Links ordered by topic:

Agriculture and climate change: Real problems, false solutions

Agriculture and climate change:
Real problems, false solutions
Preliminary report by Grupo de Reflexion Rural, Biofuelwatch, EcoNexus
and NOAH - Friends of the Earth Denmark
by Helena Paul, Stella Semino, Antje Lorch, Bente Hessellund Andersen, Susanne Gura & Almuth Ernsting
This is a preliminary version of a new report on Agriculture and Climate Change.
prepared for the Bonn Climate Change Talks, June 2009
online at http://www.econexus.info/pdf/agriculture-climate-change-june-2009.pdf

Agro-Fuels projects in Timor-Leste

Agrofuels and the Myth of the Marginal Lands

The evidence suggests that there really are very few genuinely “marginal” lands, or at least none that conform to the abandoned, empty and useless land of our imagination. Agrofuel policy based on “marginal lands” needs a serious rethink.

Agrofuels in Africa: The impact on land, food and forests

The African Biodiversity Network have just published a new report,
called "Agrofuels in Africa: The impact on land, food and forests".
It includes case studies from Benin, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.

It also includes a copy of the response to the recent EU Consultation
on biofuels by five organisations from Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Benin
and Tanzania.

You can download the report here:
http://www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/docs/ABN_Agro.pdf .

Biochar for Climate Change Mitigation: Fact or Fiction? (Biofuelwatch)

A briefing paper by Almuth Ernsting and Rachel Smolker

Biofuels and neo-colonialism

Biofuels and neo-colonialism
Seif Madoffe, Salim Maliondo, Faustin Maganga, Elifuraha Mtalo, Fred Midtgaard and Ian Bryceson
2009-06-04, Issue 436
http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/56727

BirdLife biofuels web pages

Climate Geo-engineering with ‘Carbon Negative’ Bioenergy

This is a critical analysis of proposals for 'carbon negative' bioenergy, including biochar (agrichar) and bioenergy with carbon capture and storage, as a means of reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations and mitigating climate change. It includes a wider discussion about the impacts of large-scale bioenergy, and about alternative adequate responses to the current crisis.

Critical analysis of FSC certification of industrial tree monocultures in Uruguay - by Ricardo Carrere

The aim of this report is to provide documented information and analysis to all those who are currently struggling against large-scale monoculture tree plantations and must face the additional problem posed by the fact that these same plantations are being certified by the FSC. At the same time, we hope that this publication will contribute to the plantation certification review that the FSC itself is currently carrying out.

Fact Sheet: Biomass Incineration

Failing governance - Avoiding responsibilities

European biofuel policies and oil palm plantation expansion in Ketapang
District, West Kalimantan (Indonesia)
A joined publication of Milieudefensie (Friends of the Earth Netherlands) and WALHI KalBar (Friends
of the Earth Indonesia, West Kalimantan)

FSC, Precious Woods Brasil forestry

Certified tropical timber has been hailed by loggers and environmentalists alike as the best way to protect the rainforests. But is it? Klemens Laschefski and Nicole Freris have problems with it. Here, they explain why.

Fuelling the ecological crisis (Birdlife International)

The European Commission’s biofuel policy laid out in the draft Renewable Energy Directive is fundamentally ? awed. If accepted, it might make the European Union a global driving force in the production of harmful biofuel crops. This report presents six case studies of ecological damage that is being driven by commodity production that will be boosted by the proposed European policy. If EU decision-makers accept the proposed biofuels policy, it is expected that the EU will be responsible for many more such examples. While this report does not cover any social implications of biofuel production, these are highly signi? cant and must also be addressed.

Global Biofuel Drive Raises Risk of Eviction for African Farmers

GRAIN special issue of Seedling on biofuels

This page (www.grain.org/agrofuels/) will provide a continued resource for documents, links and updates on the issues around agrofuels. To find out more follow the links on the right hand side of this page and below.

A summary of the issues

Agrofuels in Africa

Agrofuels in Asia

Agrofuels in Latin America

Agrofuels and the role of corporations

Groups charge Nature Communications article shows ‘true colours’ of biochar advocates

Is oil palm the next emerging threat to the Amazon?

IWMI Publishes Policy Brief on Water Implications of Biofuel Crops

IWMI Publishes Policy Brief on Water Implications of Biofuel Crops

December 2008: The International Water Management Institute (IWMI), a member of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), published a policy brief entitled “Water Implications of Biofuel Crops: Understanding Tradeoffs and Identifying Options.” The Brief outlines impacts of biofuel production on water supply and food production, and seeks to provide options for policy makers in addressing resulting tradeoffs.

Key findings include: impacts of biofuel production on water, food, energy and the environment must be considered before implementing policies supporting biofuel production; biofuel production will aggravate existing problems in regions where water is already scarce; water needs for ethanol production depend on local conditions, ranging from 90 liters of water per liter of ethanol in Brazil to up to 3500 liters in India; and certain biofuel crops such as jatropha trees and sweet sorghum use less water and are less likely to compete with food crops.

The brief suggests a number of policy options to reduce the impact of biofuel production on other uses of water, such as: using biofuel crops that require less water; growing biofuel crops under rain fed rather than irrigated conditions; implementing policies to increase water use efficiency; supporting synergies between biofuel production and other objectives, such as watershed protection; encouraging new technologies; and ensuring that biofuel crops have a positive carbon balance and are produced in a cost-effective manner. [Policy Brief]

Jatropha Reality Check

The findings of the "Jatropha Reality Check" report include:

1) There are many media claims about the high production potential of jatropha, but these are rarely referenced or verified.

