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http://mobile.yahoo.com/mobileweb/onesearch?refer=1ONXICDate: 31 May 2007 11:56:15 -0000
From: biofuelwatch@yahoogroups.com
To: biofuelwatch@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [biofuelwatch] Digest Number 345

biofuelwatch

Messages In This Digest (5 Messages)

1.

Ecuador: Open letter to the agro forestry plan From: Elizabeth Bravo

2.

Biofuels: a danger for Latin America From: martimpim

3.

World's great apes face disaster, says Leakey From: Andrew Boswell

4.

Mexicans Torch Tequila Fields for Ethanol Boom Corn From: Andrew Boswell

5.

Thailand: The looming catastrophe of oil palm plantations for biodie From: almuthbernstinguk

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Messages

1.

Ecuador: Open letter to the agro forestry plan

Posted by: "Elizabeth Bravo" ebravo@...

Thu May 31, 2007 1:17 am (PST)

OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT CORREA ON THE AGROFORESTRY PLAN

The indigenous people, peasant and afrodescendent organizations which met in
Quito- Ecuador on 24th May 2007, to analyse the Agronomic and Forestry Plan
of the Government of Rafael Correa, express:

We know that it is a priority of your government to work for the benefit of
the populations that traditionally they have been excluded, like we are the
native people, afro- descendents and peasants of this country, and we have
put our hope in you, because until now, the State has traditionally
benefited only to the large landlords, to the big producers, to the
agrobusiness sector, in detriment of the rural economy.

However, we have seen that the program of the present Minister of
Agriculture continues in the same line, "the country is still in the hands
of few". The Plan do privileges the agrobusiness sector, promotes the
monocultures and intends to deepen a technological package that causes
damages to the natural resources, to the soil, al water, to the biodiversity
and deepens the rural inequalities and the processes of impoverishment of
the peasantry. The production of monocultures is promoted for agrofuels
without taking into account the demands of food sovereignty and defence of
the collective rights of the Indigenous peoples and afro descendent
communities.

Furthermore, the Plan promotes an anti ecological reforestation based on
monocultures, without prior studies on the impact that the plan will have on
the rural life. The Plan focus, as the only strategy, on a type of forest
plantations directed to the big industry and the external market.

The peasant, rural, afrodescendents and indigenous people organizations of
Ecuador who attended the above mentioned meeting, demand President Rafael
Correa to ask the Minister of Agriculture to act in accordance with your
proposal of refund the country in benefit of the poorest population.

Our demands are:

1. An Integral Agrarian Reform that eliminate the land concentration and
guaranties access to the productive resources with justice, to the small
farmers
2. The protection and promotion of the national food and agriculture
production, with sustainable productive programs in the hands of the rural
communities
3. The defence of biodiversity, genetic resources, traditional knowledge,
in contrast with the promotion of forest and agricultural monocultures
specially for agrofuels and other cash products, the introduction of GM
seeds and the technological packages.
4. The development of rural policies that respect the diversity of the
indigenous peoples, the peasants and rural communities that promotes
interculturality; and that recognises the contribution of women in the
sovereign productive processes
5. To work in a participatory agrarian and forestry policy, with the
inclusion of indigenous peoples, the peasants and rural communities,
afrodescendent and rural women, using a methodology that respect our
traditional practices and that ensure the local control of our resources
6. Prioritise local and national food sovereignty, in which the land and the
water are used to satisfy the food needs of the population, an not any
extractive activity (mining, oil and timber). The water have to be used for
the human consumption and not for hydroelectric dams.
7. The resources of the State should be use to meet the previous demands
and not for the promotion of agrobusiness, and agrofuels, We reject any
mechanisms that promotes the land market.

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2.

