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New report documents decades of land dispossession, water depletion, Cerrado destruction and conflict as Aperam receives €250 million financing package

21 September, 2026 — A new, in-depth investigation published today exposes the devastating social and environmental costs of Aperam BioEnergia’s monoculture eucalyptus plantations in Minas Gerais, Brazil, which it uses to produce charcoal, biochar and “green steel”. The co-authors of the investigation have issued an urgent call for all investment in the company to be halted.

The report, Dry Streams in an Ocean of Eucalyptus: Aperam BioEnergia’s Green Steel and Carbon Removal Illusion, based on extensive field research and interviews with traditional and Quilombola communities and public officials, reveals that Aperam’s business model—promoted as a climate and sustainability solution—has been imposed through large-scale deforestation, leading to the loss of biodiversity and the depletion of water resources in the Jequitinhonha Valley. The report documents a drastic drop in water tables, drying of springs and rivers and the collapse of traditional agricultural and pastoral livelihoods.

Local communities recount decades of land dispossession, intimidation and health risks linked to pesticide use and air pollution from Aperam’s operations. Many now face food insecurity, economic hardship and a worrying increase in health problems, including cancer. The investigation also highlights the severe shortcomings of voluntary certification schemes and international financiers, such as the International Finance Corporation (IFC), whose recent €250-million financing package is enabling Aperam’s continued expansion despite clear evidence of harm.

“Aperam’s operations are being presented as part of the green transition, but what is being ‘greened’ is a polluting, extractive industrial model.” said Jana Uemura, coordinator of the Global Forest Coalition’s Climate Justice and Forests Campaign and the Biomass Action Network’s Latin America Working Group. “Eucalyptus plantations, charcoal and biochar are being sold as climate solutions, backed by international finance and carbon markets, while communities and ecosystems bear the costs.”

The investigation’s key demand is unequivocal: all financial support, investment and sourcing relationships with Aperam must be suspended immediately. The report calls on the IFC, World Bank Group and all other financiers to cancel contractual arrangements and commit to no future support for Aperam. Certification schemes such as the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and Puro.earth are urged to suspend Aperam’s certifications pending full investigations of community complaints.

“Justice for affected communities and the protection of the Cerrado’s unique biodiversity must take precedence over corporate profit and greenwashing,” the report concludes. It calls for a redirection of investment toward community-led restoration, agroecology and water security initiatives in the Jequitinhonha Valley, and a transition away from all carbon fuel-based energy.

The full report, published by the Global Forest Coalition with support from Biofuelwatch, the EPN’s Biomass Action Network and the Hands Off Mother Earth (HOME) Alliance, is available in English and Portuguese.

Media Contacts: 

Jana Uemera (Eng/Por): jana.uemura@globalforestcoalition.org

Ismail Wolff (Eng): ismail.wolff@globalforestcoalition.org

About the Investigation: This report centers the experiences and demands of the Jequitinhonha Valley’s traditional and Quilombola communities. It exposes the urgent need for a paradigm shift in climate and development finance, away from harmful monocultures and false climate solutions, and toward justice, community rights and ecological restoration.

Novo relatório documenta décadas de expropriação de terras, esgotamento hídrico, destruição do Cerrado e conflitos, enquanto a Aperam recebe um pacote de financiamento de € 250 milhões

21 de setembro de 2026 — Uma nova pesquisa aprofundada, publicada hoje, expõe os custos sociais e ambientais devastadores das plantações de eucalipto em monocultura da Aperam BioEnergia em Minas Gerais, Brasil, utilizadas para produzir carvão vegetal, biochar e “aço verde”. Os coautores da investigação fizeram um apelo urgente para que todo investimento na empresa seja interrompido.

O relatório, intitulado Córregos secos em um oceano de eucalipto: Aço verde e a ilusão da remoção de carbono da Aperam BioEnergia, baseia-se em extensa pesquisa de campo e entrevistas com integrantes de comunidades tradicionais e quilombolas e representantes do poder público. O documento revela que o modelo de negócios da Aperam — promovido como uma solução climática e de sustentabilidade — foi imposto por meio de desmatamento em larga escala, levando à perda de biodiversidade e ao esgotamento dos recursos hídricos no Vale do Jequitinhonha. O relatório documenta uma queda drástica nos níveis do lençol freático, a secagem de nascentes e rios e o colapso dos meios de subsistência tradicionais ligados à agricultura e à pecuária tradicionais.

