Aracruz Celulose and the construction of the Luciano Villas Boas Machado barge-ship maritime terminal

The case discussed here involves events related to the project of a maritime terminal on the coast of Bahia State, Brazilian’s Northeast.  The region where it would be installed is very close to a National Park made up by islands with reefs, natural swimming pools and vast sea life.  Anually, from June to December, the area is visited by “jubarte” whales, which come from Antarctica looking for a warmer place to reproduce.

The company responsible for the project was Aracruz Celulose, worldwide leader in the production of eucalyptus whited pulp, used to produce several kinds of paper.  Fearing the environmental risks involved in this case, the company developed different activities destinated to avoid or at least minimize the possible impacts.  Otherwise, the decision has been already taken: the project wouldn’t leave the papers.

That case adresses the 7th principle of the United Nations Global Compact (“precautionnary approach”).

I – Introduction

As Aracruz Celulose announced the construction of a maritime terminal in Caravelas, Bahia, the population split into two opposing opinion groups: for some, the news brought hopes that the city – once one of the most important towns in the southern portion of the state – would resume growing; for others, there was a concern that the new company would negatively impact the region’s natural environment – among the wealthiest in Brazil.

The city is quite near the Abrolhos Marine National Park, a set of five islands with reefs, natural pools and abundant sea fauna.  Every year, the area is visited by humpback whales, leaving Antarctica to seek warmer waters where they can breed.

To Aracruz, the maritime terminal project would represent reduced expenses with freight.  The local community would benefit from the creation of some 300 new jobs during construction phase, and nearly 600 direct and indirectly-created work positions as operations started.  Furthermore, traffic of heavy trucks would be reduced on roads in Bahia and Espírito Santo, where the company’s factories are located.  But the US$ 51 million investment risked never actually materializing, if environmental threats were to be confirmed.

What could be done in order to determine the true extent of environmental risks?  Was it possible to prevent or minimize them?  What should the company do in order to bring the community into the discussion process?  If locals could not be persuaded, even with the required licenses being obtained, would it be worthwhile building the terminal at all?

It was thus, with so many questions to be faced, that Aracruz started its work in Caravelas.

The first people in charge of answering the questions were the Forest Manager Tadeu Mussi de Andrade, responsible for the technical and financial feasibility studies of the work, and the Transport and Wood Bustle Manager Fábio Velloso, which in 1998 started the field identification on Bahia’s small town.  With the studies approved by the Aracruz shareholders, in November 2001, the Environmental and Industrial Safety Manager Alberto Carvalho de Oliveira Júnior and the Environmental and Corporate Relations Director Carlos Alberto Roxo started to work on the Licence process.

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II – The Company

Aracruz Celulose (www.aracruz.com.br) is the world leader in the production of bleached eucalyptus pulp, used to manufacture various kinds of paper.  It produces around 20% of world pulp.  About 95% of all that the company produces are exported to countries in Europe, North America, Latin America and Asia.

Comprising three operation units, its manufacturing complex located in Barra do Riacho (Espírito Santo State) is the world’s largest in the pulp industry, with capacity to produce 2,000,000 tons/year.  The Guaíba (Rio Grande do Sul State) plant is responsible for other 400,000 tons/year to the company’s overall capacity.  Aracruz Produtos de Madeira (or Aracruz Timber Products), an industrial unit dedicated to manufacturing solid timber products, located in Nova Viçosa (Bahia State), and the maritime terminals of Portocel (ES) and Caravelas (BA) complete the company’s production system.  The company also has 50% stock control over Veracel Celulose, which is being built in Eunápolis, Southern Bahia, by means of a partnership with Swedish-Finnish group Stora Enso, the world’s largest paper producer.  The new plant is planned to start operations in 2005, with the capacity to produce 900,000 tons/year of bleached eucalyptus pulp.

Aracruz Celulose’s forest areas, spread by the Brazilian states of Espírito Santo, Minas Gerais, Bahia and Rio Grande do Sul, cover a total 363 thousand hectares.  Of these, 242 thousand are destined for eucalyptus plantations, while 121 thousand are covered by native forests owned by the company, respecting an internal policy of keeping one hectare of native forest for each two hectares of eucalyptus plantation.

