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Brazil

We Had Everything: How the Forest Was Taken in the Land of Drums and Resistance

This is Part 2 of a story documenting EPN International Program Coordinator, Sergio Baffoni, during his month-long journey across Brazil, where he met with communities defending their customary rights and seeking support to make their struggles visible. The road stretches on for miles, hemmed in by two dense walls of sickly-looking trees. Endlessly. These are […]

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From Dust to Green: Voices of Hope Between the Eucalyptus Rows

This is Part 1 of a story documenting EPN International Program Coordinator, Sergio Baffoni, during his month-long journey across Brazil, where he met with communities defending their customary rights and seeking support to make their struggles visible. The road is dusty. Deep ruts run in both directions, worn by trucks that thunder past all day […]

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Land, Water, and Blood: The Atlas of Rural Conflict in Brazil

Behind Brazil’s global image as a land of natural abundance—and the host of this year’s international climate summit—lies a stark reality: centuries of violence, dispossession, and resistance in the countryside. The Atlas of Conflicts in the Brazilian Countryside, published by the Pastoral Land Commission (a Catholic Church-affiliated organization), documents more than 50,000 land and water […]

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Pulp profits, broken lives: Suzano’s war on Brazilian families

Suzano, the world’s largest producer of eucalyptus pulp, has requested the eviction of 600 families in the Brazilian state of Maranhão. The eviction, previously blocked by the Brazilian Federal Supreme Court, has now been authorized and is scheduled for June 30. Suzano is a major landholder, controlling 2.7 million hectares across seven Brazilian states and […]

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Brazil rises against eucalyptus plantations: ‘These are not forests!’

Around 1000 women from Sem Terra ocupam protest in Aracruz (Espirito Santo, Brazil). Foto: © MST   On March 13th, in the city of Aracruz (Espírito Santo, Brazil), 1,000 women from the Landless Workers’ Movement (MST) occupied land owned by Suzano Papel e Celulose, the world’s largest pulp producer, to protest the environmental impact of […]

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Pulp Fiction: the dystopian reality of the origin of your paper

A new report by Environmental Paper Network International debunks the story that paper is ‘green’ and ‘renewable’. Evidence piles up on the ecological and human impacts of the pulp expansion frenzy.   16 July 2024 – Today, the Environmental Paper Network International has launched a daunting report on Suzano, the world’s largest producer of eucalyptus pulp and […]

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Indigenous Rights, Paper Giants and Armed Squads. Scenes from Land Conflicts in Brazil

Several Indigenous communities, who had reclaimed their ancestral lands taken away by companies, have recently been targeted by armed fazendeiros (agrarian latifundists) mobs in different regions of Brazil.  The official recognition of these areas as Indigenous land can be an arduous process. It’s often hampered by legal actions carried out by the fazendeiros, and the […]

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Earth Day Food-for-Thought: Development Funds Dissolving into Pulp

Today is the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, a symbolic date celebrated around the world to show support for environmental action. But this year is different. 2020 carried high expectations in the fight against climate change, but people were caught by surprise by the COVID-19 pandemic. Our ways of life are disrupted, millions are locked […]

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