Paper Short Abstract:

Focusing on Eucalyptus in Sardinia (Italy), Portugal, and Galicia (Spain), the contribution reflects how these particular forms of forests are at the center of environmental frictions that involve different actors in producing local understandings of biodiversity conservation and green development.

Paper Abstract:

Recently, previously neglected species have taken the foreground to narrate the stories of human and non-human interspecies entanglements in times of crisis (Tsing, Mathews, and Bubandt 2019; Tsing 2023). Drawing from this debate, the contribution explores the ecological entanglements and frictions generated by the presence of Eucalyptus in Sardinia (Italy), Galicia (Spain), and Portugal. Eucalyptus has been planted in Europe roughly since the 1850s (Doughty 2000). Until the 1950s, agroforestry experts praised the Eucalyptus for its high range of wood biomass and its ability to reclaim ‘empty’ lands. Later, the EU’s afforestation projects helped to expand the existence of the Eucalyptus in Europe. The overwhelming presence of Eucalyptus plants in the landscape of Sardinia, Galicia, and Portugal is raising tensions among citizens, scientists, loggers, beekeepers, and local decision-makers. In all three areas, the narration of the Eucalyptus as a ‘vegetal colonizer’ who has no right to root in the soil because it’s threatening the landscape’s cultural heritage contrasts with the visions of beekeepers, hunters, and local loggers (Meloni 2021). The latter consider the plants an environmental and economic resource for they shelter many species, provide food for pollinators, and represent a fundamental source of economic income in the paper and biomass industry.

The paper shows how the management of Eucalyptus forests reproduces local power dynamics and fuels new forms of land grabbing connected to green energy production. Finally, the contribution reflects on how the plant-human-nonhuman relationships in the above-mentioned areas produce conflicting discourses on sustainability, biodiversity conservation, and green development.