EUCALYPTOLOGICS: GIT Forestry Consulting Information Resources on Eucalyptus Cultivation Worldwide :: EUCALYPTOLOGICS: GIT Forestry Consulting Recursos de Informacion sobre Cultivo Sostenible de Eucalyptus :: Information Resources on Eucalyptus Cultivation Worldwide

Navarro de Andrade, the man who planted 24 million Eucalyptus trees... or more.

Eucalyptus in Brazil: Building ElDorado in the Amazon

EUCALYPTOLOGICS brings you today a video depicting an impressive feat of naval, chemical, mining, agricultural, civil and forestry engineering in the mouth of the Amazon River. The birth of Monte Dourado (El Monte Dorado, The Golden Forest) of Pará and Amapá, and the development of Eucalyptus cultivation in Northern Brazil.

Jari Celulose Eucalyptus Cellulose Pulp Mill, Pará, Brazil / Travelling Pulp Mill Video / Projeto Jari / Jari Project / World Class Eucalyptus Forestry and Pulp Industry / GIT Forestry Consulting, Consultoria y Servicios de Ingenieria Agroforestal, Lugo, Galicia, España, Spain / Eucalyptologics

Projeto Jari: Shipping a Built Pulp Mill From Japan to the Amazon

An American in the Amazon

By 1930... a young North American entrepreneur from Michigan (USA) with practical expertise in shipping industry received the first commissions to build a new type of transport vessel. Soon a prosperous fortune was fueled as oil tankers first and supertankers later became a vital piece for successful worldwide trade.

In 1967... the Invisible Billionaire, Daniel K. Ludwig envisioned some of the catastrophic environmental effects of uncontrolled global population growth, and decided to do his part to reduce the rate of defforestation of natural woodlands tied to an increasing demand of pulp and paper products. An thus, Projeto Jari was born.

From 1967 to 1981... more than 750 million dollar investments by Ludwig included the purchase of 1,200,000 hectares of very sparsely inhabited land at both shores of the Jari River; starting 100,000 hectares of Gmelina arborea timber crops to sustain a renewable source of raw fibre; building the port of Munguba for prospective exports plus a connected network of roads and railroads; founding the city of Monte Dourado and providing it with hospitals, schools, nurseries and housing; and launching agricultural schemes for rice cultivation and cattle production.

Projeto Jari: The Floating Pulp Mill Video

Arrival of the pulp mill to Jari after 25,000 km of trasoceanic towing. Video courtesy Edda Narciso

In 1978... the shipping magnate received a fully built ship-shaped pulp mill factory previously commissioned at Japanese Kure dockyards and towed it in 85 days accross the Pacific, Indic and part of the Atlantic to the mouth of the Amazon River, and up the river to the Jari. Just as we are due its 30th anniversary, you can watch the arrival and installation of the travelling factory in the video above. A combined feat of naval, chemical and civil engineering. Not to mention a costly venture even at such latitudes.

Unfortunately, establishing tree farms in the tropics is not an easy task. Neither for trees nor for people. Timber yields of Gmelina were poorer than anticipated in these conditions of soil and climate, operating costs were high, volume of investment astronomic, and short term returns modest. However all the needed pieces were set up for future profit, except the suitable trees. And then...

Eucalyptus based pulp & paper industry keeps Jari afloat

In 1981 Ludwig transferred his interests in the Projeto Jari to Brazilian investors and bounced back to his already well diversified entrepeunerial emporium. Soon afterwards, 75 years after Navarro de Andrade started industrial planting with the Australian trees in Southern Brazil, Eucalyptus started replacing Gmelina as major timber crop at Jari, and became a good example of the adaptability and good growth of these wonder trees to the extreme environmental conditions of the tropics when suitable forest management is implemented.

Jari Celulose Eucalyptus Cellulose Pulp Mill, Monte Dourado, Pará, Brazil / World Class Eucalyptus Forestry and Pulp Industry / GIT Forestry Consulting, Consultoria y Servicios de Ingenieria Agroforestal, Lugo, Galicia, España, Spain / Eucalyptologics

Jari Celulose - World Class Eucalyptus Cellulosic Pulp Industry

Today... Monte Dourado is inhabited by 20,000 Brazilian citizens, the port of Munguba exports over 300,000 tonnes of Eucalyptus cellulosic kraft pulp per year, Jari's pulp mill uses state-of-the-art low environmental impacting ECF technologies for bleaching, and its renewable raw fibre supply (70% Eucalyptus, 20% Gmelina, 10% Pinus) has been certified by FSC for its sustainable forest management.