2) A study of hundreds of Jatropha farmers in Kenya shows low yields

3) Uneconomical costs of production

4) Jatropha requires significant rainfall or irrigation, and does not perform well in dry zones.

5) Jatropha is susceptible to many pests and diseases, contrary to claims.

5) The only way that Jatropha makes economic sense is as a fence, which is how it has been traditionally grown in Africa.

The report recommends that "all stakeholders carefully reevaluate their current activities promoting Jatropha as a promising bioenergy feedstock. We also suggest that all public and private sector actors for the time being cease promoting the crop among smallholder farmers for any plantation other than as a fence."

Jatropha: From buzz to bust in Namibia

By Servaas van den Bosch
KAVANGO, Namibia (AlertNet) - If it were up to Floris Smith, he would yank out all 8,600 jatropha trees on Shadi Kongoro irrigation scheme.
"We started with 14,000 trees in 2005," he said. "Now almost half are eaten by termites and we never sold one seed."
Smith, manager of the scheme in the Kavango region of Namibia, is not alone in his aversion to jatropha seed, which contains an oil used to make biofuel.
Five years ago, foreign speculators arrived in the impoverished area and talked farmers into adopting the 'dream crop.' Jatropha would be an easy-to-grow money maker with excellent returns from a booming biodiesel market.

Marine Stewardship Council's Marine Stewardship Questionable, Scientists Say

A bit of a sustainable seafood smackdown is ongoing: In a new opinion piece in the journal Nature scientists from the University of British Columbia, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and other institutions have called out the Marine Stewardship Council for not doing a good job at marine stewardship. As is to be expected, MSC strongly disagrees.

New land grab website

NEW LAND GRAB WEBSITE

GRAIN is launching today a new website that offers the most comprehensive information tool on the global land grab for outsourced food production: http://farmlandgrab.org. This new site is an improved version of the site initiated by GRAIN last year, which provides an open, up-to-date and easy to search library of over 800 articles, interviews and reports on farm land grabs around the world published since the outbreak of the food crisis in 2008.

The global trend to buy up or lease farmlands abroad as a strategy to secure basic food supplies, or simply to get rich, is not slowing down -- it is getting worse. The scale is becoming more apparent now, with researchers counting some 20 million hectares of good cropland already signed off to foreign investors, or soon to be, worldwide. More countries and corporations are getting involved, from Sri Lanka to Congo or Hyundai to Varun. Farmers' organisations, human rights groups and other social movements are agitating against this obscene approach to feeding their countries, while at least one government -- the Ravalomanana regime in Madagascar -- has been brought down because of its involvement in such a deal.

New report : Agrofuel Development in Ethiopia: Rhetoric, Reality and Recommendations

New report : Agrofuel Development in Ethiopia: Rhetoric, Reality and Recommendations

No dirty gold

Most consumers don't know where the gold in their products comes from, or how it is mined. Gold mining is a dirty industry: it can displace communities, contaminate drinking water, hurt workers, and destroy pristine environments.

This website provides an overview of the major social, environmental, and economic impacts of gold mining. For more information, please read our report, Dirty Metals: Mining, Communities, and the Environment , and join us in the campaign to end dirty gold mining practices.

Questions on socalled biofuels

Report Exposes Tree-based Biofuels as False Solution to Climate Change

Dogwood Alliance released a report exposing the false environmental and economic benefits of tree-based biofuels.

This is a growing threat in the Southern US (and worldwide). The South is home to the most biodiverse temperate forests in the world. Currently there are 5 million acres of forests being logged every year and most of that is for paper packaging. Our forests cannot afford the stress of being logged for fuel, since this will inevitably have a negative impact on the biodiversity of our forests and communities.

To read the press release click here: http://pressroomda.greenmediatoolshed.org/node/22504

Scientists Identify Ecuador’s Yasuní National Park as one of the Most Biodiverse Places on Earth

A team of scientists has documented that Yasuní National Park, located in the core of the Ecuadorian Amazon, is the most diverse area in all of South America and shatters world records for a wide array of plant and animal groups, from amphibians to trees to insects.

Stop land grabbing now

Say NO to the principles of “responsible” agro-enterprise investment promoted by the World Bank

Study: Accounting error undermines climate change laws

An important but fixable error in legal accounting rules used to measure compliance with carbon limits for bioenergy could undermine efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by encouraging deforestation, according to a new study by 13 prominent scientists and land use experts published in the Oct. 23 issue of the journal Science.

The EU's agrofuel folly: policy capture by corporate interests

Despite growing public concern about the risks associated to agrofuels[1], the European Union (EU) is throwing its weight behind the promotion of these often very harmful crops

more:
http://www.corporateeurope.org/agrofuelfolly.html

The False Promise of Biofuels

A special report called "The False Promise of Biofuels" by Jack Santa
Barbara has been published by the Alternative Energy Working Group of
the International Forum on Globalisation. You can download it here:

http://ips-dc.org/reports/070915_biofuels_report.pdf

Vandana Shiva on Jatropha and Biofuels in India

The Biofuel Hoax

Biofuels have been proposed as a major “solution” to address the climate crisis and the problem of “peak oil”. By substituting fossil fuels, they are supposed to reduce Green House Gas (GHG) emissions which are leading to global warming.

Instead, Industrial biofuels are being promoted as a source of renewable energy and as a means towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions. However, there are two ecological reasons why converting crops like Soya, corn and palm oil into liquid fuels can actually aggravate climate chaos and the CO2 burden.