
The Dirty Reality Behind "Green Steel"
In northeastern Brazil's Cerrado savanna, a rural community fights to hold onto land threatened by large-scale eucalyptus plantations planted as carbon offsets for steel manufacturers. The scheme, backed by financing linked to the World Bank, is marketed as reforestation that brings sustainable development, biodiversity protection, and respect for local rights, all under international oversight. German filmmaker Daniel Harrich travels to the region with independent researchers to check those claims against what residents actually experience: lost land, damaged ecosystems, and promises that went unfulfilled. The film follows Harrich through what it frames as a risky on-the-ground investigation, gathering testimony from affected community members and documenting the monocultures replacing native savanna. It sets corporate sustainability messaging and World Bank-linked oversight claims directly against footage and interviews from the plantations themselves, building its case on that contrast rather than narration alone. The result is a pointed look at how a celebrated climate solution for the steel industry plays out for the people living beside it.