- 52 Environmental Paper Network member organizations consider the investment not environmentally sustainable.
- In letters sent to the Environment and Industry authorities of the Xunta de Galicia and the Spanish Government, they warn of the serious negative impacts Altri’s new pulp mill would generate.
November 28th, 2024 – Fifty-two environmental NGOs, part of the Environmental Paper Network, from five continents have sent an open letter to the Regional Ministries of Environment and Industry of the Xunta de Galicia and the Ministries of Ecological Transition and Industry, requesting the definitive halt of the Altri/Greenfiber pulp and eucalyptus fibre mill project in Palas de Rei (region of A Ulloa, Lugo).
The signatory organisations advised against implementing Altri’s project and requested that it be definitively rejected. Among other issues, they draw attention to the impacts it would have on the natural environment in which the factory is to be located, on the biodiversity of highly valuable areas, on vulnerable and endangered species, on cultural heritage, on local primary sectors, on water resources and the health of people in a wide radius of action.
Read the full letter in English or Spanish.
The organisations also draw attention to the ‘eucalyptusation’ process that Galicia has undergone together with central and northern Portugal, a phenomenon they consider ‘unusual in Europe’. In their opinion, this situation has caused an enormous loss of biodiversity and a significant deterioration of the region’s ecological integrity, radically affecting the native forest masses and many other high-value habitats in need of conservation. Similarly, the signatories also expressed their doubts about the effectiveness of the current moratoriums on new eucalyptus plantations in Galicia and Portugal, the aim of which should be to limit their expansion.
The NGOs also point out that ‘the project does not meet the conditions to go ahead or to be financed with public money through the European funds Next Generation EU, as it is contrary to the sustainability objectives of these funds’. Specifically, they denounce that while one of the objectives of these funds is ‘to improve the water quality of our rivers and seas and reduce waste’, the project will further worsen the water quality of the river Ulla. It will also exacerbate the oversaturation of the pulp and paper industry in this region.
Instead, they advise that ‘we should go in the opposite direction: reduce the area of eucalyptus as required by the Galician Forestry Plan currently in force, move towards an overall reduction in paper production and consumption, promote reusable packaging, maximise the recycled fibre content of paper products, increase the use of other recovered materials and end the use of fibres from threatened forests and woodlands, ecosystems and habitats of high conservation value, moving towards new generation fibres rather than from wood’.
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