Current forestry policy is more decorative than effective. We need a forestry policy that controls the monoculture of eucalyptus in Galicia, and northern Spain, that protects native biodiversity, that puts an end to this green, lifeless desert that has colonised our territory.
The term ‘green desert’ came into use in Brazil in the 1980s to refer to the monoculture of trees on large tracts of land for cellulose production
The current forestry policy is fuelling hell at home.
Ephemeral installation that I made in the framework of the artistic residency that I did last September in Pontevedra. Many thanks to all the people who helped me, especially Javier Carrera aka Cuco and Lois Cid.
This installation was made in my hometown, Pontevedra, in Galicia, which has had a factory called Ence in operation since 1957, dedicated to making cellulose pulp from eucalyptus trees. This invasive species has practically wiped out the native forests. Since then, a large part of northern Spain and Portugal has become a monoculture of this pyrophyte species, which alarmingly aggravates forest fires and destroys biodiversity, as well as drying up aquifers. The landscape has become a green desert, where nothing grows, it looks like a kind of synthetic forest. We must recover our lost paradise that still remains resilient.
Ence factory should have closed in 2018 but for incomprehensible and unfair political reasons it is still open.
Pictures and videos by Isaac Cordal, Cuco and Lois Cid
