Jari project

The Jari project was funded under the Projeto Calha Norte put into practice with the aim of Amazonia remodel.

This project was run by a North American millionaire Daniel Keith Ludwig in the 1970s. He bought in 1967 1.6 million hectares of forest land in Brazil at the Jari River. Parallel to these activities, the company that operates eucalyptus began to grow, as it were equivalent to fast-growing trees and one from this promised a quick profit. The first trees only needed a growth period of seven years and could be processed almost in its eighth year. Inspired by these results, a jungle area was cleared of the size of Belgium and planted with eucalyptus. Even today, visitors can look at the environmental consequences of this depletion in the large forest area. The soil was in a short time ( after 2-3 harvests ) unusable and karstified the country. Here, no tropical rainforest more will grow in the next 100 years.

Later In 1978, he built his company a cellulose plant in Japan and set it up on a floating pontoon arriving directly in the jungle at the Jari River. For this factory transport on a floating pontoon, he used a new technology that had been developed in Finland. Two platforms were produced. On the one hand, the pulp mill was delivered, the other containing an oil power plant ( with Holzpalletoption ) for 55 megawatts to produce the necessary energy, as there was in this jungle area at that time not have their own source of energy. Already in 1980 came the cellulose production to 200,000 metric tons.

Daniel Keith Ludwig had failed with his project and gave the Brazilian state of the plantations and the associated factory as well as the now -built railway line Estrada de Ferro Jari. He also left an environmental disaster in the chlorine-containing waste water from the factory were simply fed into an artificial lake and there seeped into the groundwater. To date, this damage has not been repaired.

The Brazilian government transferred the responsibility for the continuation of the project to the mining company Caemi. It started a long time the experiments, the planting of eucalyptus in the tropical rainforest to make more ecological. The seedlings were altered by farming and planting was put into the form of round islands in the jungle. Rest periods after harvesting a tree generation should regenerate the area. Nevertheless, the project Jari fights to date making it an ideal form of symbiosis in the planting of eucalyptus trees for cellulose production and the maintenance of the surrounding jungle produce. In 1992, the cellulose production had increased to 280,000 metric tons.

Meanwhile, the project Jari was expanded to a large industrial complex. In addition to the pulp mill is a factory for kaolin, which was found across the river above ground. Another work processes the raw material bauxite for further transport. This commodity also usually comes with the train from a mine in the hinterland. The Group Caemi was taken in the meantime by the mining company Vale do Rio Doce.

In 2000, the ORSA group took over the project Jari and production was further increased. In the factory, now not only the eucalyptus forests in the area to be processed, but also wood from other regions of Brazil, which is delivered by ship. In 2004, the production of cellulose came to a record of 358 200 metric tons ( growth relative to 2003 by five per cent). The ORSA group tries to give a green paint paper production in Amazonia. So recently recycling projects are promoted in Brazilian schools of ORSA. It is said the planting of eucalyptus in rainforest now to have a firm grip and operate in harmony with nature to grow.