Environmental destruction
with green label
How the green steel in Brazil is
von Sandra Weiss
deprives the residents of water
aus
“It wasn't like this in the past,” says the farmer's wife. “Back then, our rivers had water all year round.”
Brazil's new government has slowed down deforestation in the Amazon. But other ecosystems are being destroyed. However, other ecosystems are being destroyed. Eucalyptus monocultures for steel production are depleting the water supply in the central Brazilian savanna. Europe also benefits from this."
is draining the water from the inhabitants.
25.000 litres of water is all Salete Cordeiro has for the next eight months. A hundred times less than the capacity of an Olympic swimming pool. Her family will have to survive eight months of drought with this. Salete Cordeiro lives in the Vale do Jequitinhonha in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. The valley is located in a semi-arid region in the middle of the Cerrado, a unique, biodiverse savanna and steppe landscape. The rainy season has just ended there, yet the dust is already blowing through the valley, and the ground is as hard as cement.
Cordeiro still can't resist. She fills a plastic cup with water and douses her favourite succulent in front of the house. In a few months' time, this will be an almost impossible luxury.
No more water for vegetables
“Within a few weeks, all the hills around our village were bulldozed,’ recalls Cordeiro. The slopes were originally home to a community forest, a traditional form of farming. It was a protected area for native flora and fauna and an important water reservoir. Rainwater was stored and filtered there in sponge-like soils. The rivers that fed the valleys during the dry season also originated there. Wild fruits grew in the forests, where armadillos, birds, jaguars and the "guará"maned wolf lived. Cordeiro still sheds tears at the thought of the many animals that fled in a hurry from the bulldozers or were run over. But protesting against the military dictatorship was pointless.
Nothing changed in 20 years
This is not the first time we have reported on the water shortage caused by eucalyptus monocultures in the Cerrado. Another report is focusing the Rio Pardo near Turmalina.
Excerpt from a nano/3sat programme
from 2004
City of Turmalina forced
to pay the watershed
The supply in the cistern, funded by a local non-governmental organization, is barely enough for the family's drinking water. The 54-year-old can no longer use it to water her vegetable garden during the dry season, and laundry is then washed only once every fortnight. Despite all her economy, she sometimes has to rely on the neighbour's well or the cistern trucks sent by the Turmalina city council - when there is money in the city coffers.
Despite all her economy, she sometimes relies on the neighbor's well or the cistern trucks sent by the Turmalina city administration—when there is money in the city coffers. "It wasn't like this before," says the farmer's wife. "Back then, our rivers had water all year round." Enough for the cultivation of food for sale and a few dairy cows. It was not a life of abundance, but a humble existence, adapted to the cycles of nature.
A Steppenwolf on the run
Cordeiro still sheds tears at the thought of the many animals that fled in a hurry from the bulldozers or were run over.
But then a project of the military dictatorship brought eucalyptus plantations to the Jequitinhonha Valley. The eucalyptus tree, which is not native to Brazil, grows quickly and removes moisture from the soil. The eucalyptus is processed into charcoal for a steel mill in Timóteo, located 140 kilometers from the provincial capital Belo Horizonte. The blast furnaces were initially operated by the state to reduce Brazil's import dependency.
In 1992, the steelworks and eucalyptus plantations were privatized. Since 2007, the steel and plantation complex has been owned by Aperam South America, a subsidiary of the Belgian-Indian steel conglomerate ArcelorMittal. This conglomerate is the second-largest steel company in the world, and its subsidiary based in Luxembourg is the market leader for stainless flat steel in Latin America. Aperam exports one-third of its production to Asia, Europe, and North America and has been listed on the stock exchange since 2011. 2.5 percent of the company is owned by the state of Luxembourg.
While the shareholders pocket the profits and European companies buy the steel from Aperam, thousands of families like the Cordeiros are struggling to survive. ‘Of 481 springs around Turmalina, only 40 still have water after 40 years of eucalyptus planting,’ says the deputy mayor of Turmalina, Warlen Francisco da Silva. Even local politicians like him, who were advocates of progress and industrial development, are now concerned about the consequences of monoculture. The environmental and infrastructure costs for the town have long since exceeded the 500,000 reais (93,000 euros) in taxes that Aperam pays annually to the town of 20,000 inhabitants. Roads over which the timber trucks rumble need to be maintained regularly. During the dry season, the municipality buys water from surrounding regions and delivers it to citizens who no longer have water, using water tank trucks.
Green eucalyptus desert
According to a study by the University of Minas Gerais, the groundwater level in the region has dropped by 4.50 metres in the last 45 years - significantly more than in neighbouring areas. According to the researchers, the eucalyptus is to blame: ‘The natural vegetation of the Cerrado manages to absorb 52 per cent of the rainwater, while a eucalyptus plantation only manages 29 per cent,’ Flavia Galizoni from the Agricultural Research Centre of the University of Minas Gerais has determined. Evaporation is correspondingly higher with eucalyptus. In addition, the company Aperam has built numerous retention basins and irrigation ditches for its plantations in order to irrigate them and combat the frequent forest fires - water that the communities then lack.
Human Rights versus the Pursuit of Profit
But water is not the only issue. ‘There is one job for every 125 hectares of eucalyptus,’ Galizoni has calculated. Added to this is the air pollution from the charcoal kilns and recurring wildfires. In addition, genetically modified eucalyptus monocultures have to be fed with artificial fertilisers and pesticides, which pollute the groundwater and the air. Soil and biodiversity are impoverished. ‘This is where human rights collide with the pursuit of profit by a transnational corporation,’ says Galizoni.
Nothing new really...
Excerpt from a nano/3sat programme
from 2004
How steel is recognised as green
A spokesperson for Aperam sees it quite differently. He points to new charcoal kilns that are supposed to improve the CO₂ balance and reduce it to zero. "Charcoal is better than fossil fuels," says Benone Braga. "We not only burn, but every year we plant new trees that have bound eight million tons of CO₂," he calculates. Thus, eucalyptus is a renewable resource, and the carbon dioxide balance is at least theoretically neutral.
A spokesperson for Aperam does not associate the water shortage with the plantations at all.
The young manager is also proud of the seal of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), an NGO that has been criticised internationally for greenwashing. The company uses it to advertise its ‘green steel’ on the internet and hopes that this will open up new sales markets, particularly in Europe, where sustainability is increasingly being demanded in supply chains.
However, side effects of the plantations, such as drought and the loss of biodiversity, are not included in the company's sustainability balance sheet. Benone does not link the water shortage to the plantations at all. He dismisses these concerns, stating that the drought is due to climate change and the many forest fires are the result of arsonists.
Desert future
While Galizoni still appeals to consumers' consciences, Cordeiro is resigned. She no longer believes she can resist for much longer. Of her six children, only her 14-year-old daughter is still at home. All the others have gone to the city. But Turmalina also has no future, fears Vice Mayor da Silva, if things continue this way: “We cannot live forever by exploiting nature. Eventually, we'll be sitting in a desert while international corporations have become filthy rich and simply move on.”
The second phase of the Supply Chain Act came into force in Germany on 1 January 2023. From now on, even smaller companies with a thousand or more employees must comply with the due diligence obligations and prove that environmental and human rights are being respected. Previously, the law only applied to large companies with 3,000 or more employees. In Germany, the Supply Chain Act also applies to financial service providers. However, as Aperam has its European headquarters in Luxembourg, the European Supply Chain Act applies there - and the financial sector was excepted from this.
" Eventually, we'll be sitting in a desert while international corporations have become filthy rich and simply move on.”
Theis report was created on a press trip with Misereor.