Its stock control is exercised by groups Lorentzen, Safra and Votorantim, holding 28% of ordinary shares each, and by the BNDES (National Bank for Economic and Social Development) with 12.5%.  The company’s preferred shares – representing more than 50% of the total shares – are negotiated in the stock markets of São Paulo, New York and Madrid.

Being hosted in Brazil is a competitive advantage for Aracruz.  The country is responsible for more than 50% of the eucalyptus-whited pulp produced in the world.  And its importance on that market tends to grow because the tropic forest productivity is significantly higher than the northern hemisphere’s.

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Aracruz and the Environment

The world demand for paper is growing.  The production is made with wood.  In the northern hemisphere, native forests are still being destroyed to produce pulp, while in Brazil the entire industry uses exclusive grew forests.  The eucalyptus, due to its fast growth, has always aroused the interest of companies, but inicially it was used only as a secondary fiber in paper production.  Aracruz developed the technology that made feasible the comercial growth of eucalyptus for the production of pulp used on the manufacture of Premium paper.

For the story of high demand of wood and low handle technology, the pulp industry had a rowdy relationship with environmentalists.  The development of new techniques of handling and monitoring contributed for the dialogue to become more productive.  Adding to that the growing consciensce of the companies regarding to their impact and the need to minimize them.  According to Aracruz Celulose’s Corporate Comunication Manager, Luiz Fernando Brandão, the company’s challenge is to “be of the same size as its clients”, providing support to their growth, and always “supplying the market with sustainable growing forests”.

Aracruz Environmental Management System is certified with the ISO 14001.  The certificate was achieved in 1999 and sustained ever since.  In addition to keeping one hectare of native forest area for each two hectares planted with eucalyptus, the company runs biodiversity monitoring projects in its reserves.  Moreover, since 1993 it has been studying the relationship between the eucalyptus plantations and the regional environment, under its Microbasin Project.

In the last ten years, investments made in state-of-the-art equipment and technologies have enabled Aracruz to achieve significant improvement in key indicators of eco-efficiency in the production of pulp.  The company uses steam deriving from the burning of parts of eucalyptus and industrial process waste as fuel, and it is self-sufficient in electric power generation.

The pulp bleaching process, formerly accomplished by using chlorine, has been modified.  The old technology was proven to cause environmental impacts in other countries where it was used, with resulting effluents being discharged into closed ecosystems such as lagoons and lakes.  Although no such impacts had been demonstrated to occur in Brazil, a choice was made to replace the technology.

Also as part of its Environmental Management System, Aracruz monitors marine environment in the vicinities of its facilities and, under its Odor Perception Network program, it controls gaseous emissions from the factory, with help from local dwellers living in areas distant up to 70 km from the plant.  Further actions are taken in regard to prevention and control of atmospheric emissions, effluent discharges and waste generation, in addition to environmental education activities.

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III – The Aracruz experience in Caravelas

We arrived at Caravelas with the mission to get to know and report Aracruz Celulose’s experience in the city both before and during the construction of the maritime terminal.  We should begin by interviewing Mr Alberto Carvalho de Oliveira Filho, the company’s Industrial Safety and Environmental Manager, who had experienced first hand the port implementation process.

“The person who actually had the insight about this place was Mr. Lorentzen, a great leader and one of the best environmentalists I’ve ever met”, he said, praising one of the company’s shareholders.  “Factory A was built in 1978 from a perspective of sustainable development, at a time when few people even knew what that meant.  That was a major advance and all thanks to him.  He is often on the factory floor, he knows the engineers well, he has been the President of the Advisory Board for years, and he’s indeed a man with a broad vision”, he proceeded.  “Then he came up with the idea of starting forest plantations here, and bought the land where Aracruz Celulose’s maritime terminal is located today, already thinking ahead on maritime transportation”, he reports.

The company already possessed some planted areas in Bahia when a new legislation approved in Espírito Santo forbade any expansions of the company’s eucalyptus plantations in the state.  The investments needed for increasing its productivity in already planted areas and the idea of expanding its Bahia plantations thus gained more importance.  But there was already a concern about transportation.  “One of the risks involved was the possibility of the federal highway being privatized.  If tolls had to be paid, the cost of timber would increase a lot.  Besides, construction of factory C meant an increased demand for timber, with transportation by land becoming unfeasible.  Costs would be high and the road would be seriously jammed with almost 500 trucks transiting everyday, considering only those working for Aracruz”, explains Alberto.

