(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
Early in the morning of April 6, 2500 landless peasants stormed in and occupied a 25-acre site of the eucalyptus plantations of Veracel Celulose in the state of Bahia, Brazil.
Equipped with machete knives and long axes, they chopped down four hectares of eucalyptus trees within a few hours, which the occupiers used to build houses. After that, they proceeded to clear plantation forests to grow corn, cassava and beans.
The announcement of the largest occupation under the auspices of the Movement for the Rights of the Landless (MST) in Bahia quickly reached the largest newspapers in Brazil – and the owners of Veracel; Erling Lorentzen's giant company Aracruz Celulose and the Swedish / Finnish company Stora-Enso.
- Can't wait any longer
The two companies have invested over a billion US dollars in Veracel in the form of a new cellulose plant under construction and 96.000 hectares of eucalyptus plantations in southern Bahia.
- We can not wait any longer. President Lula is only making promises, was the message of MST's spokesman for the occupiers, according to the Brazilian newspaper Folha de São Paulo.
According to MST and the Green Desert Movement – an association of a number of organizations that see monocultural eucalyptus plantations as destructive to the environment and people – Veracel, with its seizure of large tracts of land, is an obstacle to land reform in the area.
The occupation of the company's plantations is in deep dissatisfaction with the government's land reform. Authorities plan to spend a billion dollars to settle around 60.000 landless families. But according to MST, the reform is paralyzed for various reasons.
The day after the occupants began swinging their axes and machete knives, Veracel admitted that 3500 homeless had settled in their eucalyptus plantations.
To the newspaper Jornal do Brasil, the company's president, Vitor Manoel da Costa, demanded that Lula and the government resolutely intervene against this "threat to democracy". Otherwise, the action would damage Brazil's reputation in the international business community.
The following day, on Thursday, the authorities began negotiations with MST and the occupants of Bahia's capital, Salvador.
Strong pressure
The pressure from Veracel to end the occupation was very great, and the fear of using violence against the occupants was very much present. The result was that the shareholders on Langfredag agreed to leave Veracel's areas. In exchange, MST was promised a land reform in southern Bahia where 30.000 hectares will be set aside this year to settle landless families.
According to the organization PHASE, which is part of the Movement against the Green Desert, as many as 1500 families will be able to settle under this agreement.
Miguel Rosetto, the minister of state for land reform in Brazil and one of the most progressive in Lula's government, countered the president in Veracel's accusations that the occupiers were harming democracy. Instead, he stated that the occupation was the result of great social violence and injustice in rural Brazil.
According to MST and the environmental movement, the strong pressure from the Brazilian elite against Lula and his government shows how scared large multinational companies, such as Norwegian Aracruz and Swedish / Finnish Stora-Enso, are to lose control of their resources – in this context eucalyptus plantations.
