Brussels, 19/10/2001 (Agence Europe) - The European Investment Bank (EIB) recently announced that it would be providing a EUR 32 million loan to Veracel Celulose SA for the planting of eucalyptus forests in the state of Bahia in north-east Brazil. The programme involves buying and preparing the land, producing saplings and planting them on more than 26,000 hectares, and also buying forestry equipment and building and enhancing some 450 km of roads, with the aim of manufacturing paper paste in the Veracel factory. The project will have a positive impact on the environment and help reverse the process of deforestation of tropical rainforest by easing the pressure of the wood industry on primary forests and by preserving biodiversity. The promoter will give over a third of its land to conserving or regenerating the local ecosystem.
45% of Veracel Celulose SA is controlled by Stora Enso, 45% by Aracrus Celulose SA and 10% by Odebrecht SA. It is a private company, set up in the 1991 in order to carry out integrated projects ranging from eucalyptus plantations and the production of paper paste. It is supported by shareholders like Stora Enso, a Finnish forestry products company. Stora Enso's stake in Veracel was the Finnish company's first venture in Brazil