Source:
FAO
The study concludes that, while biofuels can be instrumental in revitalising land use and livelihoods in rural areas, these possibilities depend on security of land tenure. (PDF). January 2009.
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BACKGROUND
Agrofuels (often called biofuels) are liquid fuels, notably biodiesel and bioethanol. So-called first generation agrofuels are derived from food crops such as cereals, soybean, rapeseed oil, sugar cane and palm oil. Second generation, which are currently under development, are aimed at using agricultural residues, trees (willow, eucalyptus) and straw, and may involve industrial technologies such as genetically modified microorganisms, crops and trees. Both generations set out to provide fuel on an industrial and large scale for electricity production and transportation. (Source: Friends of the Earth International)
The global oil crisis together with the need to look for cleaner sources of energy due to massive climate change impact has boosted the use and production of ‘biofuels’ as a viable alternative to fossil fuels. This has been translated in a huge demand for ‘biofuels’ from the rich world – especially the country members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), who account for 56% of the planet’s energy consumption – that is being produced in the South, especially Latin America and South Asia. (Source: Foodfirst)
Biofuels are now commonly referred to as agrofuels by the majority of NGOs, following the lead of non-governmental organisations and social movements in Latin America. They believe that the prefix bio, which comes from the Greek word for “life”, is entirely inappropriate since it gives a false idea of green energy. The term agrofuels expresses what they say is really happening: agribusiness producing fuel from plants to sustain a wasteful, destructive and unjust global economy. (Source: Grain)
Promoters - industry, government and scientific proponents of agrofuels - claim that they will serve as an alternative to peaking oil, mitigate climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, enhancing farmer incomes, and promoting rural development. ‘Biofuels’, derived from plant matter such as corn or oil palms, are seen as the greener option because they produce lower emissions of carbon dioxide.
On the other hand, environmental NGOs have increasingly warned that the rush to agrofuels encourages intensive, industrial agriculture, providing a new promotional vehicle for GM crops, and posing a serious threat to food sovereignty. Indeed, the destruction of rainforests, peatlands and other ecosystems to make way for agrofuel plantations may well accelerate global warming.
Agrofuel development has arrived on the global stage, the amount of money that is going to agrofuels is growing by the hour. The problem is the absence of a greater scientific consensus and the lack of effective legislation to protect farmers, workers, consumers, environment and the food supply. An idea that languished for decades has suddenly become the darling of politicians, big business, international financiers and the media.
This paper prepared by the Chair of the Round Table on Sustainable Development at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) presents salient facts and figures to shed light on whether biofuels offer a cure that is worse than the disease they seek to heal. (PDF). September 2007.
The rush for 'biofuels' is already causing serious damage. Far from being sustainable, the spread of what are more accurately called 'agrofuels' ( liquid fuels produced from biomass grown in large scale monocultures) is compromising biodiversity and fuelling human rights violations. The argument that these 'biofuels' will mitigate climate change is unproven – indeed, the destruction of rainforests, peatlands and other ecosystems to make way for agrofuel plantations may well accelerate global warming. August 2007.
Agrofuel development has arrived on the global stage. Just this year, the number of declarations, dollars, and development plans that have gone to agrofuels are unparalleled in any other sector. An idea that languished for decades has suddenly become the darling of politicians, big business, international financiers, and the media. Since when has an ecological response to fossil fuel use found favor with governments and corporations alike?. September 2007.
One of the main justifications for the large-scale cultivation of agrofuels is the need to combat climate change, but the wide-scale cultivation of agrofuels will actually make things worse in many parts of the world, notably South-east Asia and the Amazon basin where the drying of peat lands and the felling of tropical forest will release far more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than will be saved by using agrofuels.
Position paper of the global south on food sovereignty, energy sovereignty and the transition towards a post-oil society, Ecuador, Quito. September 2007.
The study concludes that, while biofuels can be instrumental in revitalising land use and livelihoods in rural areas, these possibilities depend on security of land tenure. (PDF). January 2009.
Agrofuels present opportunities for profit that the new order of “green” business has wasted no time in capturing. Big money is now flowing into agrofuel projects across the world – with big consequences. July 2007.
In the name of moving "beyond petroleum," Big Oil, Gene Giants, governments, start-ups and others are forming partnerships that will extend corporate control over more resources in every part of the globe – while keeping the root causes of climate change intact. With grudging recognition that first-generation agrofuels are neither economical nor ecological, investors turn to other life-based technologies, including synthetic biology, for the next alternative fuel fix. February 2008.
They seem like a perfect solution, making fuels from plants to help cut carbon emissions. The simple promise of so-called biofuels has led to many companies and politicians being swept up in the hype. However more and more research is revealing many current biofuels are a false solution. January 2008.
What are the gender implications of biofuels production? AWID reviews a recent report from the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO): “Gender and Equity Issues in Liquid Biofuels Production: Minimizing the Risks to Maximize the Opportunities”. 2008.
Many voices of representatives from North and South denounce the impacts of agrofuels and intend to influence those who are taking decisions to promote them. July 2007.
Selection of articles published in the monthly electronic bulletin of the World Rainforest Movement, addressing the impacts of the oil palm plantations in the forestss. Agust 2005.