It was necessary to make an alternative modal feasible, so as to reduce costs, while preventing increases in accident rates and road traffic jams.  Then, Aracruz realized that it was time to put into practice the idea of maritime transportation.  In 1998, the Forest Manager Tadeu Mussi de Andrade, responsible for the project, and the Transport and Wood Bustle Manager, Fábio Velloso, started the technical and financial studies to verify the feasibility of the maritime terminal in Caravelas.

Concluded the first stage of the analysis, the project was presented to the Aracruz Board of Directors, who approved it.  At that point, the environmental licensing process, that depended directly on the approval of the national environmental agency, was initiated.  “That was when I got in the circle”, said Alberto de Oliveira.

At that point in the interview, we were interrupted by Ismail, an employee with Aracruz, who carried with him a “budião”, a fish commonly found in Southern Bahia, for dinner.  Alberto requested that the fish were left soaking in seasoned sauce, while he told us how the whole story had begun.

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Aracruz presents its project to the community

In order to render the maritime terminal operation feasible, it would be necessary to do the dredging so as to create a canal linking Caravelas River to the sea, with 3,8km length, 90m width and 5m deep.  Two dradge would take 880,000 m3 of under sea sediment.  That work, planned by Danish Hydraulic Institute, DHI, one of the three main hydraulic studies center in the world, would be necessary because the existing access could only be used on the higher tide.

“We felt that the biggest problem would arise when the community realized what we were going to do.  We went talk to the mayor to show the project publicly, because we at Aracruz thought that it would be important to do so even before starting the licensing process”, remarks the company’s Industrial Safety and Environmental Manager.

“We gathered about 400 people at the ‘Clube dos 40’ (the town’s largest venue for such events), and off we went to present our case.  But we had just limited information at the time.  This was perhaps our biggest mistake.  We should have got better informed ourselves before presenting the project”, he admits.  “For instance, they asked us what would the barge’s speed be, and we didn’t know the answer.  Then someone said “48 knots”, which is an absurd figure, four times the actual speed, and the people attending the meeting were really impressed”.

But the population did not seem to be much concerned about the barge’s speed.  “What happened was that the population really cheered the terminal as an opportunity for new jobs to be offered, in addition to representing a new source of tax revenues”, tells us Alberto. Councilman Hideraldo Beline Passos confirmed the story.  “The city was hoping for something like that, to put an end to apathy and morbidity.  In the past, Caravelas had already been involved with transportation of timber, salt, coffee, it had a port, airport, railway, but, bit by bit, it lost it all.  It was doomed to become a ghost town.  So, the entire population wanted the terminal”.

“But the NGOs came all over us”, Alberto goes on, recalling a meeting they had with the community:

“The Baleia Jubarte Institute (or Humpback Whale Institute), the IAPA, the Ecological Patrol and the Conservation International.  They came all over us.  The Baleia Jubarte Institute was especially aggressive.  They said the project was unfeasible, for this region was sacred and must be preserved.  And we still did not know what to say, at that point.  This was when we started to realize that they, too, had scarce information, as deeper studies on the region were lacking.  So, Aracruz committed to providing all the answers to the questions raised”.

Alberto then explained that the NGOs participation became extremely important, as they put forward the issues for which Aracruz then strove to find consistent, satisfactory answers.

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First challenge: the corals

Initially, the main concern was in regard to the region’s corals, which might be affected by sediments removed during the dredging process.  First, studies on that issue were conducted by the Danish Hydraulic Institute, which designed the canal.  After that, Aracruz started monitoring the influence of dredging on local corals.

“If there was any threat to them, we would have given up.  One of the NGOs approached Mr. Lorentzen during the process, and he assured them that, if it was demonstrated that the company would cause any damage, then he would himself take the project away from Caravelas”, recalls Alberto.

“We then went out looking for the best coral experts in Brazil.  We found two of them: Professor Zelinda, from the Federal University of Bahia, and Professor Clóvis de Castro, from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.  We went talk to them, and Professor Zelinda said that she would agree to review the project, but she would not work for Aracruz, as she wouldn’t for any corporation.  Professor Clóvis de Castro said he accepted it, but he demanded guarantees that, whatever his findings were, they would be published as he should write them, without any changes.  Aracruz agreed to his demands and we brought him to Caravelas”, he reports.

