- Brazilian paper pulp manufacturer Suzano's eucalyptus plantations are intensifying dry spell conditions in the Brazilian Cerrado, a brand-new report states, triggering water deficiency and biodiversity loss, which are affecting regional neighborhoods.
- Regardless of Suzano's sustainability claims and ESG qualifications, the business deals with unsettled accusations of land grabbing and social disputes with standard neighborhoods.
- Suzano continues to broaden its eucalyptus plantations, consisting of a brand-new factory including 2.55 million metric lots of pulp capability each year; conservationists alert this growth increases wildfire threat and water tension in the Cerrado.
- The business's high ESG scores, in many cases based just on its self-reporting, have actually assisted it protected billions of dollars in funding from significant banks, which the report implicates of making money from Suzano's harmful activities.
Suzano, the world's biggest exporter of eucalyptus pulp, intensely promotes an ecologically and socially accountable program: assuring to slash carbon emissions, minimize hardship, and bring back fragmented natural greenery in its native Brazil.
Conservationists have actually called these claims into concern, stating that behind Suzano's green image, the business's broadening eucalyptus plantations are drying out the land and increasing wildfire threat in the Cerrado savanna, which is currently experiencing record dry spell.
A report launched in July by the Environmental Paper Network (EPN) states the high water usage of eucalyptus monocultures– 30-60 liters (8-16 gallons) of water day-to-day per tree– in the Cerrado is intensifying dry spell conditions connected to environment modification and severe weather condition. The Cerrado savanna, covering a location bigger than Mexico and important for managing 40% of Brazil's freshwater, is facing its worst dry spell in more than 700 years, according to a 2024 research study.
Eucalyptus trees being lowered before getting carried to a pulp mill for processing. Eucalyptus pulp is made into toilet tissue, tissues and other paper items. Image © Daniel Beltrá/ Greenpeace.
The EPN report likewise states that lots of claims versus Suzano, reported by Mongabay in December 2021– such as land grabbing, biodiversity loss, and social disputes with conventional neighborhoods– stay unsettled.
In reaction to the report, Suzano has actually challenged the accusations.
Suzano informed Mongabay that environment modification is the primary chauffeur of dry spell and fire, which “any location inhabited by forest, whether natural or planted, has advantages occurring from the forest environment,” consisting of lowered temperature level extremes and preserved greater humidity levels. It likewise pointed out the essential “function of the Brazilian planted tree market in maintaining locations of native greenery.”
Eucalyptus is an alien types to Brazil, being belonging to western Australia. Scientists have actually discovered that eucalyptus trees trigger “remarkable decrease of biodiversity” and “avoid the development of roots of other plant types” when planted in nonnative communities, where regional types have not had a possibility to progress to the chemical compounds in the trees' leaves.
Conservationists state that eucalyptus monocultures worsen dry spell conditions due to their heavy water usage. » …
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