Biofuels Boom in Africa As British Firms Lead Rush On Land For Plantations - Environment - The Guardian

Biofuels boom in Africa as British firms lead rush on land for plantations |...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/may/31/biofuel-plantations-...
Biofuels boom in Africa as British firms lead rush on land for plantations
Controversial fuel crops linked to rising food prices and hunger, as well as increased greenhouse gas emissions
Damian Carrington and Stefano Valentino guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 31 May 2011 21.00 BST
An Ivory Coast nursery for jatropha, a non-edible plant whose oil-rich seeds can be processed into biodiesel. Photograph: Kambou Sia/AFP/Getty Images
British firms have acquired more land in Africa for controversial biofuel plantations than companies from any other country, a Guardian investigation has revealed. Half of the 3.2m hectares (ha) of biofuel land identified in countries from Mozambique to Senegal is linked to 11 British companies, more than any other country. Liquid fuels made from plants such as bioethanol are hailed by some as environmentally-friendly replacements for fossil fuels. Because they compete for land with crop plants, biofuels have also been linked to record food prices and rising hunger. There are also fears they can increase greenhouse gas emissions. A market has been created by British and EU laws requiring the blending of rising
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amounts of biofuels into petrol and diesel, but the rules were condemned as unethical and "backfiring badly" in April by a Nuffield Council on Bioethics commission. In the UK, only 31% of biofuels used meet voluntary environmental standards intended to protect water supplies, soil quality and carbon stocks in the source country. There are no central records of land acquisitions in Africa, but research by the Guardian revealed the scale of the biofuels rush in sub-Saharan Africa 100 projects and 50 companies in more than 20 countries. Crest Global Green Energy has the largest recorded landholding, 900,000ha in Mali, Guinea and Senegal. Tom Stuart, the chief executive, said: "It is true in some cases [that biofuels displace food], but in our projects we 'inter-crop', planting as much food as biofuel on the marginal land we have brought into agricultural use. There is a large social element to our projects, with all the local people needing to be in agreement, and that's normally written into contracts at government level." Another UK company, Sun Biofuels, leased 8,000ha in Tanzania where it grows Jatropha curcas, a non-edible plant whose oil-rich seeds can be processed into biodiesel. "We'll start harvesting and producing in two years," said Peter Auge, office manager in Tanzania. "The main attraction for us is exporting to Europe." Claims that J curcas use prevents biofuels competing with food because it grows easily on marginal and arid land unsuitable for other agriculture have been challenged even within the industry. "Growing jatropha in a profitable way on dry lands is a myth. It needs water, fertilisers and pesticides to provide high yields," Auge said. Jamidu Katima, at the University of Dar es Salaam, is critical of biofuels guidelines adopted by Tanzania's government in 2010. "There are no plans to build refineries, nor obligations for foreign investors to reserve part of their output for the domestic market," he said. Another risk is that biofuel use could increase carbon emissions by increasing destruction of forests when displaced local farmers clear land. The Institute of European Environmental Policy recently said carbon released from deforestation linked to biofuels could exceed carbon savings by 35% in 2011 rising to 60% in 2018. Currently, this indirect impact is not considered in European sustainability guidelines. James Smith, professor of African and Development Studies at Edinburgh University, said: "Private investment is running far ahead of our knowledge of the impacts of biofuels, such as land dispossession. This action is eroding the UK's position of enlightenment on development issues." Unpublished research by the charity ActionAid, seen by the Guardian, confirms the picture of scores of projects amassing millions of hectares on the east and west coasts of Africa. "I suspect the estimates are actually quite conservative," said Smith.
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Norman Baker, the Liberal Democrat junior transport minister, said: "I consider the sustainability of biofuels to be paramount. No biofuel will count towards our targets unless it meets certain sustainability requirements. But we are pushing [Europe] to go further, to reduce the risk of knock-on effects, including deforestation in new areas." He added: "Only a tiny proportion less that 0.1% - of UK biofuel has come from Africa." As oil prices rise, said Jeremy Woods, a lecturer in bioenergy at Imperial College London, biofuels could boom. "Once oil is over $70 a barrel, conventional and new generation biofuels become cost competitive. When oil and biofuels are competitive, we are into a different world." Expansion of the biofuels industry has been fuelled by capital raised on the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange. In the Guardian survey Italy is the next biggest player with seven companies, followed by Germany (six), France (six) and the US (four). Brazil and China have been acquiring land in Africa for biofuels and food but the investigation identified only a handful of established biofuels projects. The database of biofuels projects in Africa was compiled with the help of the University of California Berkeley's Africa Reporting Project. Some projects provide local benefits through investment, employment and local use of the produce, but many do not, says Lorenzo Cotula at the International Institute for Environment and Development, who recently analysed 12 contracts from African land deals. "Some of the contracts we analysed only contain vague and unenforceable promises." Some have 100-year leases, at very low or free rent and priority access to water, he added. "Extensive commercial plantations dislocate rural communities from their land", said Cotula. "Instead, self-managed biofuels production can offer cheaper energy and complementary sources of income". The chief executive of Sun Biofuels, Richard Morgans said: "Our company produces sustainable and ethical biofuels categorically yes. We would welcome higher sustainability standards, but you do have to balance this with economic development. If you are a local [in Tanzania or Mozambique] and need a job, you probably aren't worried about whether the orangutans sleep at night. It's also insulting to say African governments can't run their own affairs." A community-based approach is embraced by a few investors. "Our farmers in Mozambique are given seedlings to grow jatropha on their own land with the option to sell the seeds back to us," says Chris Hunter, of UK-based Viridesco. "We help smaller plantations that cater to the developing world markets, as opposed to big monocultures that service the developed world's energy needs".
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UK companies were the first into Africa in 2005, but this has not been without problems. D1 Oils froze its export plans and started supplying locally in Malawi and Zambia, following the failure in 2009 of its joint-venture with BP, which doubted jatropha's market potential. Last year GEM Biofuels, operating in Madagascar, suspended its LSE quotation for four months. The revelation of the central role of UK companies in biofuels coincides with a report from Oxfam forecasting that the price of staple foods will more than double in the next 20 years. The report identifies biofuels as a factor and demands that western governments end biofuel policies that divert food to fuel for cars. "We are sleepwalking towards an age of avoidable crisis," said Oxfam's chief executive, Barbara Stocking. "One in seven people on the planet go hungry every day despite the fact that the world is capable of feeding everyone. The food system must be overhauled."
Biofuels grown in African countries

