A Post-Industrial Galician Landscape

Galicia produces 4 million tonnes of Eucalyptus wood yearly, it is estimated that half of this is for exclusive supply of ENCE, paper paste factory translates in the occupation of 500.000 hectares out of 2.9 million hectares of the total surface of the region are covered by Eucalyptus.

Eucalyptus trees were first brought to Galicia by Rosendo Salvado, a Benedictine missionary, from Australia. The purpose of incorporating the species was to dry up wetlands to avoid plagues and bacteria. The current consequences: The region is among the wettest in the Iberian Peninsula, although it has hosted around 40% of Spain's "wild"-fires in the last 20 years.

Some characteristics presented by Eucalyptus plantations are; that they are mainly monocrops - very few species co-exist with them as they can have roots as deep as 60 metres underground which have enough strength to break rock and concrete in order to find water sources. When autochthonous species start a water competition with Eucalyptuses, they are bound to lose.

Eucalyptus need very little maintenance and their leaves are rich in oils and phenolic compounds that make them toxic to most animal species; few animals outside Australia can eat them.

They can grow to 40–60 metres and their flexible trunks bend easily in the wind. They are also pyrophytic: their oil-rich leaves, shedding bark and dry litter spread fire very fast, making them a risk to surrounding populations.

Before the Civil War, Spain was a Republic and Galicia had just voted for its Statute of Autonomy, which never came into force. During the dictatorship, Galician culture was extremely censored and oppressed, and Galicianist politicians and intellectuals were executed, imprisoned or forced into exile.

One of the strategies of the regime for censorship and control over Galician land was the implementation of a cellulose factory in the Estuary of Pontevedra.

The main supply for the factory is wood. Fast and cheap. Eucalyptus trees, previously used for public health purposes and traditional medicine remedies, are now turned into a weapon to erase the native forest, its symbols, and the ancient local knowledge, traditions and identity deeply tied to it; once a plantation takes its place, there is no forest left.

The ENCE mill was imposed by the regime in 1958 on public land reclaimed from the ría: an estuarine tidal wetland that held the ría's main shellfish bed and supported a community of more than 15,000 fisherwomen.

Ever since, its presence on public land has been contested in court, and for long periods it has operated illegally: in 2002 its managers were convicted of an environmental crime, and in 2021 the Audiencia Nacional declared its 60-year extension void, before the Supreme Court overturned that ruling in 2023. All this time it has been polluting the estuary and destroying the native forest. Through direct liquid spills onto the river and constant fumes, marine biodiversity and birdlife have decreased: scientific studies already showed this under the regime, and scientists have kept proving it since, as stated by APDR. Some of the leaked chemicals include sulfur dioxide, nitrogen sulfide, and nitrogen oxide after the cease of the use of mercury in the 2000s. After the end of the Dictatorship, democratic governments have kept supporting the existence of the 2 km long machine.

Due to continuous violation of environmental law, the concession for the use of the land has been recently denied and is expected to cease operations within 3 years (2021) [2026 update: the Supreme Court overturned this in 2023 and upheld the extension until 2073; the mill is still operating].

This led me to explore the regeneration of the wetland and the forest. Recovering the ecosystem of the estuary through the implantation of a centre for the fisherwoen and the estuary made out of the remains of the industrial infrastructure.