13th Feb 2008
NEW REPORT IS ANOTHER BLOW TO BIOFUELS INDUSTRY
Wales Green Party Principal Speaker Leila Kiersch has welcomed today's report from a coalition of environmental groups highlighting the dangers of palm oil production for the global monoculture biofuel industry.
The report, Losing Ground, published by Friends of the Earth, Sawit Watch and LifeMosiac, highlights the social and environmental problems that often arrives in areas of the world allocated for growing biofuel crops.
'This report addresses the very critical issues surrounding the global rush to large-scale agrofuels. Indigenous communities around the world would eventually be threatened with severe food shortages since there will be no space left for subsistence farming. Furthermore, every litre of palm oil from a former rainforest does more damage to the environment than a litre of petrol. The benefit of producing biofuels is negligible compared to the havoc it wreaks.'
While agreeing with the findings of the report Leila Kiersch said that it is was important to differentiate the problems sourcing biodiesel from palm oil monoculture caused and identified in the report to the benefits gained from the work of small scale independent producers of biodiesel operating in South Wales that use waste vegetable oil collected from restaurants and food manufacturers as their fuel source.
The report's conclusion finds that
'The unsustainable expansion of Indonesia's palm oil industry is leaving many indigenous communities without land, water or adequate livelihoods. Previously self-sufficient communities find themselves in debt or struggling to afford education and food. Traditional customs and culture are being damaged alongside Indonesia's forests and wildlife.
'Human rights - including the right to water, to health, the right to work, cultural rights and the right to be protected from ill-treatment and arbitrary arrest - are being denied in some communities.
'If palm oil is to be produced sustainably, the damaging effects of unjust policies and practices in the Indonesian plantation sector must be addressed.'
Leila continued
'Local people need land as sources of sustainable economic activity, we all need the forests to absorb CO2 and indigenous species, like our cousins the orangutan, needs them simply to survive in. This is often a matter of life and death for the world's poorest people, and we must keep up the pressure to ensure that biofuels come from sustainable sources which don't damage people's lives or our climate.'
To read the summary of the report, go to www.foe.co.uk
For the whole report, please go to www.foe.co.uk
ENDS
Notes for editors
(1) www.indymedia.org.uk (2) www.telegraph.co.uk
For further information (English or Welsh language) contact Leila Kiersch Wales Green Party Principal Speaker - 01974 261340/07817 83714 or Wales Green Party Press Officer Jake Griffiths on 07752754537 and cantongreens@hotmail.co.uk .