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN UK NUMBER OF COMPANIES 11 COUNTRIES WITH LAND CONCESSIONS Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, Senegal, Tanzania, Zambia Congo Brazzaville, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Senegal, Ethiopia, Ghana, Madagascar, Mali, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Guinea, Mali, Mozambique Senegal, Togo
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Germany
France
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COUNTRY OF ORIGIN USA
NUMBER OF COMPANIES 4
COUNTRIES WITH LAND CONCESSIONS Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Mali, Mozambique, Kenya, Tanzania, Sierra Leone, Togo, Uganda DR Congo Malawi, Mozambique, Kenya, Zambia Ghana, Tanzania Cameroon, Ethiopia, Tanzania Malawi, Kenya, Sierra Leone Tanzania Ghana, Ivory Coast
Canada
Scandinavian 4 countries Belgium 3
Switzerland Netherlands Cyprus UK COMPANY Crest Global Green Energy
3 2 1
LAND COUNTRIES CONCESSION WITH LAND CONCESSIONS 900000 Guinea, Mali, Senegal Madagascar Liberia Namibia
Gem Biofuels 452500 Equatorial Biofuels plc Kavango Bioenergy Ltd Jatropha africa Cams Group Principle energy Sun Biofuels D1 Oils Viridesco 80000 70000
50000 20000 20000 13000 5000 175
Ghana Tanzania Mozambique Mozambique, Tanzania Malawi, Zambia Mozambique
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COUNTRY OF ORIGIN Sustainable Agroenergy Source: data research, not including unverified projects Remark: concessions include all negotiated land, whether it is only agreed, formally leased or already used
NUMBER OF COMPANIES n.a.
COUNTRIES WITH LAND CONCESSIONS Senegal
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blairsnemesis 31 May 2011 9:18PM Oh not again. British companies leading the way to rape other countries of their land so they can make vast profits back home. You can be certain the indigenous population will gain next to nothing but the corporate executives and shareholders must be creaming themselves with excitement at the prospects of pocketing more money. And more land taken away from food production which could help lower food prices. These companies disgust me at every level. ThinkOrDie 31 May 2011 9:20PM Who's keeping tabs on corporate activity, governments? Don't make me laugh. We, hell, the world needs some kind of incorruptable watchdog... It's not funny anymore.
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slumpy 31 May 2011 9:24PM Am I right in thinking we are converting land that should be feeding people into land that would be producing the most disgusting, polluting fuel "diesel" "Priorities must be put in order" of usefulness to the people who matter. Us. ThinkOrDie 31 May 2011 9:26PM Here's another question: who is selling this land to these companies? Whoever it is is betraying their own people. Shellshocked 31 May 2011 9:28PM Jatropha is a disaster - probably the biggest mistake since the groundnuts scheme of the 50s. Shell Oil have already pulled out and other companies are going to lose their shirts. Even with the best conditions the yields are simply not good enough, the energy gain is always going to be very small. Even hoped for employment for locals has not been good. Now in India Jatropha is getting hit by a Phytopthora disease that has wiped out whole plantations. This is a perfect case of the political- industrial combine triumphing over common sense. How did this ever happen? How did it get taken up so quickly into EU law? Why were not proper studies done before such major decisions were taken? And how did the science fail us? I'll answer the last one, because scientists are not free to falsify stupid ideas like this, instead they get paid by industry to tell them what they want to hear. CarlosCortiglia 31 May 2011 9:32PM The news does not surprise me. Much of the Amazon Rainforest

