'Tvind in Brazil.a dossier on Humana, Planet Aid, IICD and Campus California TG.

Tvind assets:  Fazenda Floryl (plantation), melon farm; projects. 

Tvind Alert contact:  Marcello Jose Mattoso D Avila
marcello_davila@uol.com.br

In Brazil, Tvind claims to be an aid agency, with 'projects' at Parana and Recife.    But behind the scenes, Tvind is also the owner of a huge commercial ranch in the Brazilian jungle, where it is accused by local people (as reported in several newspapers) of logging the rainforest and ruthlessly exploiting workers.

The 104,000-hectare plantation at Jatob (Fazenda Floryl) was bought from Shell for $9m in 1994.   This farm produces bananas, sugarcane, eucalyptus, rice and citrus fruit, all for export to the USA and Europe.  Local sources say hardwoods are unsustainably logged.   Workers are not represented by any union and wages, conditions, accommodation and health care are said to be extremely poor.  Workers may well come from other central American countries.   Outsiders are not allowed to visit and journalists are warned off.

For years Tvind denied any connection with Fazenda Floryl even though the farm manager is a member of the Teachers Group.   Instead, Tvind said it had funded 'environmental projects' in Brazil through its charity, the Humanitarian Fund.    In 2001 this was exposed as a lie.    Documents emerged in Denmark showing that Tvind used the Humanitarian Fund money to buy Jatob as a commercial forestry plantation, not as an environmental project.   This is a key part of the Danish police prosecution of Tvind and its four top leaders for fraud and tax evasion.     Poul Joergensen, one of the four accused, attempted to steal this document from court files, according to Danish newspaper reports.

Under Tvind, the company ownership of Fazenda Floryl has passed through several different names and offshore companies, all Tvind-run.     It is believed to be one of at least 24 Tvind plantations in Latin America, ultimately controlled by Channel Island-registered companies Bahia Farming and Lyle Enterprise, with an administrative centre in Ecuador.

Map of Fazenda Floryl

Map of Brazil (under construction)

See:  News archive

Tvind shops for new plantations.

Ekstra Bladet, Denmark, September 1996.  The reporter, Kurt Simonsen, was once a Tvind solidarity worker, but has written articles exposing Tvind for many years.

  What is UFF hiding on its plantation in Brazil?

Profit seems to have replaced humanity as the aid organisation's driving force.    From Dagens Nyheter, Sweden, 10th June 2000, by Bengt Lindstrm

  Uma fazenda misteriosa

Madeireira bancada por entidade filantrpica dinamarquesa agride leis brasileiras na Bahia  (VEJA, Brazil, 11 de julho de 2001)   Flvia Varella  (in Portuguese)

  Stolen document reveals Tvind-fund

A document indicating Tvind's ownership of the Jatoba plantation and revealing its true purpose  -  logging  -  was stolen from court files by one of the defendants in the Danish fraud court case against Tvind.     Berlingske Tidende, June 29th, 2001

 

Companies

See Tvind companies

   Bahia Farming Ltd  (Jersey-registered offshore company)

            Parent company

   Lyle Enterprise  (Jersey-registered offshore company)

            Parent company

   Floryl Florestadora YPA S/A  (Brazil)

             Formerly Floresta Atlantica (Brazil) Ltd and Fazenda Floresta Jatob SA

Owner, Fazenda Floryl.  Subsidiary company.  Sells tropical hard wood to Argentina, Chile and Portugal, Denmark, Malaysia and Japan.

   Grupo Dans   (Ecuador)

Possible parent company, owns 8 farms with 2000 employees in central and
south America.           

   Tropical Farming  (Cayman-registered offshore company)

            Former parent company

  

Plantations:

See: Tvind plantations

   Fazenda Floryl, Bahia province

   Big River Melons  

              More information please

 

'Projects'

See:  Tvind projects

IICD and Planet Aid in Brazil

http://gemini.berkshire.net/~iicd1/brazil.html
IICD programme

From IICD web site:

IICD:  In Brazil one month is spent in a farming cooperative in Parana in the south. Teams have built pre-schools, and made other improvements for the community. Another month is spent in Recife working on a variety of programs to improve the lives of people who live in the slums and to educate street children. A month is set aside for travel and research in different parts of Brazil. Information collected in this time is used for presentations and educational products.

IICD solidarity workers work with community development projects with poor farmers in the south of Brazil, and with organizations for street children in Recife.

During the first month of the international period, IICD volunteers live and work with a rural cooperative in the southern state of Parana. The people in the cooperative have obtained land through agrarian reform, and are now in the process of building new, productive lives.

The team works with the cooperative on a daily basis, and learns about the settlement, its plans, and work. The IICD group brings some money, from their fundraising in the preparation period, to put into a project that they carry out together with the community.

Another month is spent in Recife, the biggest city in the North East, working with various organizations  who work to improve the conditions of people who dwell in the slums, and with the education of street children. In this way IICD teams experience life in both rural and urban Brazil.

 

 

A document indicating Tvind's ownership of the Jatoba plantation and revealing its true purpose  -  logging  -  was stolen from court files by one of the defendants in the Danish fraud court case against Tvind.     Berlingske Tidende, June 29th, 2001

See Tvind companies

   Lyle Enterprise  (Jersey-registered offshore company)

            Parent company

   Floryl Florestadora YPA S/A  (Brazil)

             Formerly Floresta Atlantica (Brazil) Ltd and Fazenda Floresta Jatob SA

Owner, Fazenda Floryl.  Subsidiary company.  Sells tropical hard wood to Argentina, Chile and Portugal, Denmark, Malaysia and Japan.

   Grupo Dans   (Ecuador)

Possible parent company, owns 8 farms with 2000 employees in central and
south America.           

   Tropical Farming  (Cayman-registered offshore company)

            Former parent company

  

See: Tvind plantations

   Fazenda Floryl, Bahia province

   Big River Melons  

              More information please

 

See:  Tvind projects

IICD and Planet Aid in Brazil

http://gemini.berkshire.net/~iicd1/brazil.html
IICD programme

From IICD web site:

IICD:  In Brazil one month is spent in a farming cooperative in Parana in the south. Teams have built pre-schools, and made other improvements for the community. Another month is spent in Recife working on a variety of programs to improve the lives of people who live in the slums and to educate street children. A month is set aside for travel and research in different parts of Brazil. Information collected in this time is used for presentations and educational products.

IICD solidarity workers work with community development projects with poor farmers in the south of Brazil, and with organizations for street children in Recife.

During the first month of the international period, IICD volunteers live and work with a rural cooperative in the southern state of Parana. The people in the cooperative have obtained land through agrarian reform, and are now in the process of building new, productive lives.

The team works with the cooperative on a daily basis, and learns about the settlement, its plans, and work. The IICD group brings some money, from their fundraising in the preparation period, to put into a project that they carry out together with the community.

Another month is spent in Recife, the biggest city in the North East, working with various organizations  who work to improve the conditions of people who dwell in the slums, and with the education of street children. In this way IICD teams experience life in both rural and urban Brazil.

 

 

During the first month of the international period, IICD volunteers live and work with a rural cooperative in the southern state of Parana. The people in the cooperative have obtained land through agrarian reform, and are now in the process of building new, productive lives.

The team works with the cooperative on a daily basis, and learns about the settlement, its plans, and work. The IICD group brings some money, from their fundraising in the preparation period, to put into a project that they carry out together with the community.

Another month is spent in Recife, the biggest city in the North East, working with various organizations  who work to improve the conditions of people who dwell in the slums, and with the education of street children. In this way IICD teams experience life in both rural and urban Brazil.

 

 

 

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