Growing energy crops on 480 million hectares could provide enough biofuel to make the world’s energy mix sustainable by 2045, according to Reuters. The agency cited a representative of Ecofys, a renewable energy and energy efficiency consultancy, speaking at the World Biofuels 2010 conference held in May.

So surely biofuels must be a blessing? The World Wild Fund for Nature (WWF) supports an expansion of the area given over to biofuel crops. Reuters reported a WWF estimate that 380–450 million hectares (ha) could be sustainably planted for fuel feedstocks, alongside 1.6 billion ha needed to guarantee the world’s food supply. On the other hand, such crops could be a curse. Human rights organisation FIAN is appalled at the area of land they require and argues that any such project would entail the wholesale expulsion of rural populations and exacerbate food shortages on a global scale. The organisation argues that indigenous groups and farming families are already being driven from their land by massive biofuel projects, losing the access to land and water which are their lifeline. In addition to this impact on society, FIAN also objects to the environmental impact of growing energy crops such as sugar cane, jatropha or oil palm. It believes the benefi t biofuels bring to combating climate change has yet to be established.

Furthermore, single energy crops are farmed intensively over large areas, a practice which damages the environment. FIAN therefore questions why an environmental organisation like WWF has included growing energy crops on a large scale in its sustainability strategy.

Bioenergy certainly divides opinion! Late last year, the issue of biofuel crops arose again when farmers in Mozambique called for a moratorium on jatropha cultivation. A study conducted by the farmers’ organisation UNAC, with the help of an environmental organisation, found not only that growing jatropha failed to help combat poverty, but also that it was edging out food crops (see Rural 21 6/2009, page 6).

(ib)