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is being destroyed every year to produce bio-fuel crops. So now danpan we see the consequences in Africa. With a world population 31 May 2011 10:01PM expected to reach 9 billion by 2025, this could become a massive tragedy with nothing to see here. Business as usual,and genocides Move along, starvation leading to military conflict only the several times bigger thanpretend to be shocked or remotely naive and ignorant need what happened in Rwanda as a consequence of ethnic conflicts. Bio-fuels are not a green surprised and only 'conspiracy theorists' should see any ulterior solution. Governments, big business and planet by condemning motives. We cannot pretend to save the their 'scientist' shills billions to death bynot for any of us to question them. been know best, and it's starvation. Many oceanic areas have almost completely depleted of life and now we are facing the prospect of erradicating entire inland habitats. LucyQ 31 May 2011 10:02PM Hey I thought we claimed to quit doing the bad, bad things in the developing world that are banned in ours. sparclear 31 May 2011 10:10PM Timely, informative article - thanks. Everyone whose investments are tangled up in the biofuel industry needs to read it. In the Guardian might it be possible to get journalists writing about who the investors are. LaNausea 31 May 2011 10:29PM What an absurd system we live in. So basically, we can drive to Tesco and pay less per litre and yet when we arrive, the produce will cost more per kilo? standardstrio 31 May 2011 10:31PM Big corporation, sovereign wealth funds from asia and the middle east are locking down land access with 100 year leases bought for much less than the land is worth. Often they need to make a show of commercialising the land to keep control of it (or risk having the leases revoked by governments). But the real motivation may be to retain control for the future. Land is going
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to be worth much more than it is now. And, yes, as others have ikesolem pointed out May 2011 10:32PM close to viable commercially 31 - jatropha is not even right now....when oil hits 200 dollars a barrel, however.... If African farmers use biofuel production to eliminate their own reliance on fossil fuels (for operating farm machinery, etc.) while continuing to produce a variety of crops for local consumption, biofuels are a good thing. If African farmers are driven off their land and into poverty as international speculators move in with an export crop-based economic model, be it for soybeans, biofuel crops, cattle or anything else, then it will be detrimental to the local communities and their livelihoods. Fossil fuel corporations hate biofuels for an entirely different reason: even though biofuel production would only ever amount to 5-10% of current fossil fuel production rates, that's enough to undermine market control, deflate prices, and so on. Since "new" fossil fuels are ridiculously expensive (tar sands, liquefied natural gas, coal-sourced gasoline, shale gas and deepwater oil are wildly expensive to produce), prices must be controlled and kept high for these 'unconventional' fossil fuel sources to be profitable. When hit pieces on biofuels are published over and over again, while the Guardian ignores issues like the Chad-Cameroon oil pipeline or the costs of oil development in Africa, one has to wonder if this isn't the real agenda that the paper is serving here. Of course, the Guardian's expose of Carter-Ruck and Trafigura's shady oil deals in the Ivory Coast, and the resulting superinjunction put out by the British Government, doesn't exactly argue in favor of this hypothesis. Nevertheless, the difference between export biofuels (commodity speculation) and local biofuels (energy independence) should be highlighted. In reality, biofuels - especially algal biofuels - can meet a wide variety of local energy needs in the developing world - but the export model for biofuels to the industrialized countries is highly problematic. remoteviewer