A process then began in order to verify the risks posed to the region’s corals by the dredging works.  Upon a suggestion made by Prof. Clóvis de Castro, the corals located north of Caravelas were also monitored, despite the fact that the ocean currents move north-southwards and, therefore, corals located south from the city, in places such as Nova Viçosa and Sebastião Gomes, were under greater threat.

Monitoring should be done as follows: a glass is placed on the reef, and later it is removed and taken to the lab in Rio de Janeiro, for analysis.  In case it shows similar sediments as the ones taken from the dredged region, it is proved that the work would damage the reef.  The main NGOs from the South of Bahia, sceptic yet, watched the process really close.

When this class about coral monitoring ended, the hotel waiter came to tell us that the “budião” was already soaked in seasoned sauce and the grill was ready for the fish.  He then asked us if we would like anything to drink.  “Not by now”, we said.  And proceeded with our conversation.

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The partnership with the Baleia Jubarte Institute

“The NGOs stood united and it seemed that all they wanted was to find arguments against the project”, tells us Alberto, visibly with less resentment than pride in his company having overcome that challenge.  “But, when we brought Prof. Clóvis before them, the Baleia Jubarte Institute saw that Aracruz work was serious, and decided they wanted to read the project”, he recalls.

“At the time, there were opinions against our participation, as the image of businesses not only in Brazil but worldwide is not too good, in part due to their own history.  But, in internal discussions, we took the decision to participate”, would tell us Valério Arbex, manager of the Baleia Jubarte Institute, over a conversation we had the next day.  “We saw that Aracruz had a level of concern beyond the Ibama requirements, and was keen to preserve the company’s good image.  Our intention was to help minimize the impact caused by the terminal, for there will always be some impact”, he adds.

“For us, the important thing is to have independence.  We are sponsored by Petrobrás, and have already taken position against the exploitation of some blocks which, in our opinion, would be damaging to the environment.  Aracruz never asked us to change a report, either”, Valério assures us.

The first question raised by the Institute was in regard to the barges’ route.  They feared that they would cause discomfort to the whales, or even run over them.  Aracruz then volunteered to finance studies that would enable the BJ Institute to determine the best route for the barge-ships, and assured them they would follow the route as indicated.

This marked the beginning of a partnership that would help biologists to learn more about the habits of humpback and franca whales, which annually come to the coastal waters of Southern Bahia and Northern Espírito Santo, from July to December.  The humpback is the fifth largest whale species in the world, and is currently endangered.

With investments amounting to R$700,000 (approximately US$240,000) in six months, the researchers had adequate conditions to carry out a complete study, which included fly-overs to do whale counting, and ship cruises to identify each one of them, from their tails, which, for this species, are like a fingerprint. In possession of findings from these studies, the Baleia Jubarte Institute could define safe routes along which the barge-ships should navigate.

“It does increase our costs and travel time, but we follow the route strictly.  Even knowing that an accident involving whales is a very rare event, and that about three thousand ships cross these waters every month and nothing happens, we will take no chances”, Alberto explains.

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The licensing phase

“So, with the partnership with the BJ Institute things got easier, then?”, we asked.  “No, when we went for the licensing phase, things got complicated”, he remembered.  In a meeting with the CRA (Environmental Resources Center), a state body, and with the IBAMA (Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources), a federal body, it was decided that the license for dredging would be up to IBAMA, while the CRA would be in charge of licensing the port.

On the first project of the terminal delivered to the Environmental Resources Center, a rocky dam was predicted to be constructed, which would destroy part of the regions mangrove.  The technicians from CRA were immediately against, and that took Aracruz, in a partnership with Jaakko Poyry Technologia, company responsible for the port project, to change it’s idea and replace the rocky dam by a bridge over the mangrove.  The cost was higher, but with that they could soften the opposition made by the CRA Technicians.

Once the Environmental Impact Assessment (called EIA/RIMA) had been completed, it was registered at the CRA, at the Ibama and at the Navy, which soon demonstrated its support to the initiative, saying that Brazil needed to explore its coast more intensively.  Two public hearings were held in Caravelas, one as part of the proceedings at the CRA and the other relatively to the request for licensing by IBAMA.

