Answer: Genetically Engineered tree industry in Latin America

Good question and tough! There were 3 hurdles to this question:

- Finding information in English (my sole language)
- Finding current information
- Running into your deadline

As a follow-up, consider performing a search on general business and news databases in your local library on each of the companies listed below. I limited my research to the open web and to contacting relevant activists — several of which I still have not heard back from.

I drew heavily from the report, "Genetically Modified Trees: The Ultimate Threat to Forests," written by Chris Lang and published by World Rainforest Movement and Friends of the Earth International. The urls are to Chris Lang's website, which has the pertinent information from the report. Any information sourced to Chris Lang comes straight from his work and writing and with his very generous permission.

"Genetically Modified Trees: The Ultimate Threat to Forests""
Chris Lang
2004

Other sources consulted include:

Anne Petermann from the Global Justice Ecology Project — email contact.

"Genetically Engineered Trees in Chile: A New Forest Conflict"
By Lorena Ojeda D. (this paper was sent to me by Anne Petermann)

"A New Chapter in Biotech History is not Written in English"
By IGNACIO CHAPELA and JOHN F. GARCIA_
Counterpunch, January 27, 2005

FAO Report: "Preliminary Review of Biotechnology in Forestry, Including Genetic Modification"
2004

"Plan Puebla Panama: Battle Over the Future of Southern Mexico and Central America"
2002

The Lacandon Jungle's Last Stand Against Corporate Globalization
2002

***********************************************************

Below is a list of companies and institutions researching and growing genetically modified trees in Central and South America. Following is descriptive material when available.

Mexico

Corporations
Grupo Pulsar/SAVIA
Plansufur

Chile

Corporations
Horizon2
GenFor
Bioforest, subsidiary of Forestal Arauco

Institutions
INIA IX Región (Institute of Farming and Animal Husbandry Research)
Universities of Chile and Católica
CINVESTAV Irapuato Labs of Mexico
Department of the Ministry of Agriculture (SEREMI) of Chile's IX Region
Agrícola Mar Rojo
Afodegama Foundation
Indes Salus

Brazil

Corporations
Aracruz Cellulose
Suzano & CBD
International Paper

********************************************************************

Grupo Pulsar/SAVIA

SAVIA was formed from the merger between Empresas La Moderna (ELM), an agro-biotechnology firm, and Seguros Comercial América, a Mexican insurance and nonbanking financial services firm. Savia subsidiary Bionova, genetically engineers fruits and vegetables and distributes produce in North America. Its other subsidiary, Desarrollo Inmobiliario Omega, develops real estate in Monterrey, Mexico. In 2003 Savia sold its interest in seed giant Seminis to private equity firm Fox Paine. Savia is a part of Mexican industrial conglomerate Grupo Pulsar. Chairman and CEO Garza owns 54% of Savia.
Source: IPO Central

Spearheading GE tree research and development in Mexico is Grupo Pulsar, a multi-national corporation based in Monterrey, Mexico. Their facility in Tapachula, Chiapas, currently serves as NAFTA's humid-tropics research laboratory for agricultural and tree biotechnology. Alfonso Romo, head of Grupo Pulsar, also sits on the PPP advisory board that has proposed establishing 750,000 acres of tree plantations from the Mexican state of Puebla through the entire Central American isthmus. [Romo also sits on the board of Conservation International, a major player in the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor — ed.]. When this information is combined with the fact that a major funder for part of the PPP is International Paper Company — the world's largest proponent of GE trees — it is easy to see that the stage is set for GE tree introduction into Mexico and Central America.
Source: Chiapas Link

On the other hand, flowing in the opposite direction, Mexico is perhaps the largest international portal for the introduction of trangenics into the less-industrialized world. There is a veritable flood of introductions of transgenics via Mexico into the "developing" world that takes place through pseudo-Mexican institutions like CIMMYT [note for English readers], through other publicly-funded "research" institutions, through well-known transnational actors like Monsanto, Syngenta (Novartis), and Dupont, but also, importantly, through less well-known but equally powerful corporations like the Mexican Seminis/Savia.
Source: Counterpunch

*

Planfosur

Planfosur is a venture of the Texas-based multinational, Temple-Inland Forest Products International, Inc. Temple-Inland is the ninth largest private landowner in the US. Temple-Inland additionally holds land in Puerto Rico, Argentina and Chile. Planfosur has 21,000 hectares of eucalyptus, some genetically engineered in Tabasco and Veracruz.
Planfosur's literature says, "Operations began in February, 1994 with the purchase of approximately 10 hectares north of Las Choapas, Veracruz, Mexico. On this site, a nursery consisting of six greenhouses, a 7500 square meter growing site, a work center building and a warehouse were constructed. Planfosur began growing nursery seedlings in June 1994. In September an office was constructed and occupied, and the first tree farms were established...with the first harvests scheduled for 2001.
Source: IP Lexington Plant

*

Horizon2

Horizon2 was formed in March 2003 from a merger of Carter Holt Harvey Forest Genetics and Rubicon's Trees and Technology. Carter Holt Harvey is a New Zealand timber firm, which is 50 per cent owned by International Paper. Rubicon was formed from the break up of Fletcher Challenge Forests and is part of the ArborGen joint venture.
Source: Chris Lang

*

GenFor

Chilean-based company GenFor hopes to have its insect resistant GM radiata pine trees ready for commercial release by 2008. Formed in 1999, GenFor is a joint venture between Chilean technology think tank Fundación Chile and Cellfor (Canada). The company was partly financed by the Chilean Development Agency. A US biotechnology company, Interlink Associates was initially part of the joint venture, but has since sold its share in the venture.
Source: Chris Lang

GenFor's main research focus is GM radiata pine which makes up 80 per cent of Chile's plantations. GenFor's researchers aim to create a GM pine resistant to the European shoot-tip moth, a pest which currently costs plantation companies in Chile US$3 million a year to control.

