A Chilean company with a history of pollution has begun building a new pulp and paper mill in Brazil, threatening to turn a highly biodiverse region into a “green desert” of eucalyptus monoculture, experts warn. Arauco announced in April this year that it would begin work on the Projeto Sucuriú site in Inocência municipality, in […]

A Chilean company with a history of pollution has begun building a new pulp and paper mill in Brazil, threatening to turn a highly biodiverse region into a “green desert” of eucalyptus monoculture, experts warn. Arauco announced in April this year that it would begin work on the Projeto Sucuriú site in Inocência municipality, in Mato Grosso do Sul state. The project is expected to cover 3,500 hectares (about 8,650 acres) near where the MS-377 highway crosses the Sucuriú River. The company is investing $4.6 billion in the project, or nearly a fifth of Mato Grosso do Sul’s 2021 GDP, according to Brazilian government data. In August, the company signed a contract for financing amounting to $250 million from the Interamerican Development Bank (IDB) and another $600 million from the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC). The Mato Grosso do Sul state environment agency, IMASUL, issued the company its installation license in May 2024, at an event attended by the state’s governor, Eduardo Riedel; Inocência Mayor Antônio Ângelo; and Arauco’s Brazilian CEO, Carlos Altimiras. Riedel said at the event that Arauco is one of the world’s cleanest pulp and paper companies, and touted its commitment to sustainability and carbon neutrality. In Brazil, however, the pulp and paper industry is classified as being potentially highly polluting under the as stated in 2000 National Environmental Policy Law. The project also poses a threat to the biodiversity and water resources of this region of Brazil, which lies in the Cerrado biome, the world’s…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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