“We attended the hearings and took a lot of pressure from the politicians, who wanted the company to come to Caravelas by any means”, recalls Henrique Horn Ilha, chief of the Abrolhos Marine National Park, a body under the IBAMA.  “They saw it as an opportunity to regain their former economic relevance, and feared that, should it get too troublesome, then Aracruz would look for other alternatives.  The population was also in favor of the project, today the number of local people against it is larger, as some of their initial requests could not be met.  At that time, only I was boldfaced enough to oppose it”, he reports.  “I was attacked on the radio, people approached me on the streets to complain about my attitude, but I was convinced that I had to show the company how unique this region is, and that we must make sure they understand it.  I wanted to be absolutely sure that we wouldn’t be causing any damages either to the corals or to the shrimps”.

“This licensing phase was a hard bit”, recalls Alberto.  “There were moments when I asked myself:  ‘Is this really going to work?’, but then I lifted my spirits and said: ‘I do believe in this business, and I’ll carry it through’.  One day we were summoned to a meeting at CRA that looked more like a Parliamentary Inquiry Commission.  We stayed there from 9 am to 5 pm, without a break, explaining the project.  The board started to get fed up.  But it was not good.  Aracruz had no interest in exercising any political pressure, trying to achieve things through the authorities but losing popular support.  It would be worse for the company”, assures the company’s Industrial Safety and Environmental Manager.

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Location License

Alberto de Oliveira was also pleased when both sides managed to get to an agreement.  “When finally everything was approved, we obtained the Location License, which comes with a series of conditions and, when all of these are fulfilled, only then you get the Installation License.  Aracruz Celulose’s position was always one of meeting all commitments made during the meetings”, he states.

“After we got the license, the problems were over.  At the worst moments, it once happened that, as a few colleagues and I sat at a restaurant table, another group immediately got up and left, ostensibly refusing to share the same room with us.  Today, in contrast, Aracruz Celulose’s employees have fit in well among locals, and the company is broadly respected”, he comemorates.

“I had to put up with many environmentalists calling me names.  We got e-mails from all over the world, calling me insane, bad things were said about me and Aracruz in various published articles and reports”, he recalls.  “Now that the worst is over, I’m conviced that the environmentalists play a crucial role.  They are the ones who raised the difficult questions, asking, for example: ‘Have you considered that the boats’ engines might affect the whales’ hearing?’.  After being put this question, we went about researching on the issue.  The fishermen also gave their views, they actively participated”, he recalls.

Aracruz got the Instalation Licence in February 2002.  The monitoring of the reefs, which started a year and a half sooner, still worked during the dradging work.  Until now the reports confirm that the sediment is not affecting the reefs.  The marine organisms from the region and the shrimp near the region were also being monitorated.

The value of environmental compensations requested by the CRA was about R$500,000 (US$170,000).  Yet the IBAMA asked for Aracruz to be a sponsor on works and iniciatives on about R$1,6 million (US$510,000).  A mangrove region, considered the cradle for the marine form of life, was recovered and, to assist other areas recovering, the Viveiro de Mudas Tadeu Mussi was created, where mangrove typical species are cultivated.  Beyond that, more than seven thousand native trees were planted in the area of the maritime terminal.

Moreover, an IBAMA Visitor Center is being built in Caravelas, to be visited both by tourists going to Abrolhos as by the city’s inhabitants.  On a request by the Institute, the company also hired an independent auditing firm to monitor the terminal’s activities.

Aracruz also finances the installation, in Caravelas, of the CEPENE (Northeast Coast Fishery Management and Research Center), a part of IBAMA as well, which will benefit some 350 families living on the seashore and who derive their subsistence from the mangrove.  Main objectives of the CEPENE include monitoring and management of natural resources, environmental information and education, as well as building associations of seashore populations and implementing community actions towards valuation and preservation of environmental resources.

Architect and urbanist Ulisses S. Scofield, a native of Caravelas, is the project’s operational coordinator.  He came back to his native town after 27 years, with plans to implement the Center, and now, with help from Aracruz, sees his dream come true.  “But our aim is to remain independent. Otherwise, the project will not succeed”, he says.

