Jari project

The Jari project was an attempt to create a tropical tree farm in Brazil for producing pulp for paper.

At first he considered locating his tree farm in Costa Rica but the Brazilian military government encouraged him to settle on the lower reaches of the Rio Jari, a tributary of the Amazon River.

He built a settlement, Monte Dourado, with houses, schools, the only hospital in the area, bakery, supermarket, nurseries, bridges and community buildings.

Other settlements, the "free cities" of Beiradão and Beiradinho, grew up across the river to provide services not contemplated by the American planners.

Ludwig had also commissioned two large ship-shaped platforms that were built in Japan and floated to the Jari Project.

It traveled through the Indian Ocean and around the Cape of Good Hope, arriving at the Brazilian city of Munguba on 28 April.

To satisfy the demand of the pulp mill production it became necessary to purchase other species of wood from other Brazilian sources.

Another of Ludwig's ideas was to grow all the food needed, including rice to feed the workers, which did not turn out well either.

Problems also began to increase because of the so-called Amazon Factor - the combined effects of soil, insects, humidity and tropical disease.

Newly planted trees required manual weeding for a few years, which meant importing many field laborers from the poverty-stricken Northwest of Brazil.

Then Brazilian government officials began to criticize Ludwig's methods and the extent of his land ownership.