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Tropical Forest Felled for Biofuels    [

    UN Backs Biofuel Despite Fears of Deforestation
    By John Burton
    The Financial Times

    Friday 20 April 2007

    Singapore - The UN's top environment official has backed a European Union plan to require the blending of plant-based biofuels into road fuels despite fears by environmentalists that this could lead to increased deforestation in south-east Asia and Brazil.

    Achim Steiner, head of the UN Environment Programme, said on Thursday that biofuels were needed to reduce global dependence on fossil fuels. Increased consumer awareness, he said, would eventually force producers of palm oil and soya used in biofuels to adopt sustainable production.

    Environmental groups told a meeting on biofuels in Madrid this week that the EU move requiring all transport fuels to have a 5.75 per cent biofuel content by 2010 to reduce carbon dioxide emissions was counterproductive because rainforests were being burnt to clear land for the energy crops.

    The carbon dioxide emissions from forest fires in Indonesia and Brazil could outweigh predicted emissions reductions from the use of biofuels in diesel and other fuels in Europe, the environmental groups said.

    Mr Steiner, who attended a meeting on business and the environment in Singapore on Thursday, suggested such efforts to curb biofuel development reflected a "sledgehammer" approach and were based on "simplistic" views.

    He said there were multiple causes for the burning of forest land, including clearing space for agriculture, and that biofuels should not be solely blamed for the problem.

    Plant-based biofuels have been promoted to help fight global warming, and south-east Asian countries, particularly Indonesia and Malaysia, are expanding production of palm oil as a main ingredient in their production.

    Palm oil plantation companies have been blamed for burning down forests in Indonesian Sumatra and Borneo and so contributing to a growing annual smog problem in the region. A recent UK-funded report found Indonesia was the world's third-largest carbon emitter behind the US and China, largely because of the forest fires.

    Mr Steiner acknowledged Indonesia could do more to protect forests and promote sustainable development.

    But he said biofuel consumers in Europe and elsewhere were becoming aware of the problem and would demand that biofuel producers be certified as engaging in sustainable production.

    Mr Steiner predicted that biofuel producers and governments would co-operate in establishing international standards to certify sustainable production.

    A group of palm oil producers recently formed the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil to set up a certification process, while palm oil producers in south-east Asia and soya producers in Brazil have established partnerships with environmental groups to develop sustainable criteria.

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    Tropical Forest Felled for Biofuels, Ecologists Say
    By Julia Hayley
    Reuters

    Wednesday 18 April 2007

    Madrid - Tropical rain forest is being cut down and burned to make way for soy and palm plantations destined to provide plant-based diesel for Europe's fuel tanks, environmentalists said on Wednesday.

    They cited cases of deforestation in Brazil, Indonesia and Malaysia to make way for energy crops, and urged governments there to act.

    "In Brazil ... one of the most affected areas is the state of Mato Grosso, where vast areas have disappeared to make room for soy crops destined for export," Ecologists in Action said in a report distributed at a summit on biofuels in Madrid.

    Environmental organisations urged the European Union not to impose mandatory blending of biofuels in transport fuels, as part of its efforts to curb EU carbon dioxide emissions.

    "Biofuels made from unsustainably sourced palm oil are not green," Michelle Desilets, director of the UK-based Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation told the conference.

    "Clearing forests for production of palm oil often involves burning," she said.

    Carbon dioxide emissions from forest fires in Indonesia could easily outweigh the emissions European drivers would produce by using fossil fuels instead of biofuel in the first place, she added.

    Plant-based biofuels are hailed as part of the fight against global warming. They can replace fossil fuels in transport and the plants they are made from absorb carbon dioxide as they grow.

    Although the EU has surplus grain, which could be used to make ethanol to blend with gasoline, it does not grow enough oilseed to supply the biodiesel it would need for diesel powered vehicles, which are the majority in the region.

    Rapidly sprouting biodiesel plants will need to import thousands of tonnes of Brazilian soy beans and Indonesian and Malaysian palm oil if they are to meet the European Commission's target of 5.75 percent biofuel use in transport by 2010.

    The ecologists urged the EU not to impose these targets.

    "They will foster crops that have a negative impact in greenhouse gas emissions, provoke deforestation and destroy biodiversity," they said in an open letter to conference participants.

    The Commission is aware of these issues and is working on an incentive-based scheme to promote sustainably produced biofuels, said Signe Ratso, a director of the Commission's transport directorate.

    "The scheme should be in place by 2010," she said.