In addition to the Eucalyptus based industry, one of the finest sources of kaolin clays in Brazil exploited under sensible practices (including habitat restoration) comes also from the Jari and provides raw materials for a multitude of final uses.

Industrial procesing of CADAM (Caulim da Amazonia SA) Jari Kaolinite. Video courtesy Edda Narciso

Among these final products, coated paper. So one of the finest short fibre cellulosic pulps and one of the finest coating materials are both exported from the Jari to become some of the highest quality printing papers in the world.

Not bad as a result for the crazy dream of an American in the Amazon!

Daniel K. Ludwig died in 1992 at age 95. His legacy includes a share of profits in the Jari until 2026.

Simple Math for People Worried About "Evil" Eucalyptus Propaganda

JARI CELULOSE= +1,000,000 hectares = 350,000 tons of pulp per year

Eucalyptus plantations = 52,000 hectares (-3% of their landbase)
Environmental recovery & preservation = +1,000,000 hectares (+90% of their landsbase)

States of Pará & Amapá = 139,050,409 hectares
Jari Eucalyptus plantations = 0.037% of Pará & Amapá; 0.06% of Brazil

Brazil = 851,487,700 hectares

Soybean= 22,949,000 ha ( 2.69% of Brazil)
Corn = 11,559,000 ha ( 1.36% of Brazil)
Sugar Cane = 6,172,000 ha (0.72% of Brazil)
Rice = 3,916,000 ha (0.46% of Brazil)
Wheat = 2,361,000 ha (0.28% of Brazil)

Combined major agricultural crops = 46,957,000 ha (5.5% of Brazil)

Eucalyptus plantations = circa 4,000,000 hectares
(0.5% of Brazil, LESS THAN 1%!)

Do You Still Believe "the evil " Eucalyptus monocultures are taking over the world??

Navarro de Andrade Eucalyptus nursery at Horto Florestal de Rio Claro / Produccao de mudas de eucalipto na Paulista de Navarro de Andrade / Vivero forestal de eucalipto de Navarro de Andrade / Rio Claro / Sao Paulo / Brazil

Eucalyptus from cuttings, Life of an Eucalyptus clone in a forestry nursery in Brazil / Eucaliptos de esqueje, Vida de un Clon de Eucalipto en un vivero forestal de Brasil / Propagación Vegetativa de Eucalipto / Eucalyptus vegetative propagation / Mini Jardim Clonal de Eucalipto / Eucalyptus Clonal forestry orchard / GIT Forestry Consulting, Consultoría y Servicios de Ingeniería Agroforestal, Lugo, Galicia, España, Spain

Eucalyptus in Brazil: Life of a Clone

Eucalyptus grandis Clonal Nursery, Monte Alegre Farm, Klabin, Parana, Brazil / Vivero forestal clonal de Eucalipto, Hacienda Monte Alegre, Klabin, Parana, Brasil / Eucalyptus Video / Eucalyptus rooted cuttings / Eucalyptus Micropropagation / GIT Forestry Consulting, Consultoría y Servicios de Ingeniería Agroforestal, Lugo, Galicia, España, Spain / Eucalyptologics

KLABIN Industrial scale clonal Eucalyptus nursery: VIDEOTOUR

GIT's Eucalyptology Topics

Veracel - World Class Eucalyptus Forestry & Pulp Industry

Eucalyptus monocultures taking over the world?

100 years after Navarro de Andrade started industrial scale Eucalyptus cultivation in Brazil, we bring you today a look at the largest and most advanced Eucalyptus timber based single-cellulosic pulp mill line in the world and its cultivated Eucalyptus forests ... at bird's sight!