Installation works started with the reform of an old house in Caravelas, which further gained lodging quarters to host researchers, and a hall for community meetings, environmental education lessons, and professional training.  The project’s second phase includes plans for an area to be used as a support base to shellfish collectors of the region, featuring a freezer for storage of the production and processing unit.  “This is important to allow them to become less dependent on profiteering middle-men, thus freeing themselves from this modern mode of slavery, which is implied in the fact that they can only sell to a defined person at a specific price”, explains Ulisses.

The Aracruz experience on Caravelas is yet to bring good things for Southern Bahia.  “A local university praised us for the scientific contribution we made to the region, matched by no one else”, Alberto says with enthusiasm.  “We are thinking of hiring a firm to organize and place all this information at the disposal of the society”, he states.

At that point, we were politely interrupted by the hotel receptionist, who came to bring us – quite timely – a repellant spray against mosquitoes.  It was getting dark, the mosquitoes’ “dinner” time approached, and we were their main dish.  Duly protected by the repellant, we went on to hear the last chapter of the story.

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The job creation

Among the community’s demands, the main one was the creation of jobs.  They wanted the largest possible number of positions to be taken by locals, as the terminal construction got under way.  The company agreed, but soon realized that, in order to do that, it would have to qualify the inhabitants of Caravelas, who were mostly fishermen.

Through a partnership between the company, the Bahia State Government, the Caravelas Municipal Administration, and the Senai-BA, the Professional Qualification Program was created.  Since then, 1416 persons have been trained in 28 courses, 14 of which focusing on Aracruz Celulose’s needs and another 14 in other areas.

Selection of candidates to the job positions offered at the maritime terminal was effected through the SINE (National Employment System), without the direct participation of the company.  In order to be hired, the candidate had to produce proof of residence.  In cases when it was necessary to hire an employee from another city, proof had to be produced before a Committee demonstrating that there was no one in the city qualified for the job.

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IV – The Luciano Villas Boas Machado Barge-Ship Maritime Terminal

The terminal works, initiated in February 2002, generated some 400 direct work positions, 70% of which filled by local people of the Caravelas region.  Inaugurated on April 23, 2003, in Caravelas (BA), the Luciano Villas Boas Machado Barge-Ship Terminal enables transportation of eucalyptus timber from the southern tip of Bahia down to the Erling Sven Lorentzen Barge-Ship Terminal in Espírito Santo.

The two ports (Caravelas and Portocel, at Barra do Riacho) are 275 km far from each other, in a straight line, and the travel time taken by the barges to go from one to the other is approximately 12 hours, at a speed of 12,5 knots.  The barges are 114m long, and can carry an average 5,000 m3 of timber, the equivalent to nearly 100 truckloads.  They are propelled by a push-tug capable of accommodating 16 people, and which makes the barge into a ship – hence the name “barge-ship”.

The name “Luciano Villas Boas Machado Ship-Barges Maritime Terminal” was chosen as a homage paid to one of the pioneer Advisory Board members of Aracruz Celulose, who had Salvador, Bahia’s capital, as his hometown, and who passed away in December 2002.

In order to implement the maritime transport project, Aracruz invested US$ 51 million, of which US$ 31 million were destined for the construction of the push-tug and three barges.  One further barge-ship and another push-tug will be built.  Today, as one barge-ship is loaded at Caravelas, another is unloaded at Portocel, and a third one is on its way between Espírito Santo and Bahia.

Giving continuity to its partnership with the Institute, the company reserves room aboard their barge-ships’ push-tugs for researchers to accompany every trip, monitoring with sonar and binoculars for the appearance of any whale.  “It is important to continue with this monitoring, as their route is not rigidly fixed.  For instance, sometimes the whales swim farther away from the coast as a function of storms”, explains veterinarian Milton Marcondes, one of the new employees added to the Institute’s staff thanks to its partnership with Aracruz. Created in 1988 as the Humpback Whale Project inside IBAMA, the Institute gained autonomy in 1996, and got a major boost with this partnership with the pulp company, which practically sustains its environmental education efforts.

Whale monitoring continues today, and now the company further finances the surveillance of porpoises, found north from Caravelas.  “Nobody knows whether our terminal has any influence on these porpoises, but we do the monitoring anyway”, states Alberto.

