International NGOs:
Dutch report on Biomass Sustainability Criteria lacks vision from
the South
PRESS RELEASE - 27
April 2007,Paraguay / Argentina / The Netherlands
Today,
the final report of the Dutch initiative to develop criteria for
?Sustainable Biomass' is presented by its authors to the Dutch
government. Because the EU plans to strongly promote the use of
biofuels - now more often called 'agrofuels' - the (un)sustainability
of the large scale production of agrofuel crops is at the centre
of international attention.
The
undersigned organisations express their disappointment that the
committee responsible (the Cramer committee) has not consulted
with civil society organisations in the South, where most biomass
(for
example for agrofuels), will be produced. The perspectives of
smallholders, local communities and indigenous peoples, often
suffering the consequences of monoculture expansion, have not
been heard. As past experiences with developing certification
schemes have shown, local stakeholder participation, especially
in the criteria setting process, is crucial. Not only for its
credibility, but also for a sound analysis of the social and environmental
problems related to monoculture production.
Apart from that, the amounts of land used up by the monoculture
plantations, and the economical interestes linked to them, lead
us to believe the implementation of any sustainability criteria
to be very difficult. In the case of soy, a previous criteria-
setting initiative - the Round Table on Responsible
Soy - has been rejected by many civil society organisations representing
local stakeholders.
Another
mayor failure of the report is that it does not even reject the
?book and claim? certification system, in which certificates can
be freely traded, although it is clearly stated in the report
itself that this system is likely to lead to fraudulent practices.
This demonstrates that the Commission pays very
little attention to the many problems associated with implementing
the proposed certification systems in practice.
"All
three certification systems suggested are unable to address the
indirect impacts of agrofuel production", says Simone Lovera
of the Global Forest Coalition, an international coalition of
NGOs and Indigenous Peoples' Organizations. "The fact that
agrofuel itself is not produced on recently deforested land does
not mean that it does not cause deforestation, as the fact that
large tracks of existing agricultural land are taken over for
agrofuel production will lead to other forms of agriculture and
cattle ranching to move to recently deforested areas."
Importantly, the Cramer report does acknowledges the fact that
certification in itself cannot solve these indirect effects.The
report states that if the negative impacts at macro-level appear
to be too big, it is the responsibility of the Dutch government
to take action and exert influence on producer countries. ?Should
the producer country not be responsive, then The Netherlands faces
a political consideration, whether or not in EU context, to discourage
the use of biomass from that country, says the report.
The
undersigned organisations would advice the Dutch Environment Minister,
former chair of the Cramer committee, first of all to undertake
a broad sustainability impact assessment of the current production
and
consumption of commodity products like palmoil, soy and sugar
cane, and
the likely effects of creating an additional market for them for
agrofuels.
However,
action on the side of consumer countries is what is most needed.
In the context of EU promotion of agrofuel use, an Open Letter
by Latin American organisations published in January states that
"the problem of climate change generated by the countries
of the North cannot be solved by creating new problems in our
region." Similarly, a broadly signed statement "Biofuels
- A Disaster in the Making", presented at the climate negotiations
in Nairobi last November, calls Northern countries to reduce their
energy consumption to sustainable levels - instead of pushing
large scale agrofuel imports.
We
therefore urge the Minister to firmly oppose the EU proposal for
a 10% binding target for agrofuels (biofuels) in transport and
suspend all subsidies and other incentives for agro- energy from
monoculture
plantations.
Signed by:
Global Forest Coalition
World Rainforest Movement
Latin American Network against Monoculture Tree Plantations
Grupo de Reflexión Rural, Argentina
CEPPAS, Argentina
Corporate Europe Observatory
For
more information, please contact:
Simone Lovera, Global Forest Coalition: simonelovera@yahoo.com
,
Tel: +595-21-663654(Dutch, English and Spanish)
Nina Holland, Corporate Europe Observatory: nina@corporateeurope.org,
Tel: +31-(0)20-6127023 / 06- 30285042
See
http://www.biofuelwatch.org.uk for:
* Open Letter to the EU: "No to mandatory target!"
* Open Letter to the EU from Latin American organisations: "We
want
Food Sovereignty, not Biofuels!'
* Open Letter to the EU from Sawit Watch, Indonesia: "Palmoil
for Biofuels increases social conflicts and undermines land reform
in Indonesia
And:
Declaration presented at UNFCCC negotations, Nairobi, November
2006: "Biofuels - A Disaster in the Making" http://www.wrm.org.uy/actors/CCC/Nairobi/Disaster_Making.html
Corporate
Europe Observatory
De Wittenstraat 25
1052 AK Amsterdam
tel/fax: +31-20-6127023
www.corporateeurope.org