Biofuels: a danger for Latin America

Posted by: "martimpim" martim.pinheiro-de-melo@...   martimpim

Thu May 31, 2007 2:05 am (PST)

[A ZNet Commentary - have a look and consider supporting ZNet at
http://www.zmag.org]

Biofuels: a danger for Latin America May 26, 2007 By Marie Trigona

Renewable fuels, in particular Biofuels, energy sources derived from
agricultural crops have suddenly won the support from the United
States. This is partly due to George Bush's recent 5-nation tour of
Latin America to wedge out unity and push through ethanol accords.
Development funds and corporations hope that Latin America,
especially refining sugarcane into fuel in Brazil and soybeans in
Argentina, can spur the US's booming biofuel industry demands.
Corporate experts and financiers held the First Biofuels Congress of
the Americas in Buenos Aires this month to promote biofuel production
in the region. Former US Vice President Al Gore addressed investors,
NGO's and soy producers at the congress to spearhead renewable fuel
production in Argentina.

Northern hunger for "bio" fuels

Inexpensive land, cheap labor and plentiful bumper crops of soybeans
make Argentina a prime target for the production of ethanol and bio
diesel. Argentina is already offering tax-incentives to step up
investments for the biofuels market which is expected to triple by
2015. The South American nation wants 5 percent of its fuel supply be
biodiesel or ethanol-based in three years. The government has eagerly
pushed through pro-biofuel policy but has ignored worries over food
supply, the environmental effects of mono-agricultural production and
the social side-effects of biofuel production on the rural
population.

Argentina's vice-president Daniel Scioli welcomed international
financiers to the Biofuels Congress, saying that Argentina is eager
to develop biodiesel technology and production. "Argentina is already
exporting biodiesel. We are hopeful and are creating favorable
conditions to lure investments to this sector. We are developing the
necessary infrastructure, improving our highways and ports to
transport and store the fruit of our applied intelligence."

"We are completely convinced that alternative biofuels will convert
Argentina into a global leader in renewable energy," said Scioli at
the Biofuels Congress. Investors and institutions attending the
First Biofuels Congress of the Americas paid 500 dollars a head to
attend the event, which was closed off to media outlets not allied to
biofuels.

A study published by the National Academy of Sciences found that
neither ethanol, which is corn derived, nor bio-diesel, which is soy-
produced can replace petroleum without having an impact on food
supply. However, biofuel proponents brushed off any criticism of the
renewable energy industry during the First Biofuels Congress of the
Americas.

Juan Carlos Iturregui president of the Foundation for InterAmerican
Development said that biofuels can only bring positive
results. "Biofuels can propel development. They bring a very
important factor which is the ability to compete and develop. This
has already been proven, let's not get tied up with supposed theories
and false debates. There can be food for everyone. There can be
biofuels for everyone."

Soybean plantations bump off small farms

Argentina is the third-largest soybean producer in the world after
the United States and Brazil. Top soil erosion and pollution caused
from pesticides and fertilizers have been just some of the side
effects to soybean plantations which have expanded exponentially at a
rate of 10 percent annually.

Many foreign financiers have been eager to invest in the booming
biodiesal industry. Dynamotive, a Canadian biofuels developer, will
invest up to 120 million in six plants in Argentina that would use
lumber- and paper-industry waste to make biofuel. The Spanish-
Argentine oil and gas company Repsol YPF has already invested 30
million in dollars in a biofuel refinery in the province of Buenos
Aires, expected to produce 100,000 tons a year as of 2007.

According to Oscar Delgado, a farmer from the northern province of
Salta, soy production has also led to the violent eviction of small
farmers and indigenous from lands cleared for soy bean
plantations. "In the northern region of Argentina, in the provinces
of Jujuy and Salta, local residents are witnessing a crisis because
of the expansion of the mono-crops. Most serious is the expansion of
trans genetic soy in Salta that has produced the eviction of small
farmers and indigenous from lands. The local government in Salta
supports these evictions; the government is supporting these new
businessmen coming to the province."

Shortly after Al Gore's visit to Buenos Aires, seven small-scale
farmers were arrested for resisting eviction from lands in the
Northern province of Santiago del Estero. The farmers form part of
MOCASE, a provincial grassroots movement of campesinos that promotes
sustainable agriculture to build community. Their land will be
cleared for soy production. The Santiago del Estero provincial
government, which ordered the arrests, co-sponsored the First
Biofuels Congress of the Americas, which paid Gore 170,000 dollars to
give a 40 minute presentation derived from his award-winning film The
Inconvenient Truth.

