Brazil’s quilombos face eucalyptus giant in land war | Brazil | Al Jazeera
▻http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2016/11/brazil-quilombos-face-eucalyptus-giant-land-war-161123122742103.html
In Sape do Norte, in the far north of Espirito Santo, Brazil, 32 communities refer to the 111,000 hectares of land as the “green desert”. #Quilombolas, members of these communities, are the descendants of slaves who created settlements called #quilombos. The “green desert” refers to the eucalyptus plantation which has gradually spread over land that they claim is rightfully theirs.
The eucalyptus monoculture arrived in the region during the 1960s under Brazil’s military dictatorship. “The lands were not clearly divided or marked by fences,” community leader Domingo Firmiano dos Santos said. “The absence of land titles facilitated illegal occupation. Anyone who didn’t sell their piece of land at a bargain price was pressured, threatened, and forced to leave.”
Fibria Celulose, the global leader in bleached eucalyptus pulp and a paper company which exports to more than 40 countries, now owns and manages these eucalyptus plantations. The company said in a statement response for this article that it also owns all the disputed lands in question.