For a new story in MIT Technology Review, Gregory Barber used land records to identify large-scale eucalyptus plantations in southwestern Brazil financed by U.S. tech firms seeking to earn carbon removal credits. With support from the Fund, Barber traveled to Mato Grosso do Sul, in Brazil’s Cerrado biome, where he examined the arguments of tech companies and conservation organizations that say that planting profitable non-native species is the only way to scale up reforestation quickly. Barber also spoke with an international network of ecologists who say that tree planting for carbon removal is coming at the expense of fragile savanna environments like the Cerrado, and locals who say fast-growing eucalyptus operations in the region have taken their water and displaced their way of life.
Grantee examines controversial tree farms powering Apple’s carbon neutral goal
