-------- Original Message --------
Subject: FW: Biofuels
Date: Thu, 5 Jun 2008 17:33:04 +0200
From: Mundkur, Taej (AGAH) <Taej.Mundkur@...>
Reply-To: Mundkur, Taej (AGAH) <Taej.Mundkur@...>


Hi all,

This just came in and thought it might interest you all.


http://www.birdlife.org/news/news/2008/06/bioenergy_report.html
<http://www.birdlife.org/news/news/2008/06/bioenergy_report.html>


Ciao, Taej


BirdLife welcomes FAO report on bioenergy


05-06-2008



BirdLife International has welcomed the launch of a report that
highlights the increasing international recognition that while growth in
bioenergy offers new opportunities for sustainable development, it also
carries significant environmental risks.

The launch took place at the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)
conference on World Food Security: the Challenges of Climate Change and
Bioenergy in Rome, Italy. Entitled Bioenergy, food security and
sustainability, the report cautions that with the use of current technologies
and set policies, the growth in liquid biofuels is contributing to negative
impacts on the environment and food security and is leading to an increase in
world food prices.

While governments, the private sector and civil society can take
important measures to promote sustainable production of bioenergy, many
challenges are global in nature and cannot be tackled without a concerted
international response. The report suggests that “an international approach
is needed to address the full spectrum of bioenergy applications including,
most urgently, liquid biofuels for transport”.

Bioenergy production affects the environment at the local and global
levels, impacting land and water resources, biodiversity and the global
climate. The threat to biodiversity is associated primarily with land-use
change. When areas such as tropical forests are converted for biofuel
production, the loss of biodiversity is significant. A further concern is the
introduction of invasive species for biofuel production.

"The need for more land for the expansion of biofuel crops increases
the pressure on natural habitat" —Marco Lambertini, BirdLife

“BirdLife welcomes the cautioning message of the FAO report. In
addition to playing a role in the current increase of food prices, biofuels
often fail to deliver greenhouse gas savings, with some being even more
polluting than fossil fuels”, said Marco Lambertini, Director of Network and
Programme, BirdLife International.

“The need for more land for biofuel crop expansion, increases the
pressure on natural habitat. This is leading to large-scale deforestation in
the tropics with an immense loss of biodiversity and ecological services, and
emitting large volumes of CO2, contributing to global warming."

Even when crops do not directly encroach on natural habitats, the
diversion of commodities from the food to the biofuels market means that
prices increase, stimulating agricultural expansion elsewhere.

The nature of industrial biofuels production means that most
feedstocks are likely to be grown on large scale industrial plantations. The
current and past experience with the expansion of soy, palm oil, sugar cane
and other such plantations in the developing world suggests that it will be
accompanied by widespread environmental destruction and social injustice or
violations of land use rights such as the forced eviction of native peoples
and subsistence farmers off their land.

The report can be downloaded here
<http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/user_upload/foodclimate/HLCdocs/HLC08-inf-3-E.p
df> (PDF 139KB)

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Credits: FAO, BirdLife