Brazil’s Landless Workers’ Movement (MST) occupied the place where the National Technical Biosafety Commission would vote the introduction of genetically engineered eucalyptus trees planting into the country. Meanwhile, in Itapetininga, 1,000 woman from the landless movement occupied the plant of the major company dealing with transgenic Eucalyptus, FuturaGene.
The vote by was going to happen inside a technic governmental body, without any debate in the Brazilian public opinion. The protest organized by SMT prevented this. The vote has been postponed, and the public opinion has been informed.
Eucalyptus plantations for paper production in Brazil have occupied vast areas of the country. They are responsible for several negative impacts, such as conflicts with indigenous peoples, erosion of soil and groundwater. The large-scale introduction of transgenic trees would have added additional impacts, such as the risk of contamination, the higher intensity of water and nutrients consumption and the soil erosion.