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31 May 2011 10:34PM swiss3 31 May 2011 10:40PM Bio corporates dislodge people from their land & we pick up the tab in foreign aid? Sun Biofuels: " If you are a local [in Tanzania or Mozambique] and need a job, you probably aren't worried about whether the orangutans sleep at night" shows the level of brains these people hav- show me the orangutans n Africa?! these people r out t make profits, the local people they consider as gorillas, mean little or nothing, theyd hand these people the education & technology t themselves design Apple computers & medical devices or somthing valuabl they could truly compete back with & pay off the 'friendly loans' the rich countrys offered them if they gave a damn a 'percentage' on some oily seeds & with rent free '100 year leases' coughed up aint gonna help much, but it will likely degrade the land n the push fr quick profits, & expose these people t toxic agricultural chemicals n the water & on thr bodys We also hav t consider that all this biofuel is gonna discourage better planning so people conserve energy, revamp urban & rural planning, reduce commuting distances or use alternativs like walking, cycling, subways, & trains, design cars smaller & with better efficiencys... etc The rich lands show thr true 'bio-ethics' these days! Keep those big cars with thr fat garages, & instead of building nuclear plants n ur own backyard t power them, dose the foreigners with ag chems & buy all thr land up fr nothing t satisfy ur machines! pathetic On the other hand, the severe crash this disorganized world system is carreening towards, may b the best thing. Thr is an emergency strategy of diverse peoples organizing & reducing waste, improving ethics, spreading education & equality, making deals on the tough issues of population expansion & racism... etc Thr is another strategy, of letting things collapse or go slowly, so that people of the future hav more natural resources t work with after they hav developed better technology!
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Waterlizard 31 May 2011 10:41PM Africa is still for sale... This state of affairs is a disgusting shambles. Someone, very quickly, needs to re-write the hideous EU biofuel policy. davidsouthafrican 31 May 2011 10:41PM African land already occupied by biodiversity is being converted into biofuel farms, large mammal numbers in Africa are plummetting. This is another aspect of the anthropogenic mass extinction underway ikesolem 31 May 2011 10:42PM @CarlosC: "The news does not surprise me. Much of the Amazon Rainforest is being destroyed every year to produce bio-fuel crops." This is a classic example of misinformation. The chief export crops from the Amazon are soybeans and cattle, most of it going directly to European, American and Japanese markets, with the profits squirreled away to Wall Street and from there, on to offshore banking accounts in the Caymans, Switzerland, etc. The Brazilian biofuel crop is sugarcane, grown in the southern grasslands region of Brazil. The sugarcane goes towards sugar production and ethanol production, with the split dependent mostly on global commodity prices for sugar and ethanol. It's all grown on established farmland, not on newly cleared rainforest. The U.S. fossil fuel industry is so concerned about ethanol undercutting gasoline prices that they've gotten the U.S. government to keep a massive tariff in place for decades,

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blocking the import into the U.S. Somehow, I doubt this tariff MatthewJB was established due to the environmental concerns of the oil 31 May 2011 10:49PM companies. Africa is fullalso thatcrops, it really doesn't matter if the used to Please note of cash if environmental regulations were cash cropfossil fuel imports from tar sands projects and similarly ban is food or fuel, the local people will still go hungry. polluting absolutely sources, their what isbe a wild outcry from It makes fossil fuel no difference would grown on these farms, the fossil fuel sector. the only important things are who owns the farms and how much the workers are being paid. salvaggio 31 May 2011 11:08PM Does not surprise me at all. The epitome of Britishness.