Veracel Airlines

Video courtesy Edson Vargens

Veracel Eucalyptus Cellulose Pulp Mill, Bahia, Brazil / Aracruz Celulose / Stora Enso / World Class Eucalyptus Forestry and Pulp Industry / GIT Forestry Consulting, Consultoria y Servicios de Ingenieria Agroforestal, Lugo, Galicia, España, Spain / Eucalyptologics

Are you worried about the ecological footprint of intensive tree farming? Have you heard of tree monocultures taking over the world? There are surely problems to solve, but there are also some unsustainable myths ...

Simple Math for People Worried About "Evil" Eucalyptus Propaganda

Veracel = 164,600 hectares = 1,150,000 tons of pulp per year

Eucalyptus plantations = 78,100 hectares
Environmental recovery & preservation = 79,000 hectares

State of Bahía = 56,469,200 hectares
Veracel Eucalyptus plantations = 0.14% of Bahía; 0.019% of Brazil

Brazil = 851,487,700 hectares

Soybean= 22,949,000 ha ( 2.69% of Brazil)
Corn = 11,559,000 ha ( 1.36% of Brazil)
Sugar Cane = 6,172,000 ha (0.72% of Brazil)
Rice = 3,916,000 ha (0.46% of Brazil)
Wheat = 2,361,000 ha (0.28% of Brazil)

Combined major agricultural crops = 46,957,000 ha (5.5% of Brazil)

Eucalyptus plantations = circa 4,000,000 hectares
(0.5% of Brazil, LESS THAN 1%!)

Do You Still Believe "the evil " Eucalyptus monocultures are taking over the world??

GIT's Eucalyptology Topics

Eucalyptus and soil depletion: quite a bit of a myth

Proper Eucalyptus crop management = Proper soil management

Gustavo Iglesias Trabado

GIT Forestry Consulting - Consultoría y Servicios de Ingeniería Agroforestal - www.git-forestry.com - EUCALYPTOLOGICS

One of the factors that have been used and abused for the demonisation of Eucalyptus trees is "their ability to deplete soils, so nothing can grow where eucalypts once grew". A myth very in the same line of the "nothing grows under gum trees" one. Pretty surely those propagating these ideas and those giving credit to the previous have never been to the natural habitat of these trees in Australia, whose rich agricultural and livestock production happens each day mainly on previously cleared land once covered with eucalypt forests. And quite possibly myth believers have never been into an eucalypt plantation either.

What is sure is that Eucalyptus can perfectly be grown under sustainable forestry principles, and that knowing your soils and your plants before taking opinion is very important. Soil management under sustainability philosophies relies basically on the simple principle of "what you get out of it should come back". Return nutrients that you extract, or at least try to minimise nutrient losses. Keep the balance. Think long term too.

Eucalyptus nitens early growth post harvest in Galicia, Northwestern Spain / Crecimiento temprano tras cosecha en plantación de Eucalipto nitens, Galicia, España / GIT Forestry Consulting. Consultoría y Servicios de Ingeniería Agroforestal

Here you have an example. Water, light and soil nutrients transformed into timber grown in short rotations. Timber extraction, but return of nutrients stored in bark, leaves and branches to the soil. Appropriate fertilisation to cover the minimum losses caused by water, cellulose and lignin storage in timber and to aid a next generation of trees to establish well. Et voilà! Healthy soil, and more fast growing timber.

Generalizing on the interaction of plant crops and soil is never wise. There are many types of soil, and many types of plants. Generalizing on the interaction of Eucalyptus and soils keeps being temerary, since there are several hundred species of the former and many dozen common types of the later. Generalizing on the interaction of a forestry production scheme with soil or other pieces of the ecosystem in which it is established is the equivalent of gossip.

The first persons interested in sustainability of tree farms (be them Eucalyptus based or not) by the implementation of good management practices are investors in such ventures, foresters in care of them and forestry engineers designing them. All in all, we have been following the same philosophy for some two hundred years of forestry science. And we may mistake, but surely learn from it. Some myth propagators apparently don't.

So, if earlier we took a trip from "nothing grows under eucalypts" to "nothing would grow without eucalypts", now we have taken one from "nothing grows where eucalypts once grew" to "crops keep growing where eucalypts once grew". Ironies of tree mythology.

GIT's Eucalyptology Topics