The rise in e-commerce has created a commensurate rise in demand for single-use paper packaging. Fast-growing, high-yield eucalyptus has become a popular choice for paper but farming communities in Mozambique are paying the price for cheap paper according to a Mongabay documentary produced by Boaventura Monjane, Davide Mancini and Juan Maza.
Portugal used to be Europe’s main source of cellulose for paper, made from eucalyptus. But locals became concerned about the Australian tree’s effect on the environment and fire risk. Indeed, compared with native oak trees, in eucalyptus plantations, “the fire spreads very rapidly due to the mass of flammable material,” forest engineer Domingo Patacho told Mongabay.
Central Portugal still grows a lot of eucalyptus, but in the 1980s, following protest in the north of the country, several paper companies began looking for alternative locations. “The people don’t want eucalyptus in Portugal. Well, we go and [bring it] to the [former] colonies,” Sergio Baffoni, Environmental Paper Network’s campaign coordinator, told the documentary team.
Baffoni said 3 billion trees are cut down each year to produce packaging, mostly single-use for e-commerce.
When the European Commission proposed legislation to reduced single-use packaging, the pulp and paper industry lobbied “massively,” Baffoni, said. Instead of reducing single-use packaging, there’s just been “a shift of the materials from plastic to paper, presenting paper as green, renewable and perfect for the environment,” he said.
The pulp and paper company Portucel is 80% owned by the Portuguese company Navigator and 20% owned by the International Finance Corporation of the World Bank. In 2011, the Mozambican government gave Portucel the rights to use land and develop eucalyptus plantations. However, the land overlapped with rural communities that had to give up their farmland to the paper company, the documentary said.
In return, the company promised locals employment and the construction of a school, hospital, water sources and access roads. “But they didn’t build any of these things,” farmer Mugabe Augusto told Mongabay. Furthermore, the promised employment only lasted for one month per year, not nearly enough to support a family.
The company was given access to 365,000 hectares (902,000 acres) of land in a densely populated community highly dependent on agriculture, Cornell University researcher Natacha Bruna told Mongabay.
Local farmers told Mongabay they want their land back after severe economic and environmental damage caused by the eucalyptus plantations, including reduced biodiversity from the monoculture crop.
Augusto said the wells in their community dried up after eucalyptus was introduced, and many local people developed diarrhea from the pesticide, which has been banned in the EU, that they use on the trees.
In a written statement to Mongabay, Portucel denied any correlation between the water levels and its eucalyptus plantations and said they use pesticides in accordance with local regulations.
The Mozambique government recently added legislated incentives to expand timber plantations for commercial purposes, Baffoni said.
Watch the documentary here.
Banner image of Mozambican farmer Mugabe Augusto by ©Davide Mancini.
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