~~cr of Icrcd to a private lirm in Brazil, provided 55 per cent of This image has been best promoted by two British rescarch-
thc wpport needed to build the milL'° The state become the ors, Caroline Sargent and Stephen Bass, in their 1992 book
company,mainsharcholder,witha40percentstake(followed. Plantation Politics. After describing the panorama of desola-
bv British American Tobacco with 30 per cool(. tion in Espirito Santo and Bahia, they state that:
Followim~ further BNDE loans to increase plant capacity.
A r:tcruz sva, pricmized in 1989 and the majority of state-held "Aracruz Celulose SA, with government support. took
.hares sold. The torrent main sharcholdcrs are Souza Cruz la control of much degraded land within thetaucrcdfragmcnts
of natural forest, and has established major eucalyptus
whsidian of British :American Tobuceol. [he Norwegian plantations. In doing so. it has begun to improve the local
Lorenven Group :uul the Brvili:m Sidra Gmup, with '_8 per environment and social conditions."='
ecm each: the holdines of the ±tate BNDE Inow renamed the
N ation:d Economic :md ti~+cial Devr~lopment Bunk or BNDES) This chorus of praise has little luetual Rwnd;uion. Aranruz~s
ha~c been reduced to I_ per rem. .-According to the research tenure of land has had deleterious effects on Inca( people and
Imdine, ..I urn manor Brunli;m Netts ~F,AS[. and fBASEI, their livelihoods and on soil. water :uul li>re,n.
State Support for Plantations
I Brazil has a long experience in up in many regions of the country, in (1974) and II (1979/80). The industry '
~ planting eucalyptus for charcoal many cases without the developers became one of the main beneficiar-
production and conifers for pulp. having much idea of what the trees ies of the official developmentalist
Indeed, the country's largest planta- planted would finally be used for. Poor policy.
lion area is still occupied by eucalyp- location and poor maintenance led to A National Economic Develop- i
tus charcoal plantations. By the mid- the loss of many plantations. Of the six merit Bank resolution gave priority to
1960s, however, the area planted million hectares planted under the financing huge projects with a daily
with exotic species was relatively government incentive system, only 2.3 pulp production capacity of 1,000
small and concentrated mainly in the million hectares of eucalyptus and 1.6 tonnes or more. Such lending
state of Sao Paulo. where wood million hectares of pines survived. arrangements favoured big planta-
consumption was highest and where Years later, however, the pulp tions. Indeed, loans were to be made
deforestation had necessitated costly industry was able to take advantage of available for mill construction only in ~
imports of raw materials from these extensive sources of raw materi- those cases in which half of the fibre
elsewhere in Brazil. als -although to what extent is required was already available.
The situation changed radically unclear, since in 1994 the total pulp In addition to investing public
when a military dictatorship came to plantation area was estimated by funds in the pulp industry, the state
power in 1964. New policies favour- industry sources at only between 1.2 also played a central role in creating I
ing large-scale capital were imple- and 1.5 million hectares (three-fifths of institutional and legal conditions
merited, forming part of a moderniza- which was eucalyptus). necessary for plantation develop-
tion strategy seeking to gain the Despite the apparent anarchy in the merit and in spreading the idea that 'il
Brazilian economy access to the plantation sector, the military govern- pulp projects would guarantee I
international scene. A new forestry merit clearly aimed to establish a large progress wherever they were set up. !
code was developed and fiscal export pulp industry. Alate-1960s In some cases state companies and
incentives given to promote tree package of tax breaks promoting cooperative ventures between the
plantations. - pulping machinery imports was followed state and private capital have also
Large plantations quickly sprang by National Paper and Pulp Plans I been involved.
Contrary to company claims, the enormous area of land workers can remain on the job for more than ten years. Over i0
boueht by the company from the 1960s onwards was not empty: per cent of those who have worked long-term on the plantations
thousands of indigenous people and subsistence farmers lived suffer from serious work-related health problems as a result of
there. To overcome local resistance to its takeover, mainly from [heir tasks. The company [ends to dismiss Ion=-term plantation
black communities and small agricultural producers who had employees without compensation. replacing them with younger
recently migrated from other states, the company used physical people.'" The abundant reserve army of unemployed -whose
violence joined with symbolic violence. Land purchases were numbers have been swelled by the crisis of another espon
made through two people: a military officer and a local black monoculture crop, coffee: by the company's dispossession of
leader, a combination which had a clear meaning at a time of local people: and bymigran[sattractedtotheAracruz"de\clop-
militury dictatorship.=' Appmsimately 7.000 families are re- merit centre" -helps to keep salaries low.
ported to have been removed. through violence and coercion, Yet opportunities for even low-paid, health-endangering
from the areas Aracruz occupied for its plantations, including jobxhavehecomelimi[edastreehurves[ingandotherplantation
several thousand people who received no compensation=' Cru- work has become increasingly mechanized.=' During the lint
clot w these expulsions was the negli~_ence or aillubomtion of few months of 1993. Aracruz dismissed 20 per cem of its
local authorities. including the then governor of Espirito Santo employees, reducing the workforce from 2000 to less than
state. ,\rtur Gerard t. who later became president of Aracruz.=' 6.000, with forestry jobs being most affected. In 1993, thr
to 1967, recalled lose Luis Ramos. the head of Caicira Velha indigenous people who had lost their land to Aracruz started
village in Espirito Santo. Aracruz. with the support of the state new struggle to get it back. I See Box, p? 10)
sovernment: Aracruz attempts to divert attention from its record by advcr
- rising that it has voluntarily built several recreation cenirc,.
"(gilled large areas of forest and planted eucalyptus across schools. vocational training centres and health centres. at a cost
the region, including on our land. In a little time, this of over USSIS million. What the company does not memion.
company destroyed around seven Tupinikim villages, ex- however. is that. as part of the state-funded expansion ul
pelting us. and today we arc surroundedby a seaofeucalyp Artcruz's plants. the BLADES not only demanded that Aracrui
tus in three discontinuou, areas. Now there is no lorest or
game left. The valley's rivers disappeared lollowing the rcinlitrcc social structures in the regions where it oper:urd hul
planting of the eucalyptus."" also put up 80 per cent of the money required to do ut.
The company-s insistence that its activities arc nmtpmiblr
Threcoptionxwcrcle(ttothepeoplgiexpelkd:emigratgiutothcr with agriculture makes little sense given its propginsin tin
rural areas: move to a lilc of underemployment inthe /in e/u.r or buying the best agricultural land on the ground, that it make
sh:uuv towns of cities: or work for the company. mainly on the mceh:miz:uion easier. Aracruz ovans I S per cent of the plaim in
plantations. Espiritu Santo.=" In Bahia, the company boueht up land prr~ r
:\ricrui pl:mtation work has been dcscrihgid as near-slave uusly deuie:ncd ut small-scale cuhivation of mamau. a legal
i~d,...,. ,,;,i, ..,,.,.ib ~,.~•rnni nnrl nnhrnlihv ihm ir~~ 'nni Alihnn~~h n remnam dirccter w^^cstgid tltai m;nn:n
'
production was in decline. it huJ provided ? ale livelihood "without the new technolc we woulJ lose sales of 150.000
for local farmers."' tonnes of pulp on the international market".'' The firm runs
On the environmental side. Aracruz has been accused of three different types of industrial process among its tour pro-
hacin^_ felled anJ burned more than 50.000 hectares of forest duction lines: one uses chlorine gas, two arc elemental chlorine
During its first phase of tree planting.'' It has also been fined by free, and only the newest one is totally chlorine tree."
Brazil's environmental protection agency for planting eucalyp- Small wonder that in May 1992, on [he eve of the Earth
tux in protected areas. Rogerio Medeiros, National Coordinator Summit. [he Brazilian NGO Forum organized a public event
liar the Environment of the National Federation of Journalists, denouncing [he "Aracruz farce" and criticizing a proposal [o
who has been monitoring Aracruz's activities since its begin- present the company's activities as a model of sustainable
pings. states [ha[ 156 streams have disappeared in the area of development.19
.-~racruz~s plantations during [hat period: wells are drying up in A[ the same time. Greenpeace symbolically closed Portocel.
a number of areas, and [ha[ the San Domingos river has stopped the firm's export port, in protest a[ the environmental and social
flowing. In the words of Joao Pedro S[edile of the Landless damagethefirmhadinflictedduringpulpproduction.including
Workers Movement: its destruction of native forest."' As one group of researchers
"50.000 people in the area used to eat fish every day. Now concluded, Aracruz:
they eat fish no more; some fishermen have stopped fishing "assumes [he image of protector of the environment. but its
because there are so few fish to catch."'' eucalyptus trees have dried streams, destroyed the local
TheTupinikimIndians,meanwhile, found that scattered parcels fauna, impoverished the soil, impeded the regrowth of
of land in Espirito Santo which had been planted to eucalyptus native plant species, and drastically reduced the area avail-
and were grudgingly returned to them in 1983 did not return to able for cultivating basic foodstuffs (in a country where
many people die of hunger). This is not to mention land
their previous level of agricultural productivity, their soils concentration and the expulsion of the rural population,
having become sandy. Indiscriminate use of the herbicides, which has contributed to increasing the urban population
glyphosate and Goah and the ant killer, Mirex, was blamed for and thedegradation of living conditions in the cities. Where
poisoning animals in the region." According to local NGOs, is the sustainable development here, we might ask°""
Aracruz has been "constantly
fined"for industrial contami- A eucalyptus plantation
nation. Local people have
testified that: CENIBRA
"near the factory it is i Whereas Europe is the prin-
nearly impossible to cipaldestinationofAracruz's
breathe. The majority of pulp, Japan is [he main cus-
thepeopleworkinginthe Comer of Brazil's second-
factoryprobablyhaveno ranked pulp exporter,
nasal mucous left CENIBRA, a Brazilian and
Pollution emitted by t. Japanese joint venture."The
Aracruz reaches dis-
tances of more than 100 Cum's stronghold is in the
kilometres, depending ~ state of Minas Gerais which
on the wind."" borders Bahia and Espirito
Santo where the first euca-
The Pulp Industry Workers lyp[us plantations were es-.
