Genetically engineered trees: a new threat in Brazil
Date: 31 March 2015
Anne Petermann, Executive Director of Global Justice Ecology Project writes about a worrying new threat to food sovereignty in Brazil and how we can take action.
On 9 April, Brazil may approve the commercial planting of eucalyptus trees that have been genetically engineered (GE) to grow faster. This would be a major problem for Brazil’s environment, especially its forests, and for local communities and indigenous peoples. There are already millions of hectares of eucalyptus plantations in Brazil. Eucalyptus are very thirsty trees and they are also a major fire hazard. Faster growing GE eucalyptus would be commercially attractive but existing eucalyptus plantations already have negative impacts on local communities, agrarian reform, land rights, and food sovereignty, which would rapidly increase. Brazil has not carried out enough tests on these trees to justify release. We need a global response to say no to GE eucalyptus in Brazil.
The Campaign to Stop GE Trees is promoting a petition to the National Technical Commission for Biosecurity (CTNBio) in solidarity with those fighting GE trees in Brazil, to demand a total rejection of GE trees. The deadline is 8 April at GMT 18:00.
The situation
FuturaGene, a biotechnology firm wholly owned by Brazilian pulp and paper company Suzano, has submitted a request for commercial planting of its yield-enhanced genetically engineered eucalyptus trees in Brazil.
Suzano/FuturaGene argue that their new GE tree will result in a 20% increase in productivity and by doing so will increase “competitiveness and environmental and socio-economic gains through higher productivity, using less land and therefore overall lower chemical inputs and lowered carbon release, as well as making land available for food production or conservation and enhancing the income of outgrowers”. These myths do not stand up to real facts and are addressed below.
GE trees will create more problems
The use of faster growing GE trees in industrial plantations will exacerbate the already well-known negative social and environmental impacts caused by industrial tree plantations while introducing yet further impacts due to the additional risks inherent to genetic engineering.
Industrial tree plantation companies have long promised that gains in productivity would lead to less land use. This is a myth. In Brazil, for example, where the productivity of monoculture tree plantations per hectare increased from 27 m3/ha/year in the 1980s to 44 m3/ha/year currently, the area covered by plantations has increased from about 4 million hectares at the end of the 1980s to more than 7.2 million hectares today.
Historically, there is thus no evidence that in Brazil, increases in productivity led to less land being occupied by industrial tree plantations. A newly formed association, Indústria Brasileira de Árvores (Ibá), representing the Brazilian industrial tree plantation industry states that they intend to double the area of industrial tree plantations to 14 million hectares by 2020.
Suzano seeks to exploit new markets
Suzano recently opened a new pulp mill in the state of Maranhão with 1.5 million tons/year capacity. Huge areas of land covered with tree monocultures will be needed to fulfill Suzano’s wood demand for pulp, as well as for added demand. Suzano plans to explore new uses of its wood with a project in the same state to produce and export wood pellets for energy production, to co-fire with coal in the UK. The use of biomass for industrial scale energy production remains highly controversial, and its negative social, environmental and climate impacts have been documented widely.
People and environment will pay the costs
While profits from this expansion go to Suzano shareholders, the social, ecological and economic costs as well as increased risk to regional food sovereignty and health will be borne by the Brazilian public. Many conflicts over access to land already exist, and living conditions of communities surrounded by Suzano’s operations have deteriorated to the point that communities are now struggling to guarantee their food sovereignty and are increasingly at risk of losing their territories.
GE crops lead to increased use of agrotoxins
There is no plausible reason to expect that the use of ‘chemical inputs’, including agrotoxins, will decrease as a result of planting GE trees. On the contrary, it will increase with the increasing occupation of land, the intensification of growing cycles, and the ensuing nutrient depletion of soil and land.
Brazil, sadly, is already the world’s leading consumer of agrotoxins, causing injury to hundreds if not thousands of victims per year. The argument used by the GE technology lobby that the introduction of GE crops—such as soy and maize—results in less use of pesticides and fertilizers has already been proven to be false. In countries including Brazil, Argentina, and the United States – front-runners in GMO soy and maize production—research has shown an alarming increase in the use of agrotoxins.
Damaging soil and water supplies
Genetically engineering trees to make them grow faster, while planting them in ever larger industrial tree plantations, will only lead to further depletion of soil nutrients and fresh water. This is especially true for eucalyptus trees, already notorious for their voracious water consumption. The introduction of faster growing GE trees will only further aggravate this situation.
Take Action
Brazil’s biotech committee, CTNBio will now meet on 9th April to decide whether to approve GE eucalyptus. We have to keep up the pressure, so please organise protests at your local Brazilian embassy – and take any of the actions below that you can – sign the petition and pass it on to as many people as possible.
This is crucial. GE trees are a potential threat to ecosystems, livelihoods, food sovereignty, land rights, local communities, indigenous peoples and social and ecological justice. The international community needs to send the message loud and clear to Brazil: we con’t want or need them.
Sign the petition calling for the government of Brazil to ban GE Trees by 8 April
Find out more: http://stopgetrees.org/
