Goncalvez stated that the advance of this model during the 80s was favoured by the federal and state governments, which promoted eucalyptus as an exotic plantation and useful for the reforestation of territories.

Over twenty years later, five companies alone, among them Stora Enso and Aracruz Celulosa, control 700 thousand hectares of this Brazilian region, causing irreparable damages on the water resources and also on the human health due to the intensive use of agrotoxics.

“More eucalyptus mean more poverty”, stated Goncalvez who could document a worrying increase of violence and prostitution since the beginning of the expansion of these green deserts.