Union has accused Aracruz tablished in [he I940s for
of incorrect management of charcoal. By the 1970x, [he
bothwaterborneandairborne state boasted the largest eu-
emissions." Local activists calyp[us plantation area in
claim that chemical releases Brazil." much of it planted
into the Atlantic have poi- by the state-owned Comp-
soned fish and vegetation.~° anhia Vale do Rio Doce
Moreover. Aracruz'spro- (CVRD) with the aim ofsup-
(essed concern with imple- plying [hepulp.imnandsteel,
menting "clean" industrial and cement industries with
processes cannot lead tocon- raw materials or energy.
sistent environmental results In 1972, CVRD, whose
if such concern is driven by I, biggest customer was Japan.
profit margins. When the ' signed an agreement withthc
company incorporated new ~ Japan-Brazil Pulp Resources
technology fornon-chlorine a Development CompanyUBP)
pulp bleaching in late 1993. ~ to set up Cellulose Nipo-
it was simply responding to a Brasileira -CENIBRA -
liircignconsumcrdcmanJf~ir ~ to product eucalyptus krali
chlorine-free pulp. Atom- a ' pulp for export. hall ofwhich
pane Directive st:uCJ that o wou1J go w Japan. CVRD
A
Tupinikim and Guarani Indians Claim Their Land
In May 1996, the Tupinikim and migrating to search for the "land with no The Working Group's report was I,
Guarani Indians started an interne- evils" arrived from the south of Brazil sent to FUNAI in January 1996 and
tional campaign for the extension and and were welcomed by the Tupinikim. would have been published (the first
demarcation of their traditional lands, The Indians have resisted their phase of official demarcation
much of which have been taken over dispossession from the beginning and procedure) had it not been for the
by Aracruz Celulose and planted to persistently raised their concerns with Brazilian government issuing Decree
eucalyptus. FUNAI (the official the Indian Protection Service (SPI) and 1775/96 in the same month. This
institution in charge of the demarca- its replacement, the National Indian decree allows third parties to contest
lion of indigenous areas) had begun Foundation (FUNAI). However, it was proposed land allocations to Indians
the process of demarcating the land not until 1979 that FUNAI first surveyed and all Indian lands not yet legally
they are claiming when the Brazilian the land claim and proposed allocating 'registered'. Over 1,700 "contesta-
government brought in a new decree 6,500 hectares of land to the Indians. lions" have now been filed with
allowing third parties (such as Under pressure from Aracruz, this was FUNAI, effectively paralysing the
Aracruz in this case) to contest reduced to the present total of 4,492 processing of land claims. The
demarcated indigenous territories. hectares in three separate areas - President of FUNAI has a pile of
Caieiras Velhas, Pau Brasil and unpublished land claims on his desk,
Comboios -which do not border each including the Tupinikim case.
DispossesSlon other and which were finally demar- Their claim is supported by the
catedin 1983. State Governor, the State Finance
Some 500 years ago, the Tupinikim Secretary, the local Labour Party,
Indians, at least 55,000 of them, representatives of the state parlia-
occupied alarge territory covering Cleimin Beck
what is now the southern part of g ment, the main social movements
and NGOs of the state and the local
Bahia state, and the states of Espirito In 1993, the Tupinikim and Guarani let church through the bishop.
Santo, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. FUNAI know that they had decided to The land claim is also supported
Their numbers dwindled after claim back 13,274 hectares adjacent to by the forestry workers on the
various conflicts with the Portuguese their existing reserves, land which forms Aracruz plantation. Due to heavy
colonists, but in the year 1610, the part of the core area of their ancestral retrenchment of the workforce
Portuguese crown granted a territory and includes many of the last Aracruz is not locally popular.
"sesmaria" to them, the northern part remaining fragments of native forests in The main obstacle to the land
of which was officially demarcated the area. Some 1,400 Indians are now claim is Aracruz itself which has
150 years later in 1760. resident in the three recognized denied that the Indians have rights to
In 1940, the Vitoria Iron and Steel reserves, but many more Tupinikim live the land. The company is trying to
Company or COFAVI arrived in the scattered throughout the state in other get certification for its forest products
Tupinikim territory and took over rural communities and urban areas, and has approached the Forest
10,000 hectares of forest in order to some of whom have expressed an Stewardship Council. Its principal
fell the trees for charcoal. In 1967, .interest in returning to their ancestral customers are the UK, US, Japan
however, Aracruz Celulose bought lands. and Germany.
these 10,000 hectares and another The Indians require their lands in
30,000 from the state government at a order to continue their way of life which The Tupinikim and Guarani have asked
token price, eight tenths of one relies on the forests for hunting, fishing, that letters in support of their claim be
hundredth cruzeiro per square metre. gathering of fruits, honey and materials sent to the Brazilian authorities
Aracruz began to clear the forest and for utensils and houses, and subsist- responsible for the demarcation, Aracruz
plant eucalyptus. The acquisitions are ence farming. In the case of the antl Aracruz's customers.
of dubious legality because, since Comboios Indian Reserve, the present FUNAI, Julio Geiger-Presidente, SEUP
1934, the Brazilian constitution has area that they have been granted is Sul 702 BI. A-Ed. Lex-3 ender, 70330-
Brasilia-DF, BRAZIL.
guaranteed the rights of Indians to the mainly sand and is inadequate for even Chair of the Board of Directors Erling
possession of their lands which cannot their basic needs. Sven Lorentzen, Aracruz Celulose SA.
be given to third parties. The Indians want to restore their Rua Lauro Muller 116-21 e22 andares.
The takeover by Aracruz Celulose forests for future generations, but 22299.900-Rio de Janeiro-RJ. BRAZIL;
resulted in up to half the Tupinikim realizing that the land claim by itself will Aracruz International Ltd, 1 Blagdan
then resident in Espirito Santo being not ensure the survival of the remaining Roatl, New Malden House, 4th floor, New
displaced from their lands. Older fragments, they have begun to plan how Malden, Surrey KT3 aT6, UK.
Indians still recall some 32 village to safeguard the remnant forests and For more information, contact CIMI-ES.
sites which had to be abandoned to regenerate more. Caixa Postal 30, 29190.00-Aracruz-ES,
make way for the eucalyptus plants- FUNAI set up a Working Group in BRAZIL. Tel/Fax: +55-27-256 2374.
lions and other land acquisitions. 1994 to reexamine the boundaries. In Contact The Ecologists editorial office to
Those that remained soon found their collaboration with the Tupinikim and write to Aracrui s major customers in your
livelihoods diminishing because of Guarani, the group identified an area of country. A 42-page, large format booklet
the etfects of the eucalyptus 13,579 hectares which would unify two with maps and photographs, Internatonal
monoculture plantations. of the existing areas and extend the Campaign for the Extension and
Demarcation of the Indigenous Lands of
Also in 1967, a group of Guarani third. Of this, about 20 per cent is still the Tupinikim and Guarani, is available
Indians, which has a long history of native forest, the rest being eucalyptus. from The Ecologists editonal office, es. ~
'
held ~ LS per cent of the shares." 1BP, u. minority share- land and set up a local ~,...~flict: then a third party would be
holder, was over 36 per cent owned by Japan's bilateral foreign sent in who would act as a 'mediator' between the two and
."aid" agency, the Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund" offer to purchase the farmer's land.°`"
Some-1,600 people are now employed on CENIBRAIands, AselsewhereinBrazil,[heconcen[rationoflandwithgoodsoils
not only in Minas Gerais but also in Esperfto San[n and Bahia. in a few hands has undermined subsistence aericulture and led
,~\mon~ other [asks, they plant 6A00 hectares of eucalyptus per to increased urban migration and the weakening of autonomy
vear.'^ CENIBRA"s pulp milk which employs around 1,300 and local social ties." Wage labour has proved an inadequate
people, increased production from 116.000 tonnes in 1978 ro substituteforsmall-scale farming in both economic and cultural
,76.000 in 1993 and plans [o double that figure." Fully 80 per [erms.58 As a result of large plantations taking over agricultural
cent of the company's pulp is exported (50 per cent to Japan and areas, Minas Gerais has had [o import food from other regions.
