For Inmediate
Release
A clear message from the South:
WE WANT FOOD SOVEREIGNTY, NOT BIOFUELS
download
in pdf
January
6, 2007
An open letter was sent yesterday
to the European Parliament, The European Commission, The Governments
and Citizens of The European Union, in which several networks
from Latin American countries expressed their “deep concern
over the policies that are probably to be adopted to favour the
use and import of biofuel as an alternative to fossil fuels, whose
disproportionate use is one of the main causes of global warming”.
They point out :
- Increasing use of individual automobiles and their associated
oil consumption as one of the main causes of global warming, and
biofuels might appear to be a positive alternative. However, serious
negative impacts are being experienced by the people and natural
resources of the South.
- Europe will never achieve self-sufficiency in the production
of biofuel from national production of energy crops. The EU Biofuels
directive being announced by the EU Commissioners next week, will
drive a massive market expansion in biofuels in Europe that will
come at the expense of lands on which the food sovereignty of
Southern countries depend.
- While Europeans maintain their lifestyle based on automobile
culture, the population of Southern countries will have less and
less land for food crops and will loose its food sovereignty.
We will have to base our diet on imported food, possibly from
Europe.
Energy crops grown in Latin America for the European market
:
- will increase the level of destruction of the rainforest in
Argentina, of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil and Bolivia and
of the Mata Atlântica in Brazil and Paraguay, and
- genetically modified soybean crops, that are already being planted,
affect the health of surrounding populations, where the levels
of cancer and other diseases associated with agro toxic chemicals
used on these monoculture plantations are increasing day by day.
- sugar cane plantations and the production of ethanol in Brazil
are the business of an agricultural monopoly using slave labour,
and oil palm plantations are expanding at the expense of forests
and the territories of the indigenous and other traditional communities
of Colombia, Ecuador and other countries, increasingly geared
to biodiesel production.
The decisions on the EU Biofuels directive being made by the EU
commissioners on January 10th are critical to the future of many
in the Southern nations. The Latin American networks appealed
to the governments and people of the European Union countries
to seek solutions that do not worsen the already dramatic social
and environmental situation of the peoples of Latin America, Asia
and Africa.
Some European organizations, organized a campaign to support the
Latin American Network position and also sent their own message
to the Commission. The commission are urged to act to prevent
further deforestation, biodiversity losses, and evictions and
impoverishment of local communities by placing a moratorium on
the EU biofuel targets and obligations until the sustainable sourcing
of biofuels can be guaranteed; and taking all possible measures
to stop imports of biofuel feedstocks for bioenergy where crop
production is linked to deforestation, peat drainage, biodiversity
loss, pollution or human rights abuses.
Note:
Additional information about this issues can be found in the signatories’
web pages:
Alert
Against the Green Desert Network,
http://www.desertoverde.org/; Latin
American Network against Monoculture Tree Plantations, http://www.wrm.org.uy/plantations/RECOMA.html;
Network
for a GM free Latin America, http://www.rallt.org/;
Oilwatch South America, http://www.oilwatch.org/;
World Rainforest Movement, http://www.wrm.org.uy/;
Some good in-depth articles on the impact of biofuels to communities
people, biodiversity and resources in Latin America can be found
at: http://www.wrm.org.uy/bulletin/112/viewpoint.html
on the World Rainforest Movement website.
Contact details:
In Latin America:
- Ana Filippini, World Rainforest Movement. Email: anafili@wrm.org.uy,
Telephone: 598 2 4132989 Cell phone: 598 99367966
- Elizabeth Bravo, Email: ebravo@rallt.org
Telephone: 593 22 547516
In Europe:
- Jutta Kill, Email: jutta@fern.org,
Telephone: +44 1608 652 895
- Andrew Boswell, Large Scale Biofuel Action Group. Email: andrew.boswell@yahoo.co.uk,
Telephone: +44-1603-613798, Mobile: +44-7787-127881;