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Winhill 31 May 2011 11:12PM Biofuels are just a technology. All of the serious research suggests that whether they are pro-poor or anti-poor depends on the political and economic framework under which they are grown, processed and used. Biofuels grown in an exploitative fashion are anti-poor. That is happening in some parts of Africa. Biofuels grown by local people with fair contracts can be pro-poor - helping rural people out of povery. That is also happening. Africa is not currently using most of its food production potential, mostly because of poverty. There does not have to be a conflict between food and fuel. However there will be if you just leave it to the market and don't regulate to ensure against it. The others side of blaming technologies is failing to blame politicians. The idea that technologies fatalisticly determine economic and political outcomes is just another form of TINA (there is no alternative) who is the first lady of the market fundamentalists. It is rubbish: we can regulate if we want to. We are not the passive playthings of technologies.

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dorlomin Jacksavage 31 May 2011 11:12PM 31 May 2011 11:15PM davidsouthafrican hardly come out and condemn this, given Well Greenpeace can their stance on biofuels. This is another aspect of the anthropogenic mass extinction conveniently forgotten now? Or has this beenunderway The irony is that it is hitting our cradle, Africa, last. Humans blitzkrieged there way through the large fauna of Europe, Asia, Winhill Oceana andMayAmericas with stone spears and there cats, dogs 31 the 2011 11:19PM and rats. The second wave began when the Columbine exchage got underway "Here's another question: who is selling this @ ThinkOrDiewith sail and gunpowder. Now its tractors, land chainsaws, fire and klashnikovs is bushmeat their own to these companies? Whoever it foris betrayingthat are picking up phase three. people". The West African black rhinoin parts of Africa was a World Bank Starting to privatise the land is thought to have gone extinct around 2006 (still not officially listingadjustment. It was just in / IMF conditionality under structural it as such though, dictated case one or economists. around). A fate awaiting many animals by western two are still on the continent soon if something is not done. If they didn't cut and privatise they didn't get the loans, to pay off the banks, who had engaged in predatory sub-prime lending. Sounds kinda familiar doesn't it. GerardArduaine 31 May 2011 11:23PM I wonder if some of the worst impacts of biofuels could be avoided by insisting they be consumed in the country where the feedstock is grown. As it stands, biofuels are an acute case of the inequities of globalisation. Neverlander 31 May 2011 11:24PM Maybe this explains why our foreign aid budget is being protected. Kick africans off their land for corporate profit but send aid instead. Don't it make yer proud?
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octopus8 31 May 2011 11:31PM I want to be able to buy "Bio-Free" fuel. Like I can buy lead-free.

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dorlomin 31 May 2011 11:31PM 4 March, 2001 oh dear dorlomin 31 May 2011 11:33PM Neverlander Maybe this explains why our foreign aid budget is being protected. 'Foreign aid' budgets tend to just be nice little earners for UK companies pretending to do something humanitarian where the dark skinned people live. UK consulting, engineering, agricultural and the like firms getting UK government money for a hopelessly expensive aid project in the developing world. octopus8 31 May 2011 11:36PM Jacksavage Well Greenpeace can hardly come out and condemn this, given their stance on biofuels. Or has this been conveniently forgotten now? Jack. No one I know has taken Greenpeace seriously for years. And I speak as a greenie. The page you link to is 2001. Seriously sharp greenies gave up bio by 1996 - when we stopped putting Asda value cooking oil 50/50 with Shell in our tanks.