30 per cent to Europe and the US)'" As [he holdings of plantation firms accumulate, the dependence
The firm's mill, inland in Minas Gerais, can compete with of local [owns on a few businesses grows, and the influence of
coastal export pulp operations such as those of Aracruz because such companies on decision-making processes increases. One
it uses CVRD's high-quality railway which was improved and result is yet more industrial projects and tree plantations.
adapted to transport pulp when the plant came online in 1977.'° CENIBRA's relationship with its workers has been authori-
CEN[BRA isalso able to keep its costs down through being co- [avian and exploitative. According to one interviewed worker.
owner with Aracruz of Portocel, a port especially adapted for wages were initially good and there was a strong trade union, but
pulp handling.50 In 1975, moreover, CENIBRA
received US$l28 million in state financing,
supplemented by another $14 million in 1976, „JtA ~ ?i~~,
S16 million in 1981 Qo reduce energy con-
sumption), $6.6 million in 1982, and $IS mil- ~
lion in 1985." • ~-~-r--~
CENIBRA's claim to green credentials a, ~
comes in the form of afive-year strategic plan '
developed in 1991 to assure "sustainable de-_'~
velopmeni'.'' As a result of this plan, 240 ~ ' . _'_:.~~'*"r~^~^~"
hectares of pine and eucalyptus surrounding _ all
the pulp mill were to be enriched with local
species so as to encourage the return of other _
indigenous species. In addition, some 1,000 i' `
hectares of native forest were to be preserved, + ' ~"y e- ~ ~
:i,
while company land on the banks of [he Rio - ~,`t- ~.;u_-
Doce was to be reforested with native species. ' • ` ~ c:.y~,~_--~~,,,~ ,
W`-~_
At the mill itself, the plan called for company- 'x ~ s~..~r--
monitored measures to control effluents and a ~ r ~
start to production of chlorine-free pulp. _Y Y A
Several aspects of this plan call for corn-
meat. First, the planting of indigenous species Eucalyptus logs waiting to be pulped.
and the preservation of a few areas of native
forest (the latter a legal obligation) are essentially cosmetic salaries declined considerably after CENIBRA stepped in to .
measures to pacify local people increasingly concerned by the manipulate union elections through pressure and fraud. The
advance of eucalyptus, as well as environmental groups in the company also dismissed unionized workers and started con-
North."Second,effluent-treatment systems wereins[alledonly Iractingou[bothindus[rialandforestrytaskstootherfirms.This
in 1988 - 1 1 years after the mill came on line-and only after move, aimed at reducing costs, resulted in even lower wage
heavy pressure from local people." As with Aracruz, chlorine- levels and a smaller number of workers, making unionization
free Meaching techniyues began to be used only as a result of even more difficult.""
demand from [he European Community and are used exclu- CENIBRA is also moving into contract farming through a
sivelyw~ithpulpdestinedfortheEuropeanmarkeL" programme.operatedinconjunctionwithastateagency,through
Like Aracruz's "grcenwashing" efforts. CENIBRA's "sus- which seedlings, fertilizers and ant poison arc provided to
tainable development' plan tails to mention a number of de- individual farmers if they plant eucalyptus on their own land.
structive realities about the company's operations.One ofthese This allows [he company to augment its forestry base without
is the way in which CENIBRA's projects and those of associ- acquiring land directly. Farmers are contractually obligated to
aced companies such as CV RD concentrate vast swathes of land sell wood to CENIBRA at the "market price", which is set by the
inafewhandsinaproceszoftenmarkedbyviolence.According companyitself.61
to a Japanese NGO. the Japan Tropical Forest Action Network Not only does CENIBRA use non-"degraded" land such as
UATAM. company associates "used whatever methods were fertile farmland: it also plants, contrary to stated policy, on
available to acyuirc land (ur its plantations": pronounced slopes."= Soil ecology has been affected by the
"sometimes it purchased land at above market prices; at plantations. Because the thick layer of plant material associated
other times residents were chased away with violence. 1[ with plantations cannot be mineralized rapidly by microur._an-
also oltcn resorted w deception: for inswncc it would first isms, organic acids arc formed and calcium, potassium :uul
nxn~cajcompanvjinsideronarlandadjacentutthefarmer's magnesium ions arc replaced by hydrogen ions in the upper
:aver of the soil. This implies a er pH, which affects the expansion of e[ yptus plantations in the late 1960s Lser Boy,
availability of nutrients to plants. The long-term productive p?081. In 1967. United States shipping magnate Daniel Ludwig
capacity of the soil is endangered and it is not known how much paid the Brazilian military dictatorship US$3 million for I.6
longer the same land can keep on producing eucalyptus wood."' million hectares of tropical forest on the Jari River in the north
Tree bark, which, according to the UN's Food and Agriculture of the country near the frontier with French Guyana. A year
Organization (FAO), contains the best part of the nutrients taken later, he began planting vast homogenous masses of fast-grow-
fromthe soil by the vee, is removed from [he site and used in the ing trees for pulp.
pulp mill for energy generation, further reducing soil fertility."' Ludwig's project was similar ro others at the time in Brazil.
Local people have observed. moreover. [hat the rate of except for [he species chosen:instead ofeucalyptus.he wentfur
replacement of underground water tables has slowed. This is Gmefinn urbarea. a tree indigenous to Indonesia. The planta-
attributable rothe increased surface runoff associated with [ions failed: in addition ro common problems experienced with
plantations and with eucalyptus's high water consumption. eucalyptus and pine (leaf-cutting and ants), the gmelina w;u
Pesticides such as aldrin and Mirex have contaminated soils and afflicted by a fungus which delayed tree growth and reduced
watercourses, with proven high fish mortality.es The company wood quality."" These difficulties caused Ludwig great losses
has even begun to spray herbicides from the air, endangering -by 1978,hiscompanyhadplantedG4.000hectaresofgmelina^"
local agriculturalists'" - so he switched to a type of pine already tried in the area.
A[ CENIBRA's pulp mill. complaints about water pollution By 1982. Ludwig could no longer count on [he support of the
have been continuous since the plan[ started up in 1977. Yet country's military dictatorship which was beginning to lose its
only at the end of 1986 did the company formally commit itself influence."' He decided to sell his company. Jari, to a consor-
to installing an industrial and sanitary effluent treatment sys- tium of 23 Brazilian companies, led by the CAEMI group.
tem. and then it gave itself a 30-month deadline to do so. which acquired 40 per cent of the shares." The state BNDES
Although scientific data on air pollution around the mill is supported [he operation through a US$180 million loan.~=
unavailable, JATAN members visiting the plant in 1992 re- One of the main new shareholders was AMCEL (Amapr
marked that: Florestal a Celulose), owner of some 90,000 hectares of pin
"we couldn't avoid noticing the horrible smell present in all plantations near Jari's plant which were critical to Jari's furor.
of the plant and we felt sorry for the people who had to work As its own plantations were so unproductive, it had no other raw
there.""' material sources until its new pine (and subsequently eucalyp-
[us) planta[ionsmatured." Jari now owns some 90,000 hectares
of plantations, including a 2.000 hectare remnant of gmelina.
Ja[i (IVionte Dourado) but eucalyptus dominates, (60 per cent grown from selected
clones and 40 per cent from seed). More trees are being planted
Third place in the ranks of Brazilian bleached eucalyptus pulp at a rate of 13,500 hectares per annum."
production and export goes to Jari (Monte Dourado). Jari's pulp mill -originally constructed in Japan. taken by
As with [he other pulp giants, Jari's origins stem from the seatoBrazilandnowoperatedbyano[hercompany,Companhia
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i l„re,titul Monte Dourado -produces 300.0( nines of pulp it needed. Some 3.000 hou units were built, us well as tour
mnually.»percentofwhichislongfibreand45percen[short. schools, a 1,100-bed hospital, clinics, supermarkets. ? radio
some 65 per cent of its output goes to Europe. 14 per cent to the station and 1 1,000 kilometres of roads."' Despite these invest-
CS. and another one per cent to increasingly important markets menu, "work-crew contractors were notorious for their [reat-
.uch as Japan. Indonesia. Korea and China.'° men[ of workers brought in from the poor north-eastern states".
