Eucalyptus Tree Plantation of Plantar S.A.

in Minas Gerais, Brazil

The Plantar Project

• Plantar is involved in several business– Plantation management

– Production of barbecue charcoal

– Production of charcoal for use in its pig iron smeltering

Plantar’s carbon credit project

• Part of the World Bank Prototype Carbon Fund (PCF)

• Project has three components• Carbon credits will finance expansion of already

vast eucalyptus plantations by another 23.100ha• After app. 7 years trees will be cut to make

charcoal – produce pig iron – make steel – manufacture cars – allow more CO2 in the atmosphere

Why is the project so controversial?

• Involves expansion of eucalyptus plantation to new areas not yet covered by eucalyptus monocultures

• Expansion is strongly opposed by civil society movement ‘Alert Against the Green Desert’ in Brasil

• Forest Stewardship Council certificate for good plantation management is heavily contested

• Plantar is a precedent in the carbon market: First plantation to seek credits through the Kyoto Protocol for planting trees

Controversial FSC certification

• WRM report documenting how certifier SCS over looked many problematic issues and did not carry out a meaningful consultation with the full range of ‘affected ‘stakeholders’

• WRM response to SCS re-certification report which claimed to have addressed the concerns raised in the WRM report

• SinksWatch submission to FSC for annual audit of SCS, including initial desk review of certification by Silva Consultants, former FSC accredited certifier

All documents at www.sinkswatch.org

Impact on water

Plantations improving ‘degraded’ land?

Or destroying land used by peasants and the landless?

Charcoal

Movements in Brazil say no to new Eucalyptus Plantations

But the World Bank’s Prototype Carbon Fund still promotes the project as a clean development project

and finances the expansion of the monoculture eucalyptus

plantations

And the FSC certification provides access to this new

subsidy for Plantar

What NGOs have done so far

• Series of letters to WB Prototype Carbon Fund Investors

• European Tour in June 2003 and June 2004• Meetings with individual investors• Reports documenting the flaws of the FSC

certificate• Submission to FSC calling for certificate to be

repealed if our documented failures in management and consultation are confirmed

• Articles and critical analysis from carbon analysts: Plantar a ‘PR desaster’