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Bluebird8 Polymorph 31 May 2011 11:47PM 31 May 2011 11:54PM ThinkOrDie There will always be someone willing to stoop low in the pursuit of profit. They can bequestion:by not buying the product but that Here's another stopped who is selling this land to requires a degree of education (init is is betraying their own these companies? Whoever the sense of knowing and learning about the downside of the product) and self control that people. many consumers won't bother with if it is cheap. Spreading the Puppet dictators and juntas are selling this land......mostly word about this exploitation may help but making better choices controlled by the States and or western European countries..or and setting an example gets tougher when goods like bio-fuels increasingly China. Just look at all the corrupt leaders in these are mixed in with conventional fuels and the resulting cocktail countries over the years...all made millions while their marketed as a more ethical choice or sold with the ingredients population paid in blood or starved...eg Batista, Papa Doc, tucked away in the small print. Pinochet, Somoza, not to mention Africa. Thanks for the article - at least information like this helps in Pure exploitation making informed purchases at some level. Using less fuel altogether would seem to be the easiest way to slow down development of these misguided crops. engineman 1 June 2011 12:13AM cost effective, in other words it means they can make a profit, these companies are not there to save the planet with 'greener fuel' they are there to make a profit to line the shareholders pockets. There is no end to this head long rush to destruction, 2010 saw the biggest emissions of man made Co2 since records began. We are doomed boy doomed bckagn 1 June 2011 12:14AM "One in seven people on the planet go hungry every day despite the fact that the world is capable of feeding everyone. The food system must be overhauled." So if we overhaul the population to reduce it by one in seven then everyone's happy? Seems like biofuels might do the job. Win-win.
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Mass contraception would have a much bigger effect on how dorlomin many hungry people 12:29AM than bio fuels, but that wouldn't 1 June 2011 there are give the Grauniadistas anyone to rage against. They are going to Africa with its inherent instablity because Cargil, Nestle and ADM got most of South America sown up already. straighttalkingjack 1 June 2011 12:45AM The sugarcane goes towards sugar production and ethanol production, with the split dependent mostly on global commodity prices for sugar and ethanol. It's all grown on established farmland, not on newly cleared rainforest.

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@Ikesolom Some very interesting comments but I think you underestimate the damage that sugar cane production does in Brazil. A lot of relatively unstable soils are rapidly depleted and it is necessary to move to new areas. This is causing the destruction of the Cerrado biome which contains great biodiversity. In fact, much of this "grassland" you speak of is also cleared forest - more than 90% of the Atlantic Forest, for example, has already been destroyed since Europenas arrived. As food prices rise and informal settlement occurs more and more wihin forests and forest margins, the tendency to clear for cultivation and habitation increases. Much sugar cane land could also be used for growing food crops but relentless soil degradation and degradation of hydrolgical systems applies a relentless pressure. Monitor2010 1 June 2011 12:46AM Because they compete for land with crop plants, biofuels have also been linked to record food prices and rising hunger. That is why the price of corn has doubled in the last 2-3 years!

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Back then you could purchase a corn cob for 25-30p but today straighttalkingjack you'll be luck to 2011 12:49AM 1 June get it for 50-60p. Likewise sugar has increased in price to 90p+ a Kilo for 40-55p @IkeSolom ago!!! a few years Another thing Id competition for biofuels. Both are in direct perhaps question is the complete opposition that fossil fuel companies have towards biofuels. Biofuels are an excellent way to keep the internal combustion engine viable. They are treading a line - hence the idea of these controlled percentages. In Brazil, for example, many cars run on pure ethanol - thatd be a step too far Europe for example! Mindymac 1 June 2011 12:52AM Hasn't this been known for years?

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jockyscot 1 June 2011 1:09AM I bet they get subsidies and tax breaks. Global corporate capitalism is a marvel of the modern age. goto 1 June 2011 2:40AM A community-based approach is embraced by a few investors. "Our farmers in Mozambique are given seedlings to grow jatropha on their own land with the option to sell the seeds back to us," says Chris Hunter, of UK-based Viridesco. "We help smaller plantations that cater to the developing world markets, as opposed to big monocultures that service the developed world's energy needs". Is this spin? Does Viridesco sell the seeds to the monocultures? Can G find out? MindYerBeak