Comunidades locais relatam décadas de expropriação de terras, intimidação e riscos à saúde, especialmente de mulheres e crianças, associados ao uso de agrotóxicos e à poluição do ar decorrente das operações da Aperam. Muitas pessoas agora enfrentam insegurança alimentar, dificuldades econômicas e um aumento preocupante de problemas de saúde, incluindo casos de câncer. A investigação também destaca as graves falhas dos sistemas de certificação voluntária e dos financiadores internacionais, como a International Finance Corporation (IFC), cujo recente pacote de financiamento de € 250 milhões está viabilizando a continuidade da expansão da Aperam, apesar de evidências claras de danos.

“As operações da Aperam estão sendo apresentadas como parte da transição verde, mas o que está sendo ‘pintado de verde’ é um modelo industrial poluente e extrativista”, disse Janaina Uemura, coordenadora da campanha de Justiça Climática e Florestas da GFC e do Grupo de Trabalho Latinoamericano e do Caribe da Rede de Ação Contra a Biomassa Industrial. “Plantações de eucalipto, carvão vegetal e biochar estão sendo vendidos como soluções climáticas, sustentados pelo financiamento internacional e pelos mercados de carbono, enquanto comunidades e ecossistemas arcam com os custos.”

A principal exigência da investigação é inequívoca: todo apoio financeiro, bem como todos os investimentos e as relações de fornecimento com a Aperam devem ser suspensos imediatamente. O relatório insta a IFC, o Grupo Banco Mundial e todos os demais financiadores a encerrarem seus vínculos contratuais e a se comprometerem a não oferecer apoio futuro à Aperam. Sistemas de certificação, como o Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) e a Puro.earth, são instados a suspender as certificações da Aperam até que as denúncias das comunidades sejam plenamente investigadas.

“A justiça para as comunidades afetadas e a proteção da biodiversidade única do Cerrado devem prevalecer sobre o lucro corporativo e o greenwashing“, conclui o relatório. O documento defende o redirecionamento de investimentos para iniciativas de restauração lideradas pelas comunidades, de agroecologia e de segurança hídrica no Vale do Jequitinhonha, bem como para uma transição para abandonar todas as fontes de energia baseadas em combustíveis de carbono.

O relatório completo, publicado pela Global Forest Coalition com o apoio da Rede de Ação contra a Biomassa (da EPN), da Biofuelwatch e da aliança Hands Off Mother Earth (HOME), está disponível em inglês e português.

Contatos para a imprensa:

Sobre a investigação: Este relatório coloca no centro as experiências e reivindicações das comunidades tradicionais e quilombolas do Vale do Jequitinhonha. Expõe a necessidade urgente de uma mudança de paradigma no financiamento climático e para o desenvolvimento, afastando-se de monoculturas prejudiciais e falsas soluções climáticas e voltando-se para a justiça, os direitos das comunidades e a restauração ecológica

GFC members and allies are helping to build a new gender-just map of community-led solutions for forests, people and the planet.

What does a real solution to the climate and biodiversity crises look like?

It might be an agroecological farming system rooted in traditional knowledge. It might be a community defending its territory from extractive industries. It might be women organising to protect forests, strengthen food sovereignty or build more equitable forms of community governance.

And it is not just about what communities are doing. It is also about what makes these solutions possible, and just as importantly, what stands in their way.

These questions are at the heart of a new Gender-Just Real Solutions Map for Forests and Communities being developed by the Global Forest Coalition (GFC), with support from Bread for the World (Brot für die Welt) and the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation (RLF). Over three online sessions held in July and August, GFC members and allies from across the Global South have been working together to shape the ideas, criteria and methodology that will underpin the map.

The process began in July with a discussion about what a false solution is, and what makes a solution real. Participants shared examples from their own territories and explored how community-led alternatives differ from false solutions that can reproduce environmental destruction, inequality and corporate control. Importantly, the group agreed that the map should focus on concrete, localised practices rooted in particular territories, rather than treating “solutions” as generic or easily scalable commodities.

The second session put gender justice at the centre. Rather than treating gender as simply a question of whether women are represented or participate, participants explored who does the work, including unpaid care and domestic work; who makes decisions; who controls land, resources and income; and what would make an initiative genuinely gender-just. The discussion also considered how the map itself can challenge the underlying colonial and patriarchal systems that shape relationships between people, territories and nature.

Members of a community forest user group are managing their community forest in Nawalparasi district. Nawalparsi FECOFUN

As Jaqueline Santos of FASE, a GFC member group in Brazil, explained, women in Pará play a leading role in agriculture and in protecting their territories. She also highlighted the importance of women’s groups and support networks in rural communities, where women facing violence can struggle to access formal systems of support.

