The Disastrous Local and Global Impacts of Tropical Biofuel Production

The results of all this forest clearing can be seen by looking at Indonesia’s carbon dioxide emissions. Indonesia is now the third-leading producer of carbon emissions after the U.S. and China, according to a recent study done by two Dutch entities, Wetlands International, a non-profit agency, and Delft Hydraulics, a consulting firm. The study also found that degraded peatlands in Southeast Asia produce some two billion tons of carbon “which is equivalent to almost 8 percent of the total carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels.” It goes on to say that these carbon emissions are a “major obstacle to meeting the aim of stabilizing greenhouse gas emissions.”

Beyond the problems that arise from forest clearing, the replacement of primary forest with a monoculture plantation is disastrous for biodiversity. A 1969 study showed that primary forests in the tropics contain 75 mammalian species, while disturbed forest, oil palm and rubber plantations, and scrubland contain only 32, 13, and 11 respectively. Naturally, plant diversity is more severely affected by the plantations.
Since oil palm plantations can only be established in equatorial countries, the most biologically diverse in the world, these issues hold particular weight. An examination of Indonesia will put this into context. Although Indonesia occupies 1.3 percent of the earth’s land surface, it is home to 11 percent of the earth’s plant species, 10 percent of its mammal species, and 16 percent of its bird species.

Following deforestation and the subsequent conversion to agriculture, soil erosion on steep mountain slopes in Indonesia can be 30 times higher than the nominal soil erosion in U.S. agriculture, 10 tons per hectare.

It is the sheer scale of the deforestation in many equatorial nations that is most worrisome. Indonesia again is a prime example. Forty percent of the forests extant in 1950 were cleared in the subsequent 50 years. (In 1950 there were 162 million hectares of forest, and in 2000 there were 98 million hectares.) The island of Borneo has lost 80 percent of its primary forest in the last 20 years. Official Indonesian statistics state that up to 2.4 million hectares of forest are leveled each year. Since in the 1980s the average was 1 million hectares per year, it is clear that the rate of forest loss is skyrocketing. Deforestation continues to be an immense problem – and the recent biofuel fervor has only made it worse.

One of the major benefits touted by plantation companies is their substantial generation of employment, especially in rural areas, which in turn drives rural development. Since oil palm plantations are currently less mechanized than other types, they require a larger labor pool. For example, oil palm plantations employ about 1 person per 10 hectares. In comparison, the larger soy plantations in Brazil employ an average of 1 worker per 200 hectares. A 20,000 hectare oil palm plantation would thus employ 2,000 people, while the same size soybean plantation would only employ 200.

It is possible, however, that such claims of increased employment are a disingenuous measure for community improvement. Oil palm plantations, like all other tropical plantations, exist in the world’s most biologically diverse terrestrial regions, ones that have supported human communities for a long time.

Energy Tribune