Inside the controversial tree farms powering Apple’s carbon neutral goal

The tourist bus was ready to take workers down the highway at one in the morning, as it arrived in the nearest city, Três Lagais, by 3 in the morning to pick up the following shift. “You do not do this work without some birds at home to feed,” a driver commented as he watched his colleagues filled with holes in the field because of their headlights. After obtaining permission from his boss, he led us for an hour to the city to the nearest fuel station.

This highway across the Cellaz Valley has become known as the Opportunity Road, where the Eucalyptus was the new lifeline in the region after the cattle industry shrinkled. Not far from the new Suzano Factory, a famous road attraction on the side of the road is a large statue of a black revolution on the doors of well -known farm. The farm has been planted recently, and the bull is now being guarded by a number of valenx from the Eucalyptus.

In Tiktok, workers publish personal photos and scenes of tractors in nearby orchards, supported by a song from the local music duo Jads e jadson. “I will plant some eucalyptus / I will become rich and will fall in love with me,” sings a lucky man in danger. Later, when he cuts trees and becomes a rich man who has better options, he also cuts his sermon.

The race to plant more eucalyptus here is strongly supported by the state government, which last year gave up the environmental requirements of the new farms on the pastures and hoped to double its area quickly within a few years. The trees were an important component in the Brazil plan to meet their global climate obligations, and the wood industry was keen on money. Companies such as Susano have already suggested that tens of thousands of their hectares be eligible to get carbon assets.

What is the upper part of the mind for everyone, though, is the deterioration of fires. Even when we visited in the middle of the winter, the weather was hot and dry. The area was the largest drought, and perhaps the worst in 700 years, and within a few weeks, one of the worst fire seasons will begin. Susano will have a rare temporary suspension in its cultivation when the soil temperatures reached 154 degrees Fahrenheit.

It has been published along the highway, which are fixed reminders for the next danger: signs, fake with the slogans of dozens of wooden companies, which read “Fogo Zero” or “Zero Fire”.

Pablo Albarga

In other places, Megafires, such as Portugal and Chile, was blamed on the eucalyptus for the exacerbation of the fire. (The Chilean government recently excluded Pine and Eucalyptus farms from its climate plans.) “You really need to protect it because this is your origin,” he said. (BTG also noticed that in parts of Cerrado where human activity increased, fires decreased.)

Eucalyptus is often photographed as an impossible thirst compared to other trees, but Calmon indicated that it is not unique. In some parts of Cerrado, it was found that it consumes four times the water like the original vegetable cap; In other cases, the landscape was almost in a line. This depends on many factors – what is the soil type in which they are grown, what cerrado plants are with them, and how the eucalyptus is cultivated intensively. Wood companies, which are not interested in seeing their dry farms, are invested extensively in water management. Wishnie told me that the other hope is that by increasing the umbrella of the forest, the new eucalyptus will collect moisture and help in the production of rain.