Home > Vale Says Peasants Destroyed Offices of Its Reforestation Unit
Vale Says Peasants Destroyed Offices of Its Reforestation Unit
by Open-Publishing - Monday 10 March 2008Environment South/Latin America
Vale Says Peasants Destroyed Offices of Its Reforestation Unit
By Romina Nicaretta
March 8 (Bloomberg) — Cia. Vale do Rio Doce SA, the world’s biggest iron-ore producer, said a group of peasants invaded and destroyed offices of its reforestation unit in the Brazilian northern state of Maranhao.
Militants from Movimento dos Tralhadores Sem Terra invaded today the administrative offices of Monte Libano Farm, where Vale plants trees used in the production of charcoal, the Rio de Janeiro-based company said in an e-mail today. No one has been hurt, said Cica Guedes, a spokeswoman for Vale.
Vale has called for police reinforcements to prevent further attacks to its properties, the statement said. The group has threatened to invade a nearby reforestation-research unit, the company said.
Vale said the invasion was to commemorate Women’s International Day. Simone Silva, a spokeswoman for the militant group, known for its acronym MST, didn’t return a telephone call from Bloomberg News seeking comment. MST translates to Landless Workers Movement.
Members of MST, an international group made up of rural workers, have taken destructive actions against other international companies before today.
Yesterday, 300 peasant militants of Via Campesina, an arm of MST, invaded Monsanto Co.’s seed-research unit in southern Brazil and destroyed a greenhouse and a testing field for genetically modified corn, the group said in an e-mailed statement.
About 900 women from Via Campesina destroyed four hectares (10 acres) of industrial eucalyptus plantations cultivated by Finland’s Stora Enso Oyj in Rio Grande do Sul state, near the Uruguay border, on March 4. Via Campesina claimed Stora Enso’s site was illegal because of its proximity to the border, the Landless Workers said in a statement.
To contact the reporter on this story: Romina Nicaretta in Sao Paulo at rnicaretta kvc bloomberg.net
Last Updated: March 8, 2008 12:56 EST