And he continues:

“Today, the Institute is one of Aracruz Celulose’s partners.  As a function of this partnership, they have their own staff, and we have equipped their boat – the Tomara –, and gave them a piece of land.  On the company side, this is also very good, as the Baleia Jubarte Institute is the spokesperson for the company in every issue regarding whales, because it is constantly monitoring what is done.  After some initial mistrust, we won the environmentalists’ confidence.”

“Aracruz did everything it said it was going to do.  This is why our word carries weight here in town, nowadays.  We ended up creating twice as much jobs as we had promised.  And the city now boasts a new inn, a new bakery.  It is growing!”.

“One just has to walk down Sete de Setembro street to see how trade is picking up” agrees councilman Beline Passos.  “Aracruz was the city’s rescuer, it became our “big mamma”.  Many of the things we dreamed of what has already become a reality.  Now it just needs a few adjustments, as some say that it was good for the town, but for them, individually, things haven’t changed much.  I think that maybe Aracruz could develop our community further, doing small things, like the bridge that was built by the company and that brought many benefits to the lives of the 40 families living in the area.  Environmental projects are indeed important, but do not affect the community directly.  There is virtually no one from Caravelas involved in this”, he explains.

He carefully remarks right afterwards: “but it was great that Aracruz has come to town, no doubt.  We do have problems, but if the company wasn’t here, it would be worse.  A key person in this whole process was Alberto, as he managed to talk to people and convince them, but this was a huge struggle.  At public hearings, many less informed people talked a lot of nonsense, attacking the company, and Aracruz was patient enough to deal with all this”, he praises.

To Henrique Ilha, Aracruz ability to establish communication with the various stakeholders proved very important at that point.  “There were many participants, many groups of interest, and we managed to arrive at some conclusions.  There was the genuine interest of administrators in solving related problems, and the negotiating parties, both at Aracruz and at IBAMA, were very experienced people.  We sought solutions that would be satisfactory to both sides.  The company shared in the concern about environmental risks.  This job gives me a lot of self-satisfaction, as it shows that it is possible to undertake a large project while at the same time respecting the environment”, he remarks also.

Aracruz Celulose’s Industrial Safety and Environmental Manager assures us that the company’s philosophy regarding social and environmental issues much helped the convincing work done among the population.  Alberto tells:

“The company did not actually have any interest in coming down here and destroy everything, polluting things, if not for anything else, because whoever does that in the present times is, in fact, losing money.  Everything can be re-utilized one way or another.  For instance, we are currently studying, in association with the University of Uberlândia, a means to turn wood chips leftover on the barges into organic fertilizer.  The idea would be to donate the chips to the population and teach them how to use the technology so as to make money producing natural fertilizer”.

At that point, we had to close our interview to dedicate ourselves to the “budião”.  Some of Alberto’s colleagues from Aracruz had arrived, and the fish was already waiting on the grill.

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V – Conclusion

The company’s consistent environmental policy, along with popular support, enabled Aracruz to face up to all questioning raised about the implementation of the Luciano Villas Boas Machado Barge-Ships Maritime Terminal.  The NGOs became allies to the project.  The risks associated with the project would no longer be incurred by the natural environment, as they were taken over by the company itself: it would discontinue the implementation at the moment its monitoring system detected any damage to the natural heritage.

Time where companies saw NGOs as troublemakers and NGOs saw companies as only worried with their own image is over.  Alberto has already been the honored spokesman for a graduating class, a member of a jury in a contest to choose the local Summer Beauty, and is about to be given the title of Honorific Citizen.

But the company still faces another challenge: how to conduct the relationship with the community without lapsing into paternalism, while at the same time sustaining good conviviality.  Councilman Beline now wants Aracruz to supply water to the community; councilwoman Viviane challenges the decision of installing a nursery in a district which is not the one where she has her constituency; the shellfish collectors’ project still dreams of sustainability, but has a long way to go before that.

The “budião” was just delicious.

In the following night, after visiting the Terminal, the NGOs, the City Chamber and the IBAMA, we went out to the busiest bar in town, killing time before going to the Humpback Whale Festival, thus closing a cultural week promoted by Aracruz, the NGOs and local schools.

The NGO people were also there, but nobody stood up from their tables to leave, but only to great Alberto.

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