Jari has not lagged far behind its fellow firms in attempting Staff turnover was constant at all levels, reaching rates of 200-
:a"ereenwash"i[sactivities.AsjournalistRichard Higgs writes, 300 per cent peryeacBB
'Jari is very proud of its almost surgical blending of plantation After Ludwig sold the company, new social problems
,pccies in among the predominant and thriving natural forest' emerged. Between 1988 and 1993, worker numbers fell from
- a practice which helps "to prevent the spread of pests and 8,000 to 4,500. Many forestry labourers were replaced with
disease".Italso maintains reserve areas andcartiesoutresearch machines. Many migrants were thus left unemployedinaregion
into native species which may be of economic use. Jari's own with few other potential employers. Meanwhile, the company
public relations efforts have received a boost from Paulo de T. began to pass responsibility for hospital, school and restaurant
alvim, a leading Brazilian agricultural planner, who claimed management onto local and federal authorities,A° having at-
thatJari plantations reduce global warming because they grow, traded a large number of workers and [heir families to work on
~.chereas the tropical forest that occupied [he site previously had [he project in its initial stages, it wound up shunting [he long-
been in equilibrium with the atmosphere, neither absorbing nor term costs of [heir welfare onto the state. According to a local
emitting carbon.'6 journalist, "the legacy of the Jari project has been a shanty town
Yet again, such claims conceal more than they reveal. For in the middle of the jungle'.90
example. although the company is legally obliged to preserve 50
per cent of the native forests it controls, it has felled around a
third of them to supplement shortfalls in gmelina. Some 1,200 MinOrlty B¢R¢)F1tS
hectares of the forests Jari claims to be protecting are being
felled each year," mostly to generate energy and to expand its The Brazilian government is pouring billions of dollars into
plantations.'" In 1992, Brazil's official environmental conser- developing the export pulp sector and its enormous industrial
vation organization rejected the company's request to cut 5,000 plantations. These plantations, which are often held up as a
hectares of dense forest which it wanted to replace with plan[a- triumph of private-sector development, would not have been
tion.'0 Felling such native forests has resulted in loss of native possible without massive dicec[ and indirect state intervention
trees and habitat for many other species. in the form of fiscal incentives, soft loans, support from BNDES
Other environmental problems centre on Jari's continuing ahd similar agencies, and the involvement of the state's CVRD.
reliance on monoculture. Forestry exports never cite of pointing The coercive power of the state has also been extremely useful
out Ludwig's serious mistake in choosing gmelina as his plan- in transferting the land of indigenous peoples and small farmers
tationspecies.""This"error",however, is merely one instance of who have no title to their property into the hands of large
a more general problem which foresters seem far less eager to forestry concerns. The 1964-84 military dictatorship's
acknowledgeandwhichcurtentJariplantingsexemplify:namely, developmentalistvisionof"progress"as filling "empty spaces"
that in a large-scale monospecific plantation of any fast-grow- has been critical in enlisting popular support for large pulp and
ing species, a fungus, virus, insect or other animal pest may plantation projects in the "backward" regions of the country. It
decimate the entire plantation in a short time. is no coincidence that the period of greatest growth in Brazil's
Pest infestation, moreover, was only one ofthe environmen- forestry sector was precisely this 20-year period.
cal problems afflicting Jari. When the gmelina felling rotation The "progress"' associated with plantations, however, has
was shortened to three to four years to avoid fungus attacks, benefited only a minority. Concentration of land and power,
nutrients began [o be extracted from [he soil at a higher rate. It migration, social disruption, a worsening of [he quality of life,
is estimated that most of the potassium and phosphorus will and long-term environmental degradation have been the results
have disappeared from the estate by the end of the twenty-first for Brazil as a whole. Environmental arguments adopted by
century."' The use of heavy forestry machinery, meanwhile, has pulp and plantation businesses cannot entirely hide this reality,
caused soil compaction and erosion."'- though they do succeed in confusing public opinion both nation-
Eftluentsfrom the Monte Dourado plan[ are dumped directly ally and internationally.
into [he Jari river, resulting in fish kills downriver. Fertilizers ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦
and agrochemicals used by the company also contaminate local SPECIAL OFFER
watercourses."' Jari's "environmental answer" to its energy ¦ It ¦
needs-ahydroelectricdam on the Jari river"'-woulddes[roy ~ for The Ecologist readers..
one of the most beautiful and historic sites of Amapa state, ¦ Pulping the South
Cachocira Santo Antonio." • IndusVial Tree Plantations & •
The claim that Jari's plantations help alleviate global warm- ~ the WOrld Paper Economy ¦
ing, finally. has been corn-incingly refuted by scientist Philip ~ by Ricardo Cartere & Larry Lohmann ~
Fearnside who points out that "the much greater standing ~ ~
hiomass of the forest (replaced by Jari as compared to the ¦ DISCOUNT PRICE (including p&p) f12 (usual price ~
plantation means that the effect of Jari is emission rather than • £14.95). Cheques payable to "Zed books Ltd", 7 Cynthia St, ¦
• London Nl 9JF, UK. Credit cards, Tel: 0171-837 4014. ¦
removal of atmospheric carbon dioxide)"."" ¦
Jari's public relations exercises also conceal a pattern of ¦ In North America USS20 (usual price US522.50). Checks pay- ~
wiles read soClal ahuse. When it was flrtit seta the cam my • ableto"Humanities Press",165 Firs[Ave., Atlantic Highlands, ¦
P p' p` ¦ NJ 07716, USA. VISA/Mastercard, Tel: (908) 8721441 ~
hadtsiinvcninsocialiafrtstntcturculattrtctthchugcworklbrcc ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦
\r Ics and liclcrcncct _ t drd,~., I h. ~.~,.,dr pit,..~~~.1 1~~,~.~~~..~„. prim .~~~,i h... ,~,~m~ ~
I'nwmuuu.4ra.ru:<ahdn.c_Iti,. J, J.u..u. I,.ii.h.,".i I'..pe II~~Liwiai ,-i,n l'.n~,i Alib
I'rOn A1uaJn.hi I'.ipo ALli.. n.n„ I'.i n:~ .oJ Maur.
ic.l l:r~r~,~ Ir.rd~ 1 K, r„~,
fr~s.nn. R pm _ to (nom elvc.. M l ri al .up ui Kn6 u.akn Pulp inu~i s s pn um .aJii.,
n
ri, l'r.„lrr~ win r rumprron nnJ lne/. I- IhW w nh srn,illcr siaA c.. h.nv aAi I'.gra. la.w. I'.ipr
/L ~r~~rl 11,.,.,1 /'n ~Ju~ n_ l aieu Itc.um ~^•crw or k. I T 9rac rurA dr¢eturs ple~rd ,i lcedi m_ colt mnmuli Chucnu Pulp. Mppim K.rkuu ]ncni. Abc;.m
loksmokk le edr n. 19os nc~ li acme.. Coun<d for .Sacra m,ihlr Ucs Asp Knhu. SanL~ ]ub.m .ind Ah.hinr.i ~.a
V. nl IOOJ. nranl e,n the worth ranknl pulp merit. m prepannc husv¢ss lunhu 190, -6erih Ganseh c.. Al 7 . rqr ui 11
oyvrnrr in om ssrn IJ hchunl Canad.i. ors l :S .aril Sumnul" vt Km dv Juncrzu l hi. re.ulmJ in a IIrJA I :A1, up cu 1'
1..cJrn ,As i,l 1901- a wa. nc~ snrli ranked hook. Cbnnerne Cnunv, mlueh w,. disvinwnl m JZ IhW . Guucels e.. A1.1 . up cu J' Al hen
paps expunrr behind Canada. I-inland Sw oleo. all uovernmenl Jrlcueuuns heiom nc~ amicr- CB,KIRItA he;_an nper.nin^_ m 10.J- u. pulp null
Ausrn.i .inJ ]oar es cries. Arucruc has also suppurmJ rhr lamdon- uus su pphul e nh rod Iron Iiurcsra. ku,
1 GonUUlccs. .11 7 n al. 6rplnrui nu parr out nn based non-gnvcrnmcmal Inlcrnau9nul Imwwr Uucr. nc~ CA'itU whs Wran At nc~ sonic umc
nnr'rr J.. Es r vd Je Hahw - unpar rns r for hnvirimmenl and Ucvdopinenl in a lures another lion called Horeslu. 1ipu~Brrsil. or
~drrr-nurnvr Lrmdm dr n ~ rtplnru/u ~ smdp on the "sustuinahlc popcr cs da". Sc. PL0,~113R ues created. a uh the aim nl
rfim~rnd. wdu 0nir rlr rrbdnv r ongngrrn do InrcrnammW Inntnutc for Emirinvncm and ucyuinng un ndJnionul 11111.111111 hcaure~ol lend
np~r a rrc0nnu(. Krlmor'u~ nnul. FAST/113 ASE. UcvdopmcnL Thr Smuumnblr I}rprr (rr ir. A for pulp pluntuuom m Bahia and Lspinm Sumn-
ILa de Janeirr, M17as 14y1. As.oau4'au Bmsileua Krpnr-r inr the Hrnmree Cuun<il nn .Su vumuhlr the uruas a here grucrur uus acusc hr 19ti-I. nc~
de foynrnudores de Cdulose t.AB ECLLr i rid i Rur Urrrluprnenr ftlrn(U. TIED. London, 199? I?5.111111 hedures wtdch had ua nulls been
do Janrno_ 19 Alhllunts. J-O. and Gulukc. L'_ op. cn. 7 ucywrcJ - maludi rig AR9f1U pluntvd ss nh
1 Annrc-Hnv ll'vr IJ:wkko Poop Chcnt 211. Anuu -Hnv LYve up. cit. 1. cueah•plus and gN.11011 gr vcn os cr to 'unrsena
Vlueunncl. 1993. ABFCEL. op cn-3. I. Sargent. J. and Bash, S. Icds.l l'lurnwinn tlon umns` -were paswd to CESIBItA
Shill Imcrnauunul I'vlnrlcum Fund unJ World /'nbnee: {mrV Plmuauum m Urrrlnprnonr. Plorestal, nc~ Imo nn.. responsr hlc Inc su pplvng
Rldc Fund for Nutum. Trrr Plaruunnn Krrreu. Eunhvcun. London. 109?. thu CENIBRA ndll whh pulpu nod and crier^_~
I I sul_s-Shell/A1'\V F. London. 1993. Irnmevll)'. __-.ALrvtdu. M17.. "Nos panto,. do exrrcmo'. aortas Sre Gonpuhcn, M.T. cr al., op_ ar 3
the cnonnuus expmrsron of rho pulp vector in hismnus, omnx tempos'. EASE/IBASE. Rw de 18.1A'fAN, op. cu 1'_. hLrundu. A1_ up. al. M
13runl has mken place nt o country with a per ]anevu. April 1997_ 19. Gun4alves. ALT. el ul_ op. cn, i
capua popcr conwmpuon will bdnw the world FASL, op. at 11: Vulurclfi. L.L..'Qnnplcxos 50. Knmhr. P. "Hruzil: A Grirwrne Rrrcc in World
v~cru!s~. while ummal per rapnu papa Florestuis dr Celulone: O Mon da Modern Wudc°. pulp and Paper". PoJp and Yaprr_ Aueusr 1901
arnwmpuon m nc~ Umrcd Sinter is 33'_ Prny¢rtrr 53, Ma} 199'_: ID«
•rnnnnnul 51 Gonpulvcs. M.T. cr al_. op. ca 3
kdm•rwnmes and m Sw nzerlund '_I6. Costa Rrcu Acavndmral Derrluyrnrnr 7/5.199?. 52. Hlges. R.. "Brmil's Japanese Cnnnecuon .
