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Last Update: July 16, 2008
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- Paper Pulp Mills - Uruguay
- Corporate Accountability and Human Rights
- Climate Change and Human Rights
Botnia Pulp Mill Conflict
King of Spain Holds Mediation Meeting in Madrid
Botnia Says Uruguay Never Asked for Stopping Construction of its Mill and Recognizes Failure to Consult Stakeholders - Local Communities call for Relocation as ONLY solution
April 17, 2007 – Madrid Spain. Argentine, Uruguayan and Botnia representatives board their respective air flights today on route to Madrid , where they will participate in a top secret mediatory meeting hosted by the King of Spain to discuss still diverging positions on the continuing pulp mill crisis on the Argentine and Uruguayan border.
Local community representatives, who have maintained an international roadblock into Uruguay since November 20, 2006 (the day the World Bank agreed to give Botnia a US$170 million loan) met yesterday with president Kirchner's Chief of Cabinet, Alberto Fernandez, to ask whether Argentina's opposition against the installation of what would be the largest pulp mill in the Americas, by the Finnish Botnia, would change.
With the mill nearly completed (see photo) the issue still on the table for local communities opposed to the installation of the mill is relocation . The “R” word is out-rightly avoided by Botnia and by Uruguay , who claim the mill is too far advanced to consider moving it. However, local residents are immune to the rapid acceleration of construction by the Finnish company Botnia, who when faced with opposition from local communities from the onset of its mill construction, accelerated its pace so as to present a fait accomplit situation to stakeholders. Botnia and the financial supporters of the mill (including the World Bank's IFC) have systematically ignored engaging with local stakeholders, despite their obligations to do so under World Bank social and environmental policies.
Erkki Varis, CEO of Botnia met with Argentine press yesterday in Helsinki and informed that the pulp mill plant was 95% complete, that the Uruguayan President had never asked him or Botnia to stop construction. “Botnia has the necessary permits from the Uruguayan Government. Nobody ever asked us officially to stop construction. If they had, we would have seriously considered it because we had 1500 employees working at the time”, said Varis. When asked why Botnia never went to Gualeguaychú considering the irrational bilateral conflict its mill has caused between local communities and between the two governments, Varis admitted that Botnia never held consultation forums for Argentine stakeholders, “The error that we committed was not to have held consultation forums in Gualeguaychú”. “We are open to dialogue but we do not want to be the subject of a public protest”. When asked if Botnia would consider relocation, Varis declined to comment.
Meetings get underway tomorrow in Madrid under in a closed format and with an unpublished agenda. It is believed that Argentine will push for relocation and Uruguay for joint monitoring, an option which since day one, has not been acceptable to local stakeholders. Stakeholders await to see what the Spanish negotiator has to offer, particularly as he met with Botnia recently. No one knows precisely what they discussed.
More Information
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