“Their perspective, their understanding of what constitutes a territory, and their knowledge of what must be preserved and protected are given much greater prominence and attention by women,” said Santos. “In Brazil, we have a situation where it’s very difficult to report violence in the city. In rural areas, it’s very difficult to file a report (…) There’s an entire system that doesn’t support women who have been victims of violence. The state is designed for men. We work intensively on the issue of violence with support groups. There must be women’s groups in these communities, because there’s no space for women in groups where men participate,” she said. 

The third session then turned to a question that is crucial for understanding how real solutions can flourish: what conditions do they require?

Participants discussed ecological, social, economic, political and cultural conditions, including community organising, legal frameworks, self-determination, autonomous governance, community-led financing and gender-responsive practices. They also identified barriers ranging from extractive projects and land grabbing to patriarchal policies, colonial legal frameworks, bureaucracy, lack of funding and the criminalisation of environmental defenders.

Ariella Kabunga of the Integrated Program for the Development of the Pygmy People in Kivu (PIDP) stressed that gender justice requires more than gender-just laws on paper. Women must be able to participate meaningfully in decision-making, influence decisions and take on positions of responsibility.

“We need political and legal frameworks to ensure equal rights for women. But it is not enough to have gender-just laws and policies. It is also necessary to ensure the dissemination, application, and monitoring implementation at the national, local, and community levels. Community organizations and structures must integrate gender into their policies, programs, budgets and decision-making mechanisms,” Kabunga said. “Another fundamental condition is the effective participation of women in decision-making processes. It is not enough to invite women to a meeting. They must have the opportunity to express themselves, influence decisions, and hold positions of responsibility.”

These discussions are now helping to build the map itself. The first set of inclusion and exclusion criteria is being shared with participants for validation and further input, while GFC and the Critical Geography Collective (CGC) are also working with participants to develop a protocol for protecting information and safeguarding data.

The emerging methodology will ensure that the map is not simply a collection of points on a screen. Each entry will tell a story: What is the initiative? Why is it a real solution? Who is involved? Where and when is it happening? And how has it been made possible? Users will be able to explore different kinds of initiatives, from agroecology and forest protection to traditional knowledge, sustainable livelihoods and territories free from extractivism, as well as the conditions that have enabled them to flourish.

The map will therefore be a space to see and learn from each other’s experiences, forms of resistance and social action, rather than imposing a single model of what a solution should look like. As the project’s methodology notes, real solutions are diverse, territorial and shaped by the communities themselves. The map is intended to grow from that diversity and remain open to continued revision and learning.

Ultimately, the goal is to make visible what too often remains invisible: the people, practices, rights and conditions that already offer pathways towards protecting forests, biodiversity and communities, without relying on markets to put a price on nature.

The Gender-Just Real Solutions Map for Forests and Communities is expected to launch in November 2026, with the database continuing to grow beyond the initial launch.

Stay tuned — the map is taking shape.

The Gender-Just Real Solutions Map is being developed collaboratively with the Critical Geography Collective (CGC) and GFC members and allies working with communities and movements across the Global South. Organisations participating in the design of the map, its criteria and its initial entries include:

• Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA) — Bangladesh
• Federation of Social and Educational Assistance Organisations (FASE) — Brazil
• Fundación de Expresión Intercultural, Educativa y Ambiental (FUNDAEXPRESIÓN) — Colombia
• Colectivo VientoSur — Chile
• Programme Intégré pour le Développement du Peuple Pygmée au Kivu (PIDP) — Democratic Republic of Congo
• Instituto para el Futuro Común Amerindio (IFCA) — Honduras
• Federation of Community Forestry Users Nepal (FECOFUN) — Nepal
• National Forum for Advocacy Nepal (NAFAN) — Nepal
• Centro de Desarrollo Ambiental y Humano (CENDAH) — Panama
• Zambia Social Forum (ZAMSOF) — Zambia
• Global Tapestry of Alternatives (GTA) — global network
• Latin American and Caribbean Platform for Climate Justice (PLACJC) — regional network

Have a real solution to share? 

We are also inviting organisations and community groups to suggest initiatives or projects that they think meet the map’s criteria. If you know of a community-led initiative that could belong on the map, please contact Valentina Figuera Martínez, GFC’s Gender Justice and Forests Campaign Coordinator, who is leading the project, at valentinafmartinez@globalforestcoalition.org.