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1 June 2011 3:03AM Zhubajie 1 June 2011 one dradful mistake: she created greedy Mother Nature made3:29AM people. Maybe it would be a good idea if she got rid of us and "Bio corporates dislodge people from their land & we pick up the started over again. It would teach the new humans a valuable tab in foreign aid?" lesson. Where do you think all those African immigrants come from? croyal 1 June 2011 3:33AM This article shows the ignorance and idiocy of some biofuels companies and their pretend ethics and sustainability greenwash. Richard Morgans from Sun Biofuels has such a limited knowledge of ecology and science it is almost funny, if it wasnt so sad. I would love to see him find the Orang Utans in Africa. If he means other primates such as gorillas and chimpanzees, two of the most critically endangered species on the planet, I doubt he would find any, sleeping or otherwise, they are so rare due to forest encroachment and habitat destruction. Pathetic education and knowledge for a CEO. It is also not insulting to say that Africa cant run its own affairs, if those affairs are heavily influenced by profit-making firms offering them money for a quick, unsustainable and unethical return. Parts of Africa are so poor that they simply cannot exclude any type of offer for money, regardless of the consequence...I have seen this first hand in Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Kenya, Madagascar and many other countries. Some officials are, by and large, also not sufficiently educated to understand the long-term consequences of habitat destruction, much like biofuel company executives it seems. I hope these companies fail massively and at the very least, some of this land returns to food growth. As crazy as it sounds, it is still less destructive to burn fossil fuels and push for a more sustainable solution to our energy needs, rather than marginalising and starving the poor to provide fuel for the rich. Zhubajie 1 June 2011 3:36AM
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"Mother Nature made one dradful mistake: she created greedy environmentalsanity people." 1 June 2011 4:02AM Lots of earlier civilizations have destroyed themselves by This comment was removed by We're not a bit smarter didn't destroying their environments. a moderator because it than abide by our community standards. Replies may also be deleted. Mesopotamians in Late Antiquity or the Classic Mayans. For more detail see our FAQs. svarga 1 June 2011 4:52AM Just yesterday BBC post article on it site about food prices in nearest 20 years. It'll grow double. One of the main reason why because governments are stimulate biofuel agriculture in the world. So, don't be surprised one day. mayhope 1 June 2011 4:54AM I wonder why more waste materials can't be used as biofuel? Instead of the corn, the husk, instead of the cane, the leaf? ironingboard 1 June 2011 5:01AM So environmentalsanity, having screwed big time with biofuels, and developed pretty sloping shoulders when it comes to accepting responsibility, the green movement should, according to you, now be targeting the really fragile ecosystems. swiss3 1 June 2011 5:33AM som biofuel projects i can jump on board with... but not most such as biofuel producing algae growing n human waste systems, or other projects such as recycling of used cooking oil, that dont displace agricultural, forest, ocean, or productiv wildlands thr is serious money t b made perfecting the growth of oil producing algae n urban wastewater too dangerous t grow
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products MelKellyconsumption, thr r 1000s of citys & millions fr human of towns that could use this t power a modest handful of buses & 1 June 2011 6:37AM such n each locale t reduce air toxicity n crowded areas, altho thr r arguments t made that evn thisa method of guaranteeing to Biofuel laws were introduced as source of biofuels could instead b used as soil prices. push up food amendments on paper crops fr instance recycled cooking oil isnt easily used as be reclaimed by the it Any land used to grow biofuels should a soil amendment, so may b justified t burn it as fuel, but this could only account relevant government and food grown instead (but then thatfr a modest fleet of vehicles, thatthe otherespecially useful again, n won't suit Monsanto and all could b crowded growers who want to create a monoply on food. GM crop areas fr better air quality cropland produced biofuel is nice t know the science & technique, but its hard t advocate on any large scale beyond Comments on this page are now closed. research plots, not only does it reduce the amount of food, medicine, & clothes we can grow, people must remember that 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. cropland isnt an entirely renewabl source of products, it takes non-renewabl inputs t grow things, & very few farms hav a true level of sustainability on any permanent scale

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Biofuels Boom in Africa As British Firms Lead Rush On Land For Plantations - Environment - The Guardian

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Biofuels Boom in Africa As British Firms Lead Rush On Land For Plantations - Environment - The Guardian

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Biofuels boom in Africa as British firms lead rush on land for plantations |...

Biofuels grown in African countries

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN USA

Scandinavian 4 countries Belgium 3

Switzerland Netherlands Cyprus UK COMPANY Crest Global Green Energy

50000 20000 20000 13000 5000 175

Ghana Tanzania Mozambique Mozambique, Tanzania Malawi, Zambia Mozambique

NUMBER OF COMPANIES n.a.

COUNTRIES WITH LAND CONCESSIONS Senegal

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