Action Alert:
The Action Alert below was sent by Simone Lovera, Global Forest Coalition. The RCEN is an independent, non-partisan organization. It does not take positions on environmental issues. The Action Alert section of the RCEN website is provided as a service to RCEN members.
Action Alert – Sign-On Letter to Recognize the Risks of Biofuels
October 29, 2006
Please find below an alert to the Conference of the Parties of the Framework Convention on Climate Change on the risks of biofuels. The letter calls upon governments to suspend all subsidies and other forms of inequitabe support for the import and export of biofuels, in the light of the negative environmental and social impacts caused by the large-scale export-oriented production of biofuels. While recognizing that some forms of locally and nationally oriented biofuel production could be sustainable, the letter also calls for strict regulations and effective enforcement measures, to ensure biofuel production at the national level does not impact negatively upon Indigenous Peoples and local communities, and their livelihoods.
We just started gathering signatures to this letter. Please let us know before Saturday 4 November (at simonelovera@yahoo.com) if your organization is willing to support it. Other feedback is welcome too.
Best wishes,
Simone
Simone Lovera
Campaigns coordinator
Global Forest Coalition
Bruselas 2273
Asunción, Paraguay
tel/fax: 595-21-663654
http://www.wrm.org/gfc
Email: simonelovera@yahoo.com
Biofuels:
A Disaster in the Making
The undersigned NGOs, Indigenous Peoples Organizations and farmer’s movements call upon the Parties to the Framework Convention on Climate Change to immediately suspend all subsidies and other forms of inequitable support for the import and export of biofuels.
We recognize that the local production and consumption of biomass plays an important role in sustainable livelihood strategies of, in particular, rural women in developing countries. Certain strictly regulated sustainable forms of biofuel production can be beneficial at the national level. However, the modalities of biomass consumption and production must be carefully analyzed in conjunction with communities, to introduce adaptive measures that will maintain and enhance the patterns of sustainability, while avoiding negative impacts on health and the adverse effects inherent to increases in demand or changes in socioeconomic settings. Solar energy often offers a sustainable alternative to traditional biomass.
Meanwhile, international trade in biofuels is already causing a negative impact on food security, rural livelihoods, forests and other ecosystems, and these negative impacts are expected to accumulate rapidly. Large-scale, export-oriented production of biofuel requires large-scale monocultures of trees, sugarcane, corn, oilpalm, soy and other crops. These monocultures already form the number one cause of rural depopulation and deforestation worldwide. The rapidly increasing demand for these crops as a source of biofuel will lead to:
- increased land competition leading to further land concentration, the marginalization of small-scale agriculture and the widespread conversion of forests and other ecosystems;
- arable land that is currently used to grow food being used to grow fuel, leading to staggering food prices and causing hunger, malnutrition and impoverishment amongst the poorest sectors of society;
- rural unemployment and depopulation;
- the destruction of the traditions, cultures, languages and spiritual values of Indigenous Peoples and rural communities;
- the extensive use of agro-chemicals, which deteriorate human health and ecosystems
- the destruction of watersheds and the pollution of rivers, lakes and streams;
- droughts and other local and regional climatic extremes; and
- the extensive use of genetically modified organisms leading to unprecedented risks.
These effects will have particularly a negative impact on women and Indigenous Peoples, who are economically marginalized and more dependent on natural resources like water and forests.
Biofuels are a disaster in the making. Existing legally binding standards, regulations and enforcement mechanisms in the (potential) production countries are absolutely insufficient to prevent the above-mentioned impacts. International demand for biofuels is already surpassing supply in key countries like Malaysia and Brazil, giving an important push to the expansion of destructive crops like oil palm and sugar cane. Initiatives to produce these monocultures “responsibly” are rejected by many NGOs and social movements in the production countries themselves, who have emphasized that the above-mentioned negative social and environmental impacts are inherent to the large-scale production of monocultures.
There is nothing green or sustainable to imported biofuel. Instead of destroying the lands and livelihoods of local communities and Indigenous Peoples in the South through yet another form of colonialism, we call upon Northern countries to recognize their responsibility for destroying the planet’s climate system, to reduce their energy consumption to sustainable levels, to pay the climate debt they have created by failing to do so until now and to dramatically increase investment in solar energy and sustainable wind energy.
We also call upon all governments to develop and effectively enforce environmental and social standards and regulations that ensure that biofuel production industries do not destroy the livelihoods and ecosystems of Indigenous Peoples and local communities. Corporations should be hold strictly liable for any social and environmental damage that has occurred and they should be effectively prosecuted if they do not uphold environmental and labor laws.
SIGNED:
Global Forest Coalition
Pacific Indigenous Peoples Environment Coalition
Institute of Cultural Affairs, Ghana
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