[ON AGROFUELS] Guardian Unlimited Reports: Biofuels Menace Rainforests

Biofuels menace rainforests
The arguments against burning crops for energy gather momentum
August 17, 2007 10:00 AM

Substituting fossil fuels with biofuels will not only add more carbon to the atmosphere, but will destroy primary forests, biodiversity and livelihoods, writes Tristan Farrow. The study, published in this week's issue of Science, argues that we would be better off, replanting forests, improving the efficiency of fossil fuel engines, and moving to carbon free alternatives over the next 30 years.

Renton Righelato from the World Land Trust and the lead scientist in the study, said: "It is a mistake in climate change terms to use biofuels. Most concerning is the trend to clear new land for biofuel crops. Clearing forests produces an immediate and disastrous release of carbon into the atmosphere, accompanied by a loss of habitats, wildlife and livelihoods."

Forest soil stores between one quarter and a half of the carbon in the forest - and that too is released during clearing.

"Brazil, Paraguay, Indonesia among others have huge deforestation programmes to supply the world biofuel market", says the study's co-author Dominick Spracklen from Leeds University.

According to an article in the French monthly Le Monde Diplomatique, Brazil aims to supply 30% of the world's ethanol market by 2025. Last year it reclassified 200 million hectares as "degraded land" to release it for biofuel crop. Presently, it is growing crops such as sugar cane on land the size of Britain and the Benelux countries combined.

By 2025 the Brazilian government intends to expand that area fivefold to meet 10% of the world's petrol requirement. And last year it reclassified 200 million hectares as "degraded land" to release for crop cultivation.

Indonesia and Malaysia aim to supply 20% of Europe's biodiesel requirement, while in Brazil the Amazon recedes at a rate of 325,000 hectares each year in favour of Soya crop, according to the American space agency Nasa.

The study calculates that replanting a hectare of forest removes 175 cubic tons of carbon from the atmosphere compared to a maximum saving of 56 tons when bioethanol replaces fossil fuel.

But clearing one hectare of rainforest releases an immediate one-off 200 cubic tons of carbon into the atmosphere and also destroying nature's mechanism for trapping carbon.

Woody biomass, say the authors, could produce biofuel directly from trees so could avoid massive clearing and could be sustainable if selective tree felling - although Dr Spracklen admits that is unlikely to meet meet global demand. But the technology needed to transform trees into liquid fuel remains in development stage.

So why the focus by so many governments on biofuels? The European Union, for example, has set a target to get 5.75% of fossil fuel used in traffic replaced with biofuels by 2010.

But the United Nations has also warned that the global rush for biofuels could bring food shortages and increase poverty.

In light of this study, and work by Hartmut Michel at the University of Frankfurt am Main, which also suggests that we don't have the space to grow enough biofuel crops, should international targets on biofuels be abandoned in favour of other renewables?
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Article originally available @ http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/science/2007/08/biofuels_menace_rainforests....