Goodbye food sovereignty Local environmental groups and farmers held
a parallel event to shed light on the dangers of biofuels, especially
the effects on food production and prices. They also held a protest
outside of the hotel where the Biofuels Congress of the Americas was
held.

With surgery masks and megaphones on hand, they chanted "Food
sovereignty, Yes! Biofuels, No!" Soledad Ogoliano, from the assembly
for food sovereignty said that multi-nationals like Monsanto and
Repsol YPF, a Spanish-Argentine petroleum company, speculate large
profits while putting Argentina's food production at risk. "The
immediate effect of this kind of production is the massive
disforestation like we are seeing now in the forests in Chaco, the
Amazon, and other areas that are large sources of biodiversity that
are destroyed for mono crops, only one agricultural crop, generally
transgenetic like soy." She added "We are talking about production
that is highly concentrated because it requires large amounts of
capital and investments in technology. It is no longer agricultural
food production in the hands of local communities, but simply large
scale production of commodities."

Food prices have already been affected due to soy and corn production
for export. Economists worry that plant-based fuels will cause food
prices to soar in Argentina, where food inflation continues to rise
over 15% annually. The nation has unsuccessfully imposed export
limits on certain foods like milk and beef, where production is
plentiful but supply for the domestic market scarce and expensive for
consumers.

A drive in food prices will hit the nation hard, with over 30 percent
of the population under the poverty line. The policies promoting
biofuel exports over domestic food production in developing countries
could be an ecological and social recipe for disaster. In addition to
Argentina, small farmers in Brazil and Paraguay have been pushed off
of lands cleared for soy production at an exponential rate. In
Mexico, consumers are fighting a tortilla war, a battle over
increased prices in tortillas partly due to the nation's increase in
ethanol production.

Groups will have to fight an uphill battle against corporations that
have a tight hold on growing biofuel production in Latin America
promising quench the North's thirst for energy at the cost of food
sovereignty and biodiversity. Local environmental groups in Argentina
will organize a series of protests against the corporations investing
in biofuel in the coming months. Subsequent bio-fuel congresses will
take place in Mexico, Colombia and Brazil this year.

Marie Trigona is a writer and independent radio producer based in
Buenos Aires. She can be reached at mtrigona@msn.com

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3.

World's great apes face disaster, says Leakey

Posted by: "Andrew Boswell" a_boswell_2004@...   a_boswell_2004

Thu May 31, 2007 2:12 am (PST)

http://environment.guardian.co.uk/conservation/story/0,,2091822,00.html

World's great apes face disaster, says Leakey

Hunting, disease, logging and demand for biofuels cited among prime threats

David Adam, environment correspondent
Thursday May 31, 2007
The Guardian <http://www.guardian.co.uk>

Gorilla
A female mountain gorilla in Uganda. Photograph: Stuart Price/AFP/Getty


One of the world's most prominent conservation experts yesterday issued a
rallying cry to save the great apes, man's closest biological cousins, which
are under serious threat of extinction.

Richard Leakey, former head of the Kenya wildlife service and now chair of
Wildlife Direct, said apes across the world faced unprecedented threats from
the combined effects of hunting, disease and logging. And he said efforts to
tackle global warming through the use of biofuels could cause more damage to
ape populations because of pressure to chop down their tropical forest
homes.

About 80% of orang-utan habitat in south-east Asia has been destroyed in the
past 20 years because of soaring demand for land to produce palm oil for
western markets. Experts warn that increased uptake of alternative fuels
could mean the disappearance of the remaining 50,000 animals there within a
generation.

Dr Leakey, who will outline his concerns in a public lecture tonight at the
Royal Geographical Society in London, said human activity was directly to
blame for the deaths of millions of gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos across
the world. He urged politicians working on a new international treaty to
regulate greenhouse gas emissions to focus more on incentives to conserve
forests across south-east Asia, Africa and central and south America.

