Sugar around the world →
Copyright © 2006 - 2009 Ethical Sugar
Site created with SPIP by
A. LE FLOCH
This campaign denounces the alarming situation of the first indigenous community of Brazil where they work in very harsh conditions, and whose jobs are now threatened by the announced mechanization of the sugar-ethanol sector.
The NGO Ethical Sugar sparks off a campaign that will be launched on September, 15th.
This campaign will denounce the alarming situation of the Guarani natives, the first indigenous community of Brazil where they work for the food-processing industry in very harsh conditions, sometimes as semi-slaves, and whose jobs are now threatened by the announced mechanization of the sugar-ethanol sector.
The Guarani population in the MS would totalize around 42,000 people, with an estimated 83% of the men aged to work working as sugarcane cutters, which makes approximately 13,000 workers.
The French group Louis Dreyfus, through its branch LDC Bioenergia, is the first employer of the sector in the MS, therefore the first employer of those Amerindians.The opening of a new sugar-ethanol plant in the MS, for an estimated investment of $430 million, rises to 8 the number of plants owned by the group in Brazil, all « located strategically” over the country.
Brazil, the second ethanol producer in the world after the US, produced 18 billion litres in 2007 and exported 3 billion litres. Louis Dreyfus Commodities Bioenergia, one of the main sugarcane processing companies in the world, exports its ethanol to the US, to Europe, to Korea and to Japan.
The survival of the whole community is at stake, because mechanization will annihilate the only source of income of the Guarani people.A call of the civil society should be addressed to the Dreyfus Company concerning the first indigenous community in Brazil. The request has been written by the Cimi (Indigenous Missionary Council) and is relayed by Ethical Sugar in France.
The objective of this campaign is to sensitize the company in France, also owner of the football club Olympique Marseillais and of the phone company 9 télécom.By facing the employer to its responsibilities, this campaign asks Dreyfus for a just reparation for the workers, the support to programs of environmental restoration on the indigenous lands in partnership with local social partners, the constitution of a fund that will finance revenue generating activities and restoration of the food producing economy on the indigenous lands, as well as the support to a familial agriculture.
Above all, the mechanization policy should be accompanied by social policies, directly linked to the sector or indirectly, through the diversification of local economy.
This campaign is supported by the ICRA (International Commission for the rights of the Indigenous people), Fian France, and Peuples solidaires.
Lyon, August 26th, 2008For more information : Marie Kergozou –+33 4 72 70 47 30 – www.ethical-sugar.org