With concerns mounting about the competition between food and fuel due to cropbased agrofuels, the cellulosic ethanol industry is heavily promoting fuel produced from woody sources such as trees as the solution to this conflict. (PDF). February 2008.
Indigenous people are being pushed off their lands to make way for an expansion of biofuel crops around the world, threatening to destroy their cultures by forcing them into big cities, says a paper prepared by the chair of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. (doc). May 2007.
Greenpeace warned about the spectre of increased forest-related calamities in Indonesia, where plantations for palm oil are expected to expand rapidly into forest areas due to demands for bio-fuels in the European Union. January 2007.
In no other region in the world is the absurdity of the frenzied rush into agrofuels more blatant than in Asia, particularly in Indonesia and Malaysia. July 2007.
"Paving the way for Agrofuels – EU policy, sustainability criteria, and climate calculations" summarises EU policy making on agrofuels to date. It provides a full survey of current international efforts to develop ‘sustainability’ standards, drawing attention to problems with existing certification schemes, in particular their failure to consult affected groups in the global South. February 2008.
Agrofuels, which rely on large scale industrial monocultures, are a cause of global warming, not part of a solution argues a new report by the Global Forest Coalition presented at the UN Climate Change Conference in Bali. (PDF). December 2007.
A study by Wetlands International, Delft Hydraulics and Alterra estimates that one tonne of biodiesel made from palm oil from South-east Asia's peatlands is linked to the emission of 10-30 tonnes of carbon dioxide. December 2006.
The effects of agrofuels on the human right to food of the most oppressed and marginalised groups have to be considered before applying policies and programmes of investment, production and trade in agrofuels. (PDF). October 2008.
The report, by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, suggests that countries might need to reconsider policies that encourage the production of ethanol and other biofuels. (PDF). May 2008.
This is an editiorial by the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Associations (IUF) on the role of agrofuels in the rise of food prices worldwide.
The difficult balancing act between fighting hunger, producing biofuels and defending the environment is at the centre of the debate at the 30th Regional Conference of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) from April 14-18, 2008.
United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Jean Ziegler, stated that it is a crime against humanity to divert arable land to the production of crops which are then burned for fuel. Ziegler demanded an international five-year ban on producing biofuels to combat soaring food prices. 26 October 2007.
Growing agro-fuels on a mass scale is already jacking up food prices, depleting soil and water supplies, destroying forests, and violating the rights of Indigenous and local people in areas newly designated as "biofuel plantations" says thisa article by Yifat Susskind, MADRE Communications Director. November 2007.
The report states that increasing the amount of land destined to grow crops for agrofuels means increasing deforestation and wildlife destruction, increased land conflicts, eviction of rural people, poor working conditions and environmental pollution. (PDF). September 2008.
Many major European banks are funding the rapid expansion of agrofuel production in Latin America, leading to large scale deforestation, increasing human rights abuses and threatening food sovereignty, according to this report. May 2008.
This is the first volume of the report “Brazil of the biofuels” – Impacts of crops on land, environment and society". The work, divided in three annual reports, is assessing the socioeconomic, environmental, agricultural effects and those on indigenous and traditional communities of soy and castor bean cultures (volume 1), corn, cotton dendê and babaçu (volume 2), and sugar cane and pinhão manso (jatropha curcas) (volume 3).
This report looks at six prominent certification schemes to judge whether they would be effective in Latin America where demand for producing sugarcane and soy is the greatest. April 2008.
"There is no doubt that the conglomeration of the petroleum and biotech capital will increasingly decide the fate of the rural landscapes of the Americas" says this analysis by Miguel Altieri and Elizabeth Bravo. April 2007.
In Latin America, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) stimulates the agrofuel production through the argument that we should utilize our “enormous potential in arable land, climactic conditions, and labor costs.” The Bank recently announced its intention to invest US$3 billion in private agroenergy projects. November 2007.
With the addition of biodiesel proposals, colombian business leaders from the palm industry and their advocates now have more incentives to continue growing. And yet, the history of the plantations continues to be painful. They are stained with the blood and tears of black and campesino communities from the Pacific, Magdalena Medio, and Caribbean coast. February 2007.
Brazil is staking its claim as a great emerging power thanks to the leadership it maintains in biofuel production. The price of this ambition is paid by the environment and by the cane cutters, who are the invisible characters in this story.
A number of NGOs have written an Open letter to the African nation delegates urging them to call for rejection of large-scale Biofuels or Genetic Modification (GM) technology as possible ways to achieve fast growth or more efficient fuel conversion under the Clean Development Mechansism (CDM). November 2006.
Africa, with its large land area and cheap labour, is an obvious target for agrofuel developers. As one European agrofuel lobby group likes to point out, just 15 African countries have a combined arable land base larger than India available for agrofuel crop production. And already millions of hectares of the continent’s so-called “fallow” lands have been surveyed and allocated for agrofuels. July 2007.
There remains ample room for debate on the future of biofuels, especially in relation to Africa. If we look at what is happening in Africa with a historical understanding it is clear that Africa is entering yet another cash crop boom, except this time it is not tea, coffee or cocoa, but maize - food. December 2007.