Dr Leakey said: "People shrug their shoulders and say what are poor
countries to do if they can't export their natural resources, and I
understand this, but it is simply not sustainable the way it is going. The
threat to great ape populations around the world is growing visibly."

He said preventing deforestation would help curb global warming as well as
preserving endangered apes. Carbon released by deforestation is reckoned to
account for 25% of all human greenhouse gas emissions, second only to the
energy generation sector.

Scientists say conserving forests offers one of the cheapest ways to tackle
climate change, and steps to reward tropical countries which leave their
forests untouched will be discussed at the G8 summit in Germany next week.

Dr Leakey, a patron of a United Nations Environment Programme great apes
survival project, called for more "imaginative" solutions such as credits
for preserving biodiversity and wildlife habitats which a country could sell
to others to offset their carbon pollution. "We find it very hard to
preserve natural beauty, but we are happy to spend £80m on a Picasso and a
fortune looking after it."

But he insisted developing countries must take their share of responsibility
for global warming. "Developing countries are shrill about the damage that
developed countries have caused with their pollution," he said. "The
developing world should have a comparable amount of responsibility because
of deforestation. I don't think we [Kenya] can afford to shelter behind the
fact that we're a new country and we were grossly exploited before, and so
we need to be given a break. We need to look at the effect we're having on
the whole planet."

He called for a "huge revolution in entrepreneurial skills" to develop
technology such as nuclear fusion and hydrogen power as a way of limiting
the need for biofuels. "The whole biofuel issue is of great concern. And
it's not just biofuels, the destruction of rainforest to make way for palm
oil plantations is extraordinary."

A UN report this month also raised concerns over a rapid expansion of
biofuels, saying they could have an irreversible environmental impact. There
are also concerns about their impact on global food prices, with growing
competition for scarce land resources.

Dr Leakey said the direct effects of climate change could spell disaster for
the great apes. "I don't think we can say enough to stimulate concern over
climate change. It's a complex process but it will undoubtedly impact on
everything we know and the implications for biodiversity are there for all
to see. We don't know the tolerance of plants to the predicted temperature
changes. We should not for a minute assume that forests, rivers and lakes
are permanent features of our landscape."

He also criticised what he called the "oxymoron" of ecotourism, which he
said was based on "a desperate race to make money while you still can". He
said: "An awful lot of damage is done under the umbrella of ecotourism. The
tourism industry needs to be talked to very seriously about setting
standards that are something other than profit-motivated."

Profile: Richard Leakey

Born in Kenya in 1944 to two esteemed anthropologists, Richard Leakey led
expeditions which uncovered a steady stream of human-ancestor fossils during
the 1970s which dazzled the scientific world and helped to clarify our
evolutionary history. Among the most important finds are the remains of
Turkana Boy, a 1.6m-year-old Homo erectus skeleton, recovered virtually
intact, as well as the 2.5m-year-old Black Skull, which forced
palaeontologists to drastically rethink the structure of the human family
tree.

In 1969 he was diagnosed with a terminal kidney disease and a decade later
received a lifesaving transplant from his younger brother.

In the 1980s he devoted more of his time to Kenya's museums and,
subsequently, conservation issues. From 1989 to 1994, as head of the Kenya
wildlife service, he beefed up the country's national parks and led
high-profile and successful campaigns against elephant poaching. In 1993 he
lost both legs below the knee when the plane he was piloting malfunctioned
and crashed. Rumours of sabotage were never proven.

In the mid-1990s he entered Kenyan politics, first as co-founder of a new
opposition party, and then in government at the invitation of former
president Daniel arap Moi.

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4.

Mexicans Torch Tequila Fields for Ethanol Boom Corn

Posted by: "Andrew Boswell" a_boswell_2004@...   a_boswell_2004

Thu May 31, 2007 2:18 am (PST)

http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/42276/story.htm
Mexicans Torch Tequila Fields for Ethanol Boom Corn

_____

Mail <http://www.planetark.com/mail_dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=42276> this
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MEXICO: May 31, 2007

MEXICO CITY - Mexican farmers are setting ablaze fields of blue agave, the
cactus-like plant used to make the fiery spirit tequila, and resowing the
land with corn as soaring US ethanol demand pushes up prices.

