In South America, the pulp, paper and biomass industries are rapidly expanding across vast territories, replacing native forests, grasslands and community lands with industrial tree plantations and mega-mills. This model concentrates land ownership, intensifies social conflicts, and deepens environmental degradation. To address these challenges, EPN coordinates two working groups:
The EPN South America Pulp and Paper Working Group brings together groups to investigate and face the impacts of the pulp & paper rapid expansion across the continent.
The paper industry boom in South America
Over the past two decades, pulp and paper production in South America has expanded dramatically, reaching a capacity of more than 36 million tonnes per year and continuing to grow by roughly half a million tonnes annually. This rapid expansion comes at a high cost. Although industrial pulpwood plantations are often promoted as “green,” they pose serious threats to the environment, the global climate, and Indigenous Peoples and local communities.
While companies claim to establish plantations on land previously cleared for cattle ranching, the reality is more complex. The expansion of industrial tree plantations pushes ranching further into forest frontiers, indirectly driving new deforestation. In newly acquired areas, remaining patches of native vegetation are frequently cleared to make way for vast monocultures of eucalyptus.
Eucalyptus plantations consume large quantities of water, depleting soils and watercourses, increasing fire risk, and placing additional pressure on surrounding native forests. These plantations also rely on intensive pesticide use, often applied through aerial spraying, contaminating ecosystems and harming wildlife and pollinators.
Indigenous Peoples and local communities are the first to bear the consequences. Many have lost access to their traditional lands, while their remaining livelihoods — from small-scale farming to fishing and forest-based activities — are increasingly undermined by the expansion of the pulp and paper industry.
Brazil
As the pulp industry expands onto seized land, cattle ranching is pushed deeper into forest frontiers, driving further deforestation. Local communities are left facing drought, destructive fires, and chemical pollution from intensive plantation management. EPN is investigating the environmental and social costs of this expansion and working with local NGOs to monitor land grabbing, social conflicts, and community impacts.
Chile
Indigenous communities have seen their ancestral lands taken and transferred to pulp and paper companies, without restitution. In return, they face the consequences of a forestry model based on large-scale monoculture plantations, including increasingly severe and deadly forest fires. EPN is investigating the industry’s impacts and supporting initiatives aimed at transforming the current plantation-based forestry model.
Paraguay
The pulp industry is now targeting Paraguay, with plans for a massive new pulp mill alongside a World Bank-supported strategy to accelerate eucalyptus plantation expansion. EPN works with local partners to support affected communities and to challenge this far-reaching transformation of land use.
The South America Working Group on Pulp and Paper meets virtually every two months to share strategies and develop projects. To join this working group, please reach out to sergio.baffoni@environmentalpaper.org
The Biomass Action Network’s “Latin America Working Group” brings together member groups working across Latin America to protect people and the environment from the biomass energy industry. The group is currently coordinated by Jana Uemura, based in Brazil.
Key issues linked to biomass energy in Latin America
Across Latin America, the production and use of wood for energy is expanding rapidly, often promoted as part of national decarbonisation or “green” energy agendas. However, this expansion is closely linked to:
Chile
In Chile, communities near large pulp complexes like Arauco’s Valdivia plant face impacts such as pollution, forest degradation, and conflicts over water and land – impacts which are worsening due to the integration of biomass power stations into pulp mills. Often presented as a renewable energy solution, this practice is actually intensifying extractivism and greenhouse gas emissions, and was documented by the working group in a case study in 2021.
In 2025, member groups gathered in Chile for a Climate Justice meeting, organized by the Platform for Latin American and Caribbean Climate Justice, to share community experiences, strengthen connections and advance joint work on biomass energy in the region.
Brazil
Brazil is the world’s largest producer of charcoal, nearly all of which is made using wood from eucalyptus plantations. The majority of its charcoal goes to fuel the country’s iron and steel industry, with most mills located in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais, which also has the largest area of monoculture plantation in the country.
In 2025, member groups Global Forest Coalition and the HOME Alliance began collaborating on an investigation into Aperam BioEnergia’s charcoal and biochar production, publishing an interview with researcher Karen Lang, who visited impacted communities in the Jequitinhonha Valley to hear stories of how their lives and territories have been affected by the company’s operations. We are currently working on producing a report based on these findings.
Paraguay, Argentina, and Uruguay
In Paraguay, Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil, agribusinesses are increasingly using woody biomass — often sourced from native forests or tree plantations — to produce charcoal to dry grains such as soybeans and corn. This trend connects agricultural expansion with deforestation and the biomass industry, consolidating corporate control over rural territories. Our local member groups have started to expose these links and their implications for biodiversity and community rights.
To join this working group, please reach out to sophie@environmentalpaper.org