55 unJ Arv_•enunu 15. m Bruzll it is only shout 2K. 21. FASE, op. en Iq. l0ytt•r. September 199'_.
tiro Poly and 1'nprr burrnunurml7, 1995. 25. Miranda, M.. "I adios rci vind¢um .was terra." in 53-They may oho Lino. w u small extent. the nsA of
-Gunyulves. Al T_ `Aspectos eerais de expungao tor.planturion electronic umlerence. 111u1y pests.
du rdhnestuntcnlo nu Brasil-- m fur.planinnun 1993. 51. GonFalcrs. M11.T_ op. dr 13
i;\F
C clenromc cunlerence March 1992. ]fi. Inyaku, T.. "Why Brazilian pulp is cheap". in 55. JATAM1, op. en. 1_.
~ AA'i llum+. 1-O. and Goluke. L'., Fenn Ideas m - for.paper electronic conference. "April 1993. 56. Ibid.
:I coon: Suernrae rind Sustainable Dereloprnenl. 'S7. (BASE. op. cit. I5. 57. Guerra. C. A Crux Sou/,c in flrzri6 En'vonnrrrr
ICC. Orlo, 199' 28. Gongalves. M.T. et al., op. cit. 3. lnl bnpurls nn rhr Ptruocnbn Rn~rr Husm,
ri. hLrundu. M_ "Pvprl c celulose no Brazil: novos 2y. FASE. op. sit 14. Intrrnational Insuwtc for Hydraulic and
prnleros, velhus dilemas IIiASE. Rio de 30. Gonpalves. M.T. et al., op. cit. 3. Enviromm~tal Eneineenn_. Delft. Aueusr 199'_:
Janevo, 1993: ABFCEL, op. cit. 3. 31. FASE, op. sit 14: Miranda. M., op. nt. ^_5: IAD. Gonpalves. M.T.. op. dt. q3
9. European customers mdudr Jnmoin, Arjo op. mt. ?3. 58. Gongalves, M.T., op. cit. q3
N i__grm Appleton. Sappi. Inveresk. Tullis 3'_. IAU,op. cit. ?3. 59. Guerra. C., op. cit. 57: IATAK, op. ch. 1'_.
Russell and l1K Paper. 33. FASE, op. crt 11. Since 1993, it seems that all 60. Gon~ah~es. M11.T., op. sir. 1i
Ill. Swann. C. "South America: The Promise and major pulp companies have used A1irex-S. a less 61. Ibid.
nc~ Prohlemd'. PaprnnnArr, August 1993. harmful pirelroid. instead of Muex, an 6'_. Guerta. C. op. ar. 57.
I I N'i llums. 1-O. and Goluke, h., op. cit. 7. organochlorine. See Fanzeres. A.. personal 63. Ibid.
L'. Aracruz Florestul was set up m 1967 to esmblish communication, 1995. (>a. JATAN. op. sir 1?.
the plantations. Arucrui Cellubse. the pulp and i1. CEPEDES/CDDH, op. cit. 11. 65. Guerra. C., rip. cn. 57.
paper compan}. was sec up m 19T_ and Aracruz 35. FASE. op. sit Iq. 66. Gongah~es. M.7 up. cit. 13
Flomstul became ns wMidmn. The first 36. /A D, op. cit. 23. 67. JATAN. op. cit. 12.
shareholders were a wrJely varied group of 3'.. (BASE. "Cronologia sobre a inddsvia de celulose fib. Higgs. R., op. cit. 5'_: Shell/W WF. op. cit. 5.
bunks. oil firms, construction companies and no Brazil" in for plantation electronic confer- 69. Shell/W WF. op. at. 5.
ocher businesses. none of which hod any previous ence, 6 November 1993. 711. Sargent. J. and Bas.. S_ op. cn. '_I.
experience in pulp production 7o boost its 3$- Fanzeres. A., op. eil. 33. 71. (BASE. op. dt. 39.
expertise. Aracruz formed an association with the iy. ,qs a resuh of Aracruz's public relation, the 72. Shell/WWF, op. cit. 5.
Ss edish Billerud firm. wh¢h hod tome company was singled out in 1991 by the hnited 73. Knight, P., op. mr. 50.
experience m eucalyptus pulpmakmg and which Nazions for its "rigorous commitmeni' ro 71. Higgs, R.. "loci'. The Mill in the Jungle'. 1'nprr.
rook responsibility for marketing half crf sustainable development. See (BASE. Aueusr 1993.
Amcruz's owput m Europe See Gongal yes. M11.T. "Cronologia sobre a inddstria de celulose no 75. Shell/W WF. op. cit. 5.
cr al.. op. cn. 3. Brazil" in for.plantation electronic conference. 3 76. Fearnside. P.. "Tropical Silvmulmral Plantuuom
13. Gonsah'n, At T. er al.. op. sir. 3. When rhr March 1993. as a Means of Sequestering Atmosphertc Carbon
plunturiuns established in Espfnro Samo fell qo. FASE. op. sit I1: Bruno. K., "O Rdmorio D'mxide'". mss. ?9 ]one 1993.
s coin nr disease. Aracrur responded by sinking Greenpeace sobre a Mayuiugem Berde O 77. Shell/W'WF, op. cu. 5.
money rmo research on seeds of various Desiaree Ecoldgico dos Empresas 78. Fanzeres. A.. up. cit. 33.
pros enaners. becomine a recognized authority on Transnacionais'", Greenpeace, Rio de Janeiro. 79. IBASE. op. eit. 39.
nc~ whlect from the 195Us onwards. 199? R0. Sar~tent. J. and Bass. S.. op. nt._ 1: Shell/W WF.
N. Centro do Enmdos e Pnywsus pars o q I . Gon falves, M.T. et al.. op. dt. 3. op. cit. S.
Ucunvolnmemo du Extremo Sul da Bahia/ g2.7ATAN, "Report on Euculyptm Plantation 81. Shel l/WWF. op. nt. 5.
Centro de Dclesa dos Drreitm Humanos Schemes in Brazil and Chile br Jupnnese 8?. Sargent. J. and Bass. S.. op- cit. 2I
tCFPEDES/CDDHI. Eueabpm: urns Companies, IATAN. Tokyo. 1993; Miranda. M., 83. Shell/W WF. op. cit. 5.
rnnrardr{tin. unpattw anrbirnralr..rociais a op. at. H. A1. Knight. P.. 0p-err. 50: Higg+. R_ op. cit. 71
rrnnirnurns do ores Lpro a do celulose rto 13. Gonqulves, M.T., "Pau yuc nacre cerM e entorta 85. Fanzeres. A., up. cit. 33.
/!~verno Suf do Hnhin. CDDH. EunSpolis-BA, u yids dos ou[ros: Monocultura de eucahpro d 56. Fearnside. P_ op. sit 76.
199'_; Fedcrupao de Organs pars Asistdncia produgao de celulose nu V ale do Cazi', Comissao 87. Hrgg.~. R.. op. sir 74.
Social e Educucronal (FASE). InquEriro civil pastoral da Terta/Centro Mineiro de Escudos a 88. SureenL 1. rind Buss. S., up. nt. I.
vrhr-e tnrnemu flurevaf. EASE. Vitdriu. 1993. Pesywsa sobre Ambience e Florestuts/Puci(ic- R9. Higgs. R_ op. cit_ 71.
