Eucalyptus Trees Stir Iberian Ecology Alarm as They Soak Up Water

Ecologists and farmers in Portugal and Spain are at war against spreading eucalyptus trees. The enemy is a paper pulp industry that encourages the planting of more and more of them.

Eucalyptus plantations are sprouting in the two countries as the industry seeks a secure supply of the raw material it will need to meet the demand for paper as the European Economic Community lowers trade barriers in 1992.

But farmers and ecologists claim that eucalyptus trees drink up too much water from the soil, endangering traditional olive trees, chestnut and other nut-bearing trees. They also maintain that the trees cause land erosion that kills undergrowth vital to the survival of brown bears and other wildlife.

Cellulose producers dispute claims that the trees are harmful. They say eucalyptus trees grow fast and are ideally suited to Iberian soil and climate and that plantations will provide more export revenue and create jobs.

The arguments are passionate and tempers run high. In March, protesters in the Portuguese town of Valpacos clashed with police when farmers tried to rip up eucalyptus seedlings from a 396-acre private plantation.

The region is Portugal’s poorest.

“We stopped them from planting more eucalyptus at Valpacos,” said olive grower Joao Silva. “If they try anywhere else . . . we’ll do the same again, but worse.

“If they want to plant eucalyptus, they should plant where there’s plenty of water. Here we don’t even have enough to drink.”

Environmentalists contend that the eucalyptus, brought from Australia in the late 1800s, can turn fertile land into desert.

“The eucalyptus consumes more water than almost any other tree and impedes other plants from growing nearby,” said Santiago Martin Barajas, vice president of the Federation of Spanish Wildlife Protection Groups.

“Portugal’s interior, already poor, is being turned into a giant eucalyptus plantation, and more people are moving toward the coast, leaving villages deserted,” said Serafim Riem, a spokesman for the Portuguese ecology group Quercus.

The European Economic Community, which faces a paper shortage, imports $19.5 billion worth of wood annually.

Timber and pulp command high prices, and this encourages landowners to plant eucalyptus, which can be harvested in 12 years, about half the time of more traditional trees.

“Eucalyptus for us is green crude oil,” said Luis Mira Amaral, industry and energy minister for Portugal, where wood pulp, paper and cellulose account for 8% of yearly export earnings.

Spanish environmentalists fear that the European Economic Community will subsidize massive eucalyptus plantings in northern Spain, where the mix of Atlantic and Mediterranean climates favors growth.

Portuguese landowners already tap European Economic Community funds via the government’s Forestry Action Program. While assistance to traditional tree planters is higher, the forestry program pays up to 30% of project costs for small-scale eucalyptus plantations.

“Portugal has no other vocation,” said Eliseu Baena, forestry director at Caima, one of Portugal’s four major cellulose producers.

“If landowners want to restore their lands, they’re going to do it with a profitable crop.”

Baena acknowledged that eucalyptus trees should be planted away from springs or rivers but denied that they erode soil or kill undergrowth vital to wildlife.

Antonio Navas, deputy director of Spain’s Institute for Wildlife Preservation, suggested that the environmentalists might be poorly informed.

“There hasn’t been a clear debate,” he said. “The eucalyptus is blamed for causing diseases--for being malignant.”

According to Lisbon’s General Directorate for Forestry, eucalyptus trees make up only 11.3% of Portugal’s forests, or about 4% of the country’s total land area of 35,600 square miles.

But eucalyptus leads the list of trees being planted in Portugal.