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Razor-straight lines of genetically identical trees flank the Baixa Verde settlement in north-eastern Brazil. The identical trees present a sharp difference to the remnants of native Atlantic woodland, among the planet’s richest biological habitats on Earth.

Encircled by close to 247,000 acres of eucalyptus plantations, Baixa Verde exemplifies a rare community triumph over a international corporation in Brazil. The rural settlement owes its existence due to nearly two decades of court disputes over property claims – yet the conflict continues.

After fighting to keep their territory, the households now face an unparalleled safety emergency characterized by violent encounters, arson and death threats, part of a wave of violence stemming from a land dispute that has intensified since 2024.

Disputes over land rights have long been an issue in the region. Obtaining property titles is often considered to validate illegal land seizures from traditional communities, and residents had believed that a wood-pulp manufacturer was cultivating eucalyptus on public land.

In 2008, one of the founders of the Baixa Verde settlement and a local activist examined public records to inspect official papers. They found the page that proved the 1,300 hectares in contention were publicly owned. “We were certain that it was public land,” says the founder.

With the document in hand, they assembled ninety-one area households and joined the Landless Workers Movement, a political and social organisation fighting for land redistribution. Its first action was to occupy an area of a eucalyptus plantation used by the corporation, accusing the company of utilizing government property.

Two years after the original occupation, the organization secured official acknowledgment that the company did not legally own the property section cultivated by the company. “This document was a triumph not just for the local land rights movement but for all the social movements of the country,” says a community member who was raised in the settlement and is now a key organizer of the movement.

After years of obstacles and court fights, the Bahia state government reached a settlement with the corporation and the organization in 2016, returning 3,200 acres of company land to the public domain and providing each family a plot sufficiently sized to cultivate their crops. Of the sixty-one households staying, fifty-three have relocated into their new plots.

“Securing entitlement to the land means that we now have a place to care for our youngest ones,” says the community leader.

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Despite losing the land, a corporate spokesperson maintains that the company has always operated with “openness, social and environmental responsibility” and respect for the area residents. “The company has never been found guilty of land grabbing and restates that its operational zones are legally regulated and operate with the required environmental permits.”

Yet, in the time following the agreement, the households say they have experienced death threats, shooting incidents, destroyed residences, stolen produce and ruined farmland.

According to the movement, the dispute now centres on plots of land that remain occupied by agricultural workers associated with the regional labor organization. When it was about to lose control of the contested land, the corporation donated 740 adjacent acres to the union – a donation verified by the organization’s directors.

“We face significant harassment occurring in this area. Our shelters have been set on fire, as well as our sugarcane fields.”

Over the past four years, six organizers of the movement have been assigned protective monitoring by the national defense system for human rights defenders, journalists and environmentalists. The government has suggested that some of these leaders relocate, but due to dedication to the movement and bond to their fought-for property, they have refused.

Because of the death threats he has received, one founder says he has difficulty resting at night. “I feel genuinely fearful that something is going to happen to my family,” he says.

The movement states that eight families do not feel sufficiently secure to cultivate their plots, which remain inhabited by farmers reportedly connected to the company.

The corporation says that during the previous fifteen years, it has allocated “over 49,000 acres to agrarian reform initiatives, whether through court settlements, donations to the National Institute for Colonisation and Agrarian Reform, gifts, or direct sales, to resolve ongoing conflicts in the region.”

The firm also says “the establishment of the communities – from design to parceling and lot definition – was conducted entirely by the regional authorities, without interference from the corporation”, and “declines to discuss conflicts between social movements”.

A community member is one of the two people who still live in the old encampment. She says she has been intimidated by weapon-carrying individuals who encircled her home and fired weapons nearby. Because no one lives nearby, the woman – who resides by herself – believes the gunshots were meant to intimidate her out of reclaiming her assigned plot.

During August, the state of Bahia authorised the removal of union farmers who remain on Baixa Verde lots – but the decision has yet to be enforced.

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Environmental Challenges and the ‘Emerald Wasteland’

Besides defending against danger and aggression, transforming properties once used for eucalyptus monoculture into food production is now the main challenge for the Baixa Verde communities. Tree cultivation is controlled by large multinationals that, from the 1960s onward, have been transforming agricultural and woodland areas into single-crop farms, motivated by global demand.

Brazil is the global leading grower of the tree species, a fast-growing, water-intensive plant, whose fiber is exported to make cardboard and writing materials. The majority of the nation’s tree fiber is shipped to European nations, where it is utilized for creating paper products often marketed as a renewable alternative to plastics – notwithstanding ecological harm caused by monoculture.

Within Bahia state, the expansion of these farms has earned the local moniker “emerald wasteland”, due to the disappearance of native species and the critical lack of water and land faced by families living near commercial tree farms.

A settlement founder grew up in the region and recalls the waterway before the region was changed by eucalyptus monoculture. “We previously traversed it in a canoe. It was full,” he says. “Following corporate establishment, it disappeared.” He attributes the water scarcity to the company’s arrival in 1991.

The company says it “implements a varied management approach, in which trees are grown in plateau areas, while valleys, springs and native vegetation are protected. This model guarantees ground conservation, wildlife conservation and the maintenance of water resources.” The company also says it “conducts continuous monitoring of micro-basins in its area of operation” and “creates tree-planting and woodland renewal initiatives in locations adjacent to settlements”.

Within the adjacent region of Minas Gerais, the eucalyptus region of Turmalina has seen its groundwater level drop by 15 feet over the previous four decades, per scientific studies at the state university.

Plant life in single-crop tree farms absorbs 26% of rainfall to replenish aquifer reserves – compared with a 50% level of absorption associated with indigenous woodland. Seventy-five percent of agricultural households interviewed in the state reported their crops being affected by the scarcity.

The growing of the tree species also presents a heightened danger of forest fire. Plantations are so flammable that Chile ruled out eucalyptus as a viable climate solution after a succession of major blazes in its domestic plantations.

Notwithstanding ecological dangers, commercial tree farms continue to play a significant role in the emissions trading system, with trees being sold as carbon credits to petroleum companies to counterbalance their pollution. Although facing resistance from activists, in {