From Conserve Africa Yahoo! Group

Forests paying the price for biofuels

* 22 November 2005
* NewScientist.com news service
* Fred Pearce


THE drive for "green energy" in the developed world is having the
perverse effect of encouraging the destruction of tropical
rainforests.
From the orang-utan reserves of Borneo to the Brazilian Amazon,
virgin
forest is being razed to grow palm oil and soybeans to fuel cars and
power stations in Europe and North America. And surging prices are
likely to accelerate the destruction.

The rush to make energy from vegetable oils is being driven in part
by
European Union laws requiring conventional fuels to be blended with
biofuels, and by subsidies equivalent to 20 pence a litre. Last week,
the British government announced a target for biofuels to make up 5
per
cent of transport fuels by 2010. The aim is to help meet Kyoto
protocol
targets for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions.

Rising demand for green energy has led to a surge in the
international
price of palm oil, with potentially damaging consequences. "The
expansion of palm oil production is one of the leading causes of
rainforest destruction in south-east Asia. It is one of the most
environmentally damaging commodities on the planet," says Simon
Counsell, director of the UK-based Rainforest Foundation. "Once again
it
appears we are trying to solve our environmental problems by dumping
them in developing countries, where they have devastating effects on
local people."

The main alternative to palm oil is soybean oil. But soya is the
largest
single cause of rainforest destruction in the Brazilian Amazon.
Supporters of biofuels argue that they can be "carbon neutral"
because
the CO_2 released from burning them is taken up again by the next
crop.
Interest is greatest for diesel engines, which can run unmodified on
vegetable oil, and in Germany bio-diesel production has doubled since
2003. There are also plans for burning palm oil in power stations.

*"Once again we are trying to solve our environmental problems by
dumping them on developing countries"*

Until recently, Europe's small market in biofuels was dominated by
home-grown rapeseed (canola) oil. But surging demand from the food
market has raised the price of rapeseed oil too. This has led fuel
manufacturers to opt for palm and soya oil instead. Palm oil prices
jumped 10 per cent in September alone, and are predicted to rise 20
per
cent next year, while global demand for biofuels is now rising at 25
per
cent a year.

Roger Higman, of Friends of the Earth UK, which backs biofuels, says:
"We need to ensure that the crops used to make the fuel have been
grown
in a sustainable way or we will have rainforests cleared for palm oil
plantations to make bio-diesel."

From issue 2526 of New Scientist magazine, 22 November 2005, page 19
http://www.newscientist.com/channel/earth/mg18825265.400.html*/
/*


Related Articles

* Spoonful of sugar makes biofuel greener
<http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg18825255.100>
* 12 November 2005
* Green fuel earns its stripes in 24-hour endurance test
<http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg18224523.300>
* 19 June 2004
* Soya-powered planes promise greener air travel
<http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn4813>
* 26 March 2004


Web Links

* Biofuels, EU

<http://europa.eu.int/comm/energy/res/legislation/biofuels_en.htm>
* Rainforest Foundation <http://www.rainforestfoundationuk.org/s-
index>
* Roger Higman, Friends of the Earth

<http://www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/sustainable_development/roger_higman.h
tml>


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