The switch to corn will contribute to an expected scarcity of agave in
coming years, with officials predicting that farmers will plant between 25
percent and 35 percent less agave this year to turn the land over to corn.

"Those growers are going after what pays best now," said Ismael Vicente
Ramirez, head of agriculture at Mexico's Tequila Regulatory Council.

The large, spiky-leaved agave thrives on high, arid land and can take eight
years to reach maturity. To remove the plants, growers cut them at their
stems and often burn the fields to remove the roots.

Tequila, drunk in shots and cocktails around the world, is named after a
town in the western Mexican state of Jalisco.

Production of agave, from the lily family, soared in recent years as farmers
cashed in on record prices brought about by a shortage of the plant at the
start of the decade.

Despite rapid growth in tequila drinking, especially overseas, the
over-supply of agave has driven prices for the plant to rock-bottom levels.

Many growers have started to abandon the crop in favor of corn, whose price
has rocketed in line with massive growth in US demand for ethanol after
President George W. Bush outlined targets last year to use the corn-based
fuel as a gasoline alternative.

Agave supply is also being hit this year by disease in the fields, partly
due to farmers caring less for the plants after prices dropped.

"The problem that we are going to see, perhaps by mid-2008, is that a lot of
agave is sick," Agriculture Ministry official Arnulfo del Toro said. "That
will have to be taken out and production is going to drop a lot."

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5.

Thailand: The looming catastrophe of oil palm plantations for biodie

Posted by: "almuthbernstinguk" almuth@...   almuthbernstinguk

Thu May 31, 2007 2:55 am (PST)

The article below is from the May World Rainforest Movement Bulletin
(www.wrm.org.uy) - it is not yet on the WRM website, but should go up
shortly.

The Thai government has set its policy on producing palm oil-based
biodiesel as energy. At present, the country's large-scale oil palm
harvest areas account to around 400,000 hectares, but since 2006, a
discourse on oil palm has emerged to promote its plantation as
a `renewable source of energy', a `country savior', a `reforestation
scheme', a `wind-protection zone', and a `transformation of deserted
rice fields into palm fields'.

To fulfill the government's ambition, a daily production of 8.5
million litres of biodiesel must be met. That means another 800,000
hectares of oil palm plantation areas must be expanded between 2006
and 2009, totaling 1.2 million hectares of the palm cultivation. By
2029, the plantation areas would reach 1.6 million hectares.

All research work has been conducted to seek monoculture techniques
to maximize the production of oil palm, but the Thai government has
never revealed this crop's environmental impacts.

It is a great concern that the Thai government has never said that
the land used for oil palm plantation often becomes deteriorated
because of the monoculture type of production, with extensive use of
chemicals. It is difficult to produce oil palm in an integrated
manner because of the bulkiness of the palm trees and because its
fibrous roots spread far and wide. Over three-ton weight of each tree
allows very few types of plant to be grown in the plantation. Making
their way into the plantation ground is very difficult for animals
living in the ground such as earthworms. Getting rid of the dead
trees and their roots is hard and costs a lot of money since it needs
to pay a backhoe to uproot or to use chemicals to destroy them.

The government has provided farmers with funding, raw materials and
other inputs. Such active promotion has resulted in the rapid
expansion of the plantation areas, especially in the watershed
forest, wetlands, community public forest and rice fields. If an
expansion of the oil palm plantation areas was made according to the
government's plan, Thailand would irreversibly lose its food
security, forests and biological diversity. It would mean a
catastrophe for the Thai People.

Excerpted and adapted from `Ten Million Rai of Oil Palm Plantation: A
Catastrophe for the Thai People', by Ms.Bandita Yangdee, Project for
Ecological Awareness Building (EAB), sent by Sayamol Kaiyoorawong, e-
mail: noksayamol@yahoo.com The full article is available at:
http://www.wrm.org.uy/countries/Thailand/Catastrophe.pdf

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