I5. Insumu> Brasileim de AnSl lses Sncivia de Asia Resource Center. Belo Horizonte, 1995. 90. Ganpalves, M.A.. "Fabncu de papel desencndcu
Econumrcas fIB ASE7. "Cronologia sobre a 4q. JATAN. op. cit. 42. case nu Amupu: Champion adquvc faun do
industria de celulose no Brazil", m for.plantation q5. Other ]BP shareholders included Olr Paper ?orestu umuziimca'", PuruboLcm (I21.
eledmnic eoN'errnce. ID October 1991: Arneruz !nearly ten per cenq; Jujo Paper. Honshu Paper November 1995.
The Ecologat. Vol. 26. No. 5, September/October 199fi
Some CQ-~sequences of '~';heap.Trees
and Cheap Talk
Pulp Mills and Logging in Northern Alberta
by
,~I
Joan Sherman
Over the past decade, several higlt-tech pulp mills producing pulp for the global marAet
~ have been persuaded by gnrernment prmnises of cheap trees and infrastructure grants io
set up itt the Canadian province of Alberta. One of there mills, Alberta-Pacific Forest
Industries, was approved in December 1990 and started operations in September 1993.
Length}• public hearings prior to the project's approval considered some of the expected
~ impacts of the mill; odter c,ffects, however, were rtot discussed or were downplayed. Four
years on, marry of the uncn[ticipnted cor[sequences -not only for the environment but also
for local demncrac~• -are notr transparent.
I'
i'
i
I Mos[ visitors to Athabasca, a small town of just 2,000 people in and three chemi-[hermo-mechanical pulp mills' producing pulp
the Canadian province of Alberta, perceive the countryside for the global market. These mills were persuaded, in part, to set
around it as wilderness or relatively unspoiled nature. Like the up in Alberta by promises of cheap trees' and infrastructure
rest of the northern half of the province. the region is a mix of grants.'
farmland, bogs, fens, streams. rivers and marshes' and of boreal One of these Japanese-owned pulp mills, Alberta-Pacific
forest -spruce, pine, balsam fir, tamarack, birch and aspen Forest Industries°- or Alpac as it has become known - is the
trees -which covers 43 per cent of Alberta. Much of the largest single bleached draft pulp mill in the world. Locatedjust
forested land is Crown (state-owned) land. held in trust by the outside Athabasca in a farming district with no history of pulp
province. Unlike temperate regions, vegetation in the boreal mills, it was given the go-ahead by [he Albertan premier on 21
forest is slow to regenerate: [he growing season is 50-100 days; December 1990 and started operations in September 1993. The
the topsoil is thin; the forest is covered with snow for half the Alberta government committed $475 million in government
year: and [he mean average temperature is 1.6"C. On average, an loans, debentures and start-up grants [o the company which was
aspen tree takes eight years to reach a height of four metres, 70 given the rights [o log and manage a 64,000 squaze kilometre
to 80 years to reach a size suitable for loggine.' area of Crown forest (roughly [he size of the province of New
i
~ The wilderness, however, is under siege. ]n the last 20 years. Brunswick, the state of West Virginia or the country of Sri
~ radical changes have taken place in the area: oil and gas Lanka). In 1997,Alpacpaysaroyal[yofapproxima[elyl4cents
companies have cut seismic and gas transmission lines and for each tree cut down.
,1 drilled exploratory wells throughout the forest: timber interests Lengthy public hearings, held as part of the Environmental
II have cut the forest for saw logs, oriented strand board (structural Impact Assessment process during 1989-1990 prior to the
II building panels), and, increasingly, for pulp. During the mid- project's approval, considered some of the expected impacts of
]1! 1980s, a decline in coniferous timber because of overcutting, themill,suchas[hetransportationofhazardouschemicalstothe
new pulping technology for hardwoods, a cheap and plentiful mill. air emissions and exposure offish and fish habitats to mill
ij supply of deciduous timber. and increased demand for pulp in effluents which would containchlorina[edorganiccompounds.
North-East Asia all combined to attract invesmrs to [he boreal Others, however, were not discussed or were explored in such
' forest and its abundant stands of aspen -Albertan, often refer general terms that [he mill's effects on the lives of residents in
to the aspen as a weed because when it is cu[down. itquickly re- [he Athabasca area were downplayed, in particular, how outside
establishes itself from its roots and thrives. forces gettocontroldecision-making withincommunities. Four
The Alberta government actively promoted the use of aspen years since the mill began operations, many of these unantici-
to the timber industry, and sought out potential markets and pared consequences are now transparent.
corporations in countries of the Pacific Rim. Today. the prov-
~ ince has two Japanese-owned, bleached kraft mega pulp mills Unfulfilled Promises
' .loan Sherman lives on an organic farm surrounded h. Inrea. She momion Before the mill was approved in December 1990, AlpaC~s
' politic tans, government and industrial forestry and uor6s m >mabu.n
unrversm. nm~-na. c~nnda- compun~ representatives spent a lot of time and effon eounim~
I
the public: thby held promotional forums and _ - t
roffee-and-doughnut open house sessions and at- r' ' r' ~ ~ "a .
tended public hearings where they promised - ` =rtlr'
dreds of direct jobs and countless indirect con- "t'"^
struction and spin-off jobs in the region; Native ` ?
Indian employment; a 50 per cent "local"
workforce; [hat logging trucks would not share [he
roads with school buses; that there would be no
smells; and that the roads would be maintained. ~t~'•'1j•
Overall, they promised that the quality of life in r
the local communities would be improved as a
result of the pulp mill. Such promises were not 4_~. Y
written agreements, but considered by many peo- '
ple in Athabasca as oral commitments or public t
statements of trust and good faith. A p@fSPBCtIV@ Ott thB pulp It1dUStry
Since the mill opened, many of these commit- Enrtratmsnt~awtKenoeewtw~"e~nvtro"m~nutmurarcarotFrtsacn.ckan
ments have been redefined, denied, unenforced or trr """•"^w~°^"N^t twm • seneot w goten't'• °°^'^try' u'dvt"o+", en
simply forgotten. While people recognized that '4"'rumen.awnnr.w,u"tnn.a.mweetromAlla~u-vadne
much of Alpac's promotional talk was bluster, Safest mill in Canada?
few anticipated [hat company representatives
would later either deny making key promises or Alpac's newsletter, Forest Landscape, ran a photo story about a
attempt to redefine the commitments. school of goldfish swimming in raw, untreated a//luent /rom the pulp
In the case ofjobs for local people, for example, mill to illustrate the water's innocuous nature, all above a headline
Alpac had defined "local" in 1989 as someone which ran "the safest mill in Canada?". By using a familiar pet, the
living within an 80-kilomeve radius of the mill. In image domesticates and trivializes the test commonly used by
1993, however, the company claimed the[ "local" regulators to determine the toxicity of pulp mill effluent. The test,
meant anyone living in its 64,000 square kilome- called LC50, measures [he survival rate of fish exposed to full
strength effluent for 96 hours. 1l less than 50 per cent of the test fish
tre forest management area. die, the effluent passes the test. Trout, which are sensitive and native
"Local" also appeazs to include people who to the Athabasca river, are normally used in the LC50 test, Goldlish,
move to the azea and obtain local addresses. Fam- however, are tough and not native. In any event, using death as an
ily members of new employees a[ the mill often indicator of environmental harm ignores the fact that fish and other
have more skills and experience than local resi- animals may be debilitated and essentially ecologically dead by
dents, increasing the competition both for new and conditions far below those which kill it in four days. Alpac's image of
spin-off jobs and for existing jobs in the comma- a healthy aquarium draws attention away from the actual river where
nity such as those in clerical, teaching or public a complex set of natural conditions such as low flow, ice cover and
service employment. depleted oxygen exacerbate the effect of pollution on fish. It does not
Residents did not anticipate that no one would consider the long-term and inter-generational effects of
enforce the company's promises. Although Alpac organochlorines on the health of fish, and it ignores the cumulative
impact of effluent from all the mills on the river system.
representatives had said the company would keep
its logging [tucks off school bus routes when
children were going to and from school, it has
become common for packed school buses travelling on narrow Sights, Smells and Sounds
country roads to meet fully-loaded logging trucks. Concerned
for their children's safety, pazents appealed to Alpac to keep its The Alpac mill was constructed in the middle of a small farming
promise. The company refused. Instead, i[ sent anewly-hired district of just 300 people, and was championed by industry and
truck coordinator to a local public meeting to show a video about the Alberta government as an example of sustainable develop-
high-tech logging trucks and to talk about the safety records of men[. For those farmers displaced by the pulp mill and for many
Alpac's drivers. Neither the police nor local government care to who continue to farm neaz it, such claims ring hollow.
enforce Alpac's original promise. To service the mill, for example, a new railway line and a new
Now, four years after the mill began operating, new employ- network of roads were built with taxpayers' money right through
ees have begun to replace the mill's "star[-up" team, breaking [he existing rural road grid that farmers used to move their
the continuity between community residents and Alpac repre- equipment from one field [o another. Weary of car, [ruck and
sentatives who made the various promises about the mill's train noise and the inconvenience of partitioned farms, many
performance and philosophy. Knowledge of [he events sur- farmers have sold their land. Now a petrol station, cafe, lottery
rounding the mill's approval and the context of the verbal vendor, several truck repair shops, logging truck campsites and
commitments to the community are being lost as key Alpac other small enterprises dot the agricultural community.
individuals move away. Career shifts and employment under- Malfunctioning vents at the mill have given rise to the
tainties in a transnational corporation such as Alpac have an "fugitive" odours of hydrogen sulphide, the rotten egg smell -
impact on local relationships, easily leading to a lack of under- prior to [he mill's approval, pulp mill engineers assured the
standing and sensitivity toward community issues on the part of community that the mill would not smell. Electrical power
the company and to increasing distrust of the company on the surges from the mill have damaged household appliances and
part of the community. refrigerators. Screeching machinery has stressed livestock, pets
n... r. ,a.,~.,., ~'nl - Vn _ ~tun~h/n,--loo' ~5
~ Y
and families. creating additional heal'' end economic concerns debate in the town the Athabasca Advocate, has lost a large
~ for farmers. The glow from the mill .,range lights brightens measure of its frc ~m and independence. Staff at the local
j farm yards and steals the night. Lost is the darkness of the nigh[ paper are notified by Alpac when the company is displeased
I sky with its myriad star constellations, Aurora borealis and with coverage of either itself or issues relating to its activities.