The start of the GenFor partnership illustrates the high-tech nature of modern industrial tree plantations. Seven years ago, scientists at Biogenetics, a joint venture between Interlink and Fundación Chile, began research into the shoot-tip moth. At first, they aimed to set up a non-GM breeding programme for resistance to the moth. Biogenetic's scientists contacted Canadian company Silvagen (now called Cellfor) which sold a patented somatic embryogenesis propagation technology, which allows scientists to produce millions of trees from a single parent, without having to wait for the parent tree to seed. Instead of selling the somatic embryogenesis equipment it wanted, Silvagen formed the GenFor joint venture with Biogenetics.
Source: Chris Lang

*

Bioforest

Bioforest, subsidiary of Forestal Arauco, located in the VIII Region. Its research program is centered on improving pine and eucalyptus through cloning techniques. The company also works in biological pest control.
Paper By Lorena Ojeda D, "Genetically Engineered Trees in Chile: A New Forest Conflict"

*

Aracruz Cellulose

Take Brazil's Aracruz Cellulose, for example, the world's largest producer of bleached eucalyptus pulp. Aracruz's three pulp mills produce a total of two million tons of pulp a year. The company's eucalyptus plantations were established on the lands of the Tupinikim and Guarani indigenous peoples and other local communities. The eucalyptus trees that feed Aracruz's pulp mills are among the fastest growing trees in the world. Yet Aracruz continues to expand both its pulp operations and the area of its plantations, pushing yet more people off the land.

Aracruz is also carrying out laboratory research into genetically modified trees. In 1998, Aracruz became the first company to receive permission from Brazil's National Technical Commission of Biosecurity (CTNBio) for laboratory experiments on GM trees.

A year before receiving this application, which is still current, Aracruz produced a statement on GM trees. "Many sectors such as agriculture are using genetics, and there is no reason to impose a genetic prohibition on the forestry industry, which, for plantations, follow the same basic concepts as any food crop," the company explained. To Aracruz, then, there is no difference between an annual food crop and trees which can live for hundreds of years.

Gabriel Dehon Rezende, Forest Improvement Manager at Aracruz told me in July 2004 that "the company believes that Genetic Engineering could help bring about sustainable social, environmental and economic benefits to agricultural and forestry activities in the future." Rezende was quick to point out that at present "Aracruz does not use Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) in its field trials or commercial plantations."
Source: Chris Lang

*

Suzano

Brazilian pulp and paper company Suzano owns more than 180,000 hectares of eucalyptus plantations in the states of Sao Paulo, Bahia, Espirito Santo, Minas Gerais and Maranhao. Last year, Suzano spent US$180 million on expanding its mills in Bahia and Sao Paulo and has plans to double its production capacity by 2008.

Each year, Suzano spends US$2 million on research and development. Suzano is financing research into GM eucalyptus at the Luiz de Queiroz Agricultural College. The research aims to engineer trees with reduced lignin and higher cellulose content, an attempt to find what Suzano describes as the "perfect tree".

Suzano is also interested in producing a GM eucalyptus tree which can withstand drought. While the company acknowledges that "the water shortage already being experienced in some areas is a huge challenge", it fails to mention that Suzano's water guzzling eucalyptus plantations are one of the causes of the water shortage.
Source: Chris Lang

*

International Paper

International Paper, the world's largest pulp and paper firm, has almost 200,000 hectares of industrial tree plantations in Brazil. Wood chips from Brazil are exported to International Paper's mills in the US. Two years ago, International Paper of Brazil received permission from CTNBio for experiments with GM trees.

International Paper is a partner in ArborGen, the world's largest GM tree company. ArborGen has plans to test its GM eucalyptus in Brazil. New Zealand biotech firm Horizon2 has a research contract with ArborGen. The company states that the research aims "to help improve the pulping characteristics of eucalyptus destined for the Brazilian market."

In March 2004, Bruce Burton, the vice-president of Rubicon, a partner in ArborGen, announced that ArborGen would not carry out any GM tree trials in New Zealand. Instead, "we'll carry on doing test in the US and Brazil" he said.
Source: http://chrislang.blogspot.com/2004_11_30_chrislang_archive.html">Chris Lang

*

Others

INIA IX Región (Institute of Farming and Animal Husbandry Research), together with the Universities of Chile and Católica, CINVESTAV Irapuato Labs of Mexico, Department of the Ministry of Agriculture (SEREMI) of Chile's IX Region, Agrícola Mar Rojo, the Afodegama Foundation and Indes Salus, are collaborating on a seed transgenesis development project to enhance resistance to the apple tree scab.
Paper By Lorena Ojeda D, "Genetically Engineered Trees in Chile: A New Forest Conflict"