~i meteors, all part of everyone's home in northern Alberta. All The company has claimed that any "al'legations' made about it
~ these unexpected aspects of technology act "as a filter in the local press cannot go unchallenged. Alpac's "bullying",
gradually eliminating and shutting off nature's direct sensual or implied threats of legal action, has led staff at the Athabasca
stimuli"" Advocate to become highly aware that their news coverage may
The government has failed to enforce environmental stand- land them in court against Alpac; as a result, news items have
~ ards in relation to these new and unanticipated sights, smells and been reduced to little more than non-controversial human inter-
sounds. When odours are reported to the government, for est stories or reprints of Forest Landscape articles. The local
i instance, residents are told to contact the pulp mill. In [he face press cannot afford to lose its advertising income by offending
of government inaction, many residents have become cynical the business community, politicians - or Alpac. Thus a key
about official proclamations about clean air standards. local forum for public debate, in which power was well within
Living with constant noise, smells and an orange glow while people's reach, and an essential part of local culture has been
j vigilantly monitoring and reporting the mill's activities [o lost.
regulatory agencies can slowly grind down community resolve -
and determination. After three years of [he mill's operations,
one farmer who lives near the plant said in April 1996: Logging on Private Land
"The smell on Saturday was something else. It was all
through the house, it was awful, I could taste it. But, you By 1993,theAlbertagovemmenthadcommittedtothepulpand
1 know, I don't caze any more. 1 didn't even report it. You paper industry in general 97 per cent of the softwood stands in
can't fight this mill forever." [he public forest and 83 per cent of the hardwood stands. Yet in
need of still more trees, the industry has turned to private
I Many residents who oppose the pulp mill have gradually been
~ silenced by stress, exhaustion and government inaction, and landowners as well, particularly those in [he north of Alberta
j have moved from the district. No dne anticipated that Alpac where many farms still have tree areas.
could cause so much stress, nor that such stress would affect Farmers in the Athabasca area have been offered tantalizing
people's lives so much. As another farmer said of the pulp mill: sums of money for their aspen and poplar. Timber buyers would
cruise the back roads and knock on landowners' doors to make
"It's destroyed families, it's destroyed the community, and deals; they started to fly over tree covered land and to contact
i[ has [he potential [o destroy everything that was familiar owners of strips that looked promising. The market came right
to us and familiar to our lifestyle."B to the farmers' doorsteps, and it has been hazd for farmers to
refuse $10,000 or $20.000 or more for standing timber. Bank
payments, spring seeding bills and such offers all combine [o
Alpac's Newslette[ make the sale of trees attractive.
Thus a public unaware of the logging taking place in remote
A third unexpected consequence of the pulp mill was that reaches of the Crown forest was suddenly sharing roads with a
Alpac's newsletter, Forest Landscape, would become such a stream of logging trucks, or having to standby as the clearing of
source of "information" within the community. Available free neighbours' forested lands disrupted the local ecosystem and
i at convenience stores, truck stops, groceries, chemists and altered the landscape. In 1993, Alpac reported that 15 per cem
cafes, Forest Landscape has become, in effect, a second local -some 256.000 cubic metres - of its "start-up" stockpile of
paper. It attempts to create a favourable "green" image of the timber came from private land."
forestindustry and its activities, andreinforces solidarity among Logging on private land is not covered by any legislation in
its workers. All the images and messages of success it conveys Alberta. In 1994, I proposed that, to regulate the amount of
are intended to reassure residents of northern Alberta that Alpac logging taking place on private land, the county council require
is a responsible citizen and good neighbour. The communica- landowners to have a development permit, set guidelines for
tionstechniquesofForestLandscnpeaimtodrawthepublicand logging in a variety of terrains, and allow people other than
[he press throughout the province into agreeing with Alpac's landowners to discuss [he implications of cutting down forested
definition of sustainable development; it seems intended to areas. The council rejected [he ideas out of hand, arguing that
clear the field of competitive points of view and to plant new "you can't tell farmers what they can do with their land". Both
concepts. ideas and images of [he pulp and paper industry.10 Alpac's search for wood and [he council's attitude reinforce the
Attention is diverted from controversy by positive upbeat head- ideology of unrestricted free enterprise and anti-government
t lines. images of competition akin to sporting challenges, pro- regulation.
~ motion of teamwork and the company's eco-commitment. Less visible than the clearcuts on private land is the change
~ Since i[ started publication in 1992 when construction of [he in community attitudes towards trees. Alpac is effectively
mill began. Forest Landscape has played a key "damage limi- transforming perception of trees as an ecological part of the
tattoo" role in controversial issues. It has downplayed issues of forest, bush, or even windbreaks into a perception modelled
dioxin emissions from pulp mills and of clearcutting, for in- afteritsownfashion:treesasavaluableeconomicresource.The
stance. and has portrayed environmental criticism more genet- long-term consequences of thinking about trees solely as a
ally as extremist. commodity will reveal themselves as more land is cleared. wind
A less visible impact of the company newsletter is that the and water erosion are exacerbated, and biodiversity and wildlife
previous u'rn[en source of community news and democratic habitats are lost.
.
Influencing LOCaI GOVernment teacher tours of its operations, thus shaping the way forestry
issues are presented to sch~ children.
Alpac was quick to establish a working relationship with key Having been hailed by government as a source of economic
people in local agencies and government. Initially, for instance, diversification and a financial "shat in [he arm" for rural high-
ithired six family members of one county councillor, a daughter unemployment regions, Alpac and the forest industry success-
of another. two ex-councillors and the son of the premier of the fully lobbied the government to eliminate taxation on machin- -
pmvince. This practice of rewarding key people to ensure their ery and eyuipment. This will save Alpac more than $3 million
future support is common. As a result, it has altered [he process annually in local taxes -money that local authorities use to
of local government and now inllucnces how decision-makes operate schools, libraries, recreational facilities and to hire
see issues and weigh [he outcomes of their decisions. staff. Losing [his tax revenue, combined with [he increased
Citizens, often as friends and neighbours of local officials demand on municipal services, has left the county in a worse
and councillors, used to speak to them in lay terms in a relaxed fiscal shape than before Alpac was built.
process. Now, when they approach local government with In a similar move, the Alberta Forest Products Association
concernsthatnffectmillopcratiuns.residentscanexpecnodeal (AFPA). the umbrella organization for Alberta's pulp mills,
with Alpac. For instance. Alpac has brought in city lawyers and presented a plan to the provincial government to redirect a
experts with volumes of facts and fi~_ures, overhead prgjections percentage of the royalties paid to the province for trees cu[ on
of graphs and flow charts -all the trappings of power and public land into a fund" to finance industrial forestry activities
formality. To appear similarly "legitimate" to local authorities. such as research, reforestation, vegetation surveys and infra-
residents have had [o find their own experts and lawyers. Local structure. The government approved the plan in 1994. Details of
authorities now take their role as decision-makers more I'or- these projects are confiden[iah closed not only [o [he public but
malty, and have learned to he more bureaucratic and more also to members of the provincial legislature, because industry
cautious as they hear appeals from [he public or represenmtionx deems [he information "proprietary".
from Alpac's legal counsel. In a parallel process influenced by industry advice, [he
In another instance, the effort of the local environmental government has reduced funds and staff in its forestry and
group, Friends of the Athabasca Environmental Association, to environmental protection departments and, increasingly, has
promote a safer pulp mill waste dump began with appeals at the allowed industry to "self regulate". Politicians publicly ration- '
local government level. Alpac challenged the environmental- alize the removal of government workers, the replacement of
fists' right to appeal the construction and design of its waste regulators with industry monitoring of effluent discharges,
dump. The local authorities agreed with the company,adecision logging practices and environmental performance by claiming
whichled[heenvironmenGtlists[oseekajudicialreviewoftheir that the forest industry in Alberta uses [he best available
ri?h[ [o appeal. This resulted in two court cases in [he provincial
capital. Edmonton, which the group lost. and [he enactment of
tough provincial rules that severely limit who may appeal
~~overnment decisions on health and . • I 1
environment.''
' I 1
Int7uencing Provincial Policy
A Iransnational company such as Alpac has much more formal _
political clout than any one individual or clusters of individuals. -
For example, mill area residents petitioned the government for
three years for atoll-free telephone service throughout the
county but was unsuccessful; the service only became available
when [he mill was approved. Rural mail delivery increased from
two days a week to five days a week when the mill started
operations.
More contentiously, political boundaries have been redrawn '
to include the mill and its forest concession within thejurisdic- - -
tion of one government member of the provincial legislature,
thus streamliningAlpac'saccesstogovernment.Forestbounda- ' -
ries have also been altered so [hat Alpac now deals with one Scotland's last remnants
instead of three forest districts and directors. Even the county
boundary has been extended to include more of the company's of native forest are under
operating area. threat.
At the provincial level, Alpuc inFluenccs government through dpin us in the fight agaln5t rUfOI depOpUlOtlOn
the forest industry representatives who serve on the various and ecological degradation. To subscribe to out
ma azine or become a member
boards which advise the Albettan premier on economic policy. g
contact:- ~
fundingfttrpost-secondaryeducation,forestconservationstrat- Refofe5tingSeotland,2laCoates
egies and northern river basin research. Atthe educational level, CteSCent, Edinburgh, EH3 7AF
.\Ipac makes presentations to primary and secondar schools. Tel. 0131 226 2496 FOX 0131 226
y 2503 Email: reforscot@gn.apc.org `
,applies them with videos and print materials, and hosts science
_ r,....,,., .uuwuuuw m~u ~nvuviuncutal pUlllal'S I11 ? \'arICIV OI WaVt
byit.,FurestCureprogrammel:motherAFPAinitiativU. with Significantrepercussiunsunthecommunitiesinvolbt~tla(fil~
My own enquiries to the provincial (orestry department political institutions, environmental values and democracy.
~lustrate how far the department has r lved itself from its Even at the Environn al Impact Assestiment public hearings,
traditional role of forest stewardship, pn.tection and informs- it was not foreseen that a pulp mill operating in a rural comm~-
tion. When 1 asked the department for the length of time it takes nity, would set the direction of university research or would
a tree in [he boreal forest to grow four metres, the local forester establish a precedent to deny public interest groups the right to
contacted Alpac for the answer, she went on to suggest that 1 appeal decisions that affect the environment.
telephone Alpac if 1 had further questions about tree growth, Those who have continued to oppose the mill, such as the
stumpage fees and regeneration. When I have contacted [he Friends of the Athabasca Environmental Association, have
Departments of Environment or Health for analyses of the focused their volunteer work on education, publications, regu-
materialin theAlpacwastedump-datatha[shouldbereported lotions, consultation and litigation. Some members feel com-
aspartofAlpac'sopera[ing licencefor(hedump-government fortablesi[tingwilhgovernmentandindus[rvatroundtablesand
employees forwarded my enquiries [o the company. consensus-model [ask forces; others have become more en-
Finally, Alpac is playing a highly political role in defining trenched in their opposition to the new industry-government
sustainable development in Alberta I[ has rallied science, partnership; while still others have taken the debate about
public opinion, government and academia to support the use of sustainable development [o the public and run for political
parts of its Crown forest concession to demonstrate "forest office.
ecosystem management." Alpac's environmental manager For many, the process of just trying to stay healthy -
helped devise the University of Alber[a~s Sustainable Forest physically and mentally - to maintain family relationships.
Management Centre of Excellence,"which promotes and eel- and [o deal with work life and farm life has worn down the ranks
ebrates research on [he effects of logging on the boreal forest. of mill opponents over the years. Slowly [hey are selling out.
Graduate students, university professors and consultants, all moving away, resigning themselves, dying or withdrawing
eager for work and funding at a time when public money has from politics-another unexpected consequenceofanine-year
been slashed from university budgets, now carry out research struggle.
for the forest industry. Much of what environmentalists, farmers and neighbours of
[his pulp mill discovered and experienced, including the unan-
ticipated consequences of a development project, may be rel-
ConClusiOn evant to others confronting [he increasingly sophisticated in-
dustrial public relations depiction of sustainable development,
Since 1990, Alberta-Pacific Forest Industries has insinuated the collusion of government, and the loss of power that local
itself into local and provincial government and into economic, people experience.
Notes and References
I. The sole source of moisture in hogs or muskegs cubic metre; therefore. each aspen logged is 9. Author imerview. April 1994. For more derail of
is precipitation, whereas fens have s'veams or wotth about 14 cents m smmpaee fees paid to the the impaas of this mill and how people talked
ground water flowing into them. For discussion govemmem. Furthermore, aseven-axle logging about their concerns, see Richardson. M.,
of the boreal forest see Boreal Forest Conference truck hauling 30 tonnts of poplar (32 cubic Sherman. J. and Gismondi. M., op. cit. 7.
Commutee, Boreal Forest Conference metres) would cost Alpac approximately S 14.7? 10. For an analysis of Alpac's compam newsl¢uer.
Proceedings, Athabasca University, Athabasca, in stumpage fees. Alpac a licensed to process 2.7 Fnresr Lundscnpe. see Sherman. 1. and
Alberta, 1992. million cubic metres of timber annually. Gismondi, M.. "Jock Talk. Goldfish. Horse
On average. an aspen growing in the boreal forest 5. The Albetta govemmem commmed more than Logging and Star Wars: How a Pulp Company
of Alberta would take %3 years to reach a height 51.35 billion in financial ass'ismnce w the forest communicmes a Green Inmge." A6errmrires
of 27.7 metres. whereas a balsam poplar would industry. See Pratt, L and Urquhart. L. The [.~.n Journal 23. No.l 11997).
take 16 years [o reach a height of 4 metres, or 65 Great Forest: Japanese Mulrinmionuls and I L Furusr Jandswpe. 30 April 1993, p.4.
years to grow to 23 metres tall. See Peterson. E. Alberta's NorMern Forests. Newest Press. I?. See Sherman. J., Gismondi, M. and Richardson. M..
8. and Peterson, N. M.. Ecology. Manµ¢emenr. Edmonton. 1994, pp.4-7. "Not Directly Affected: Using the law to Close the
and Use nfAspen and Balsam Poplar m the 6. Albetta-Pacific Forest Induvries Inc. is owned by Dmron Envimnmenlalists.''loumal nfCunudiun
Prairie Provinces, Special Report I, Forestry ajoint venture partnership comprising Mitsubishi Studies 31. no. I. Spring 1996, pp.102-I I%.
Canada, Minister of Supply anJ Services Canada (41 per cenq. Honshu Paper Co. 111 per cen0. 13. A percentage of limber fee royahies paid by the
Ouawa. 1992, p.17. Hokuetsu Paper (5 per centl. Kanzaki Paper forest industry to the Alberta govemmem is
3. The new chemi-thermo-mechanical pulp mills in Canada Inc (25 per cent) and public shareholders deposited imo the Forest Resource Improvement
Alberta are Millar Western Pulp Limited in f I8 per cenU. See Crestbrook Forest Induslnes, Program (FRIP). The government anticipates tha;
Whiteman: Alberta Energy Company Slave Ltd. Finn! Prospectus. 29 October 1991. FRIP will receive 513 million annually. This
Luke Pulp in Slave Lake-, and Alberta Newsprim Z Sec Richardson. M., Sherman. 1. and Gismondi, money is disnibumd to the comributing
Company in Whuecourt. The new bleached krafi M.. 14'inmrr,¢ Buck the Words.' Cnp(mmmg vompames (or forestry-related prtr)ecls. FRIP
pulp mills are Daishowu-Mambem Inrnmational E:rpern m mi Envvnnmenm( Public Neanrtg, inlirrmauon was proviJed m the author by the
near Peace River and the FL[subishi-controlled Garamond Press. Toronto, 1993. In March 1990. Minister o(Albetta Environmental Protecuon.
Alberta-Pacific Forest Industries near Alhabawa. the EIA Review Board recommendeJ that the U. Nineq~ per cem funded by taxpayers, the
4. Forest industries pav the Alberta eovemmenl proposed pulp mill not be approved "al that Sustainable Forest Manaeemcm Centre a
hetween '_5 cems and 52.50 per cubic metre for ume`. chine the need (or further study of its promoted as a S20 millicm partnership of
umber cut for pulp m (heir Gown forest health and environmental effects. The Alberni industry, univernty, and govemmem m proJuce
concessions. (Sec I% October 1995, letter from govemmem and the company argued that the a research conxonium that wJl Jnve the polio}
the Director. Forese Management Division. Land report was biased and inaccurate: the govcrnmem decison making process. The Acv Theme or the
anJ Forest Service, Alberta Environmental approve) the mill in December of thin year. Centre's recem international conference on
Prmecuun.l In 1997, Alpac pays 46 cents per 8. Rowe. S.. "Technology and Ecology'." Home sns[mnuble latest munaeement seemeJ m he Ihot
cubic metre Pot pulpwood. According to an Alpac Place: Essays un Eculo,¢y, Newest Press. technological expettise will dellne what is pool
represemnuve. 2 ~ uvpen trees would equal a Edmonton. 1990, p.6%. for the forests.
68 The Ecologist, VoL 27, No. 2- March/April 1997