December 17, 2007
Cheyenne Mountain Zoo - Press Release

December 17, 2007 – Sandra, Cheyenne Mountain Zoo’s 51-year-old matriarch Sumatran orangutan, was found dead in her exhibit this morning. The Zoo’s Director of Animal Collections, Tracy Leeds, said it appeared that Sandra died in her sleep; she was found this morning in a comfortable sleeping position. A necropsy to determine the cause of death will be performed later today by Dr. Brigitte Mercier, the Zoo’s staff veterinarian.

Sandra was the seventh oldest orangutan in any zoo in the world and the third oldest in the U.S. Any age above 40 years is considered geriatric for primates such as orangutans. Wild born on the island of Sumatra in May of 1956, Sandra came to Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in 1963 and had lived through many Zoo (and U.S. presidential) administrations.

In another reminder of the ever-changing “circle of life,” Sandra had recently been introduced to Mahal, the Zoo’s Bornean orangutan born in February. Mahal had been hand-reared since birth by a corps of human caregivers after his biological mother, Hadiah, would not care for him. Within the last month or so, primate keepers had begun to do introductions of Mahal with both Hadiah and matriarch Sandra. Sandra immediately took to the ten-month-old orangutan and the two had become inseparable. Though arthritis had slowed her activities, keepers had observed a renewed energy in Sandra and a sense of contentment in her relationship with little Mahal. In the last few weeks, keepers were again attempting re-introductions between Hadiah and Mahal with the hope that the two would bond. Those introductions will obviously continue.

“We can take comfort in the fact that Sandra had the best of care during her extended time at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo,” stated Dina Bredahl, primate area supervisor. “She not only had nine offspring of her own during her full life, but she had recently taken on surrogate mother duties with Mahal, our orangutan baby. She appeared to be very excited and happy with her new baby. After nine of her own, it was obvious that Sandra loved being a mom. Life was good for her to the end. She will be deeply missed by guests and staff alike.”

Sandra’s ninth offspring, female Sumagu, resides at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. Sumagu gave birth nearly five years ago to young Makan, who has become another favorite of CMZoo visitors.

Cheyenne Mountain Zoo has two species of orangutan in its collection: Sumatran and Bornean. The primates are the largest tree-climbing mammal and the only great ape found in Asia.

Orangutans are critically endangered in the wild. The spread of palm oil plantations and illegal logging of Indonesian rainforests are impacting these intelligent apes at an alarming rate. Several conservation organizations have indicated that orangutans could be extinct in as few as ten years.

Zoo visitors are encouraged to celebrate Sandra’s life with personal remembrances on-line at cmzoo.org, in a letter, or personally at the Zoo with Primate World staff.

In its 81st year of operation, Cheyenne Mountain Zoo is open every day of the year and is home to more than 800 animals representing approximately 142 species, 30 of which are endangered.

Please visit the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo’s tribute page to Sandra.

Carbon Confidential…. If man-made carbon dioxide causes global warming, biodiesel derived from palm oil is no solution, according to a new scientific study. In fact, the data shows that use of palm-based biodiesel will do more harm than good.

A data analysis undertaken by Dr. Susan Page of the University of Leicester Department of Geography shows conclusively that large amounts of carbon dioxide are released from peatland in Southeast Asia when it is converted from natural swamp forest to plantations of palm oil or pulpwood trees.

Their work supports the findings of a recent Greenpeace report on the impact of growing oil palm on tropical peatlands.

According to Professor Jack Rieley of the School of Geography, University of Nottingham these new life cycle analysis calculations show that all forms of land use change on tropical peatland lead to massive losses of carbon from the peat store and the transfer of large amounts of CO2 to the atmosphere.

Worst Land Use Scenario

The worst land use scenario is degraded peatland. This is peatland that has been deforested and drained but is not currently managed; these degraded peatlands are susceptible to fire in every dry season which leads to large carbon emissions. Plantations of oil palm and acacia trees grown for pulpwood, however, also lose large amounts of carbon owing to rapid decomposition of the peat carbon store as a result of oxidation caused by deep land drainage.

Natural peat swamp forest acts as a carbon sink. Since the areas occupied by oil palm plantations on peatland in Malaysia and Indonesia are huge, in the order of 420,000 hectares for the former and 2,800,000 hectares for the latter, the combined 25 year life cycle CO emissions are enormous.

More CO2 than Petro-Diesel

According to Professor Florian Siegert of Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany, who is studying land cover change in Southeast Asia, the large increase in area of oil palm projected to take place in coming years to satisfy the biofuels market will release much more CO2 emissions than the fossil fuel it is supposed to replace (up to 30 times more depending upon management of individual plantations). The emissions associated with palm oil plantations growing on thick tropical peat are particularly massive.

In Indonesia it is estimated that producing 1 tonne of palm oil on peatland will cause emissions of between 15 and 70 tonnes of CO2 over the life cycle of 25 years as a result of forest conversion, peat decomposition and emission from fires associated with land clearance. The range of emission values is so large because oil palm fruit harvest can be much lower on nutrient poor and poorly drained peat soils. Peat swamp forests are the only major land area not yet developed in Southeast Asia, but increased demand for palm oil and pulp for paper is already leading to accelerated conversion of peat swamp forests into plantations.

Source: http://chinaconfidential.blogspot.com/2007/12/from-peat-to-palm-carbon-nightmare.html

The Associated Press
Saturday, December 15, 2007

BALI, Indonesia: Delegates at a U.N. climate conference agreed Saturday to include forest conservation in any future discussions about a new global warming pact, paving the way for billions of dollars (euros) in new spending to attack illegal logging.

With deforestation making up 20 percent of global emissions, world governments are desperate to find a solution to a problem that has been fueled by rising demand for timber and palm oil, widespread corruption and endemic poverty.

The program, Reducing Emissions From Deforestation and Degradation, or REDD, aims to pay mostly developing tropical countries enough money to keep their trees in the ground — and thus continue to absorb carbon — rather than allowing them to be chopped down for a profit.

The agreement will be part of negotiations for a successor accord to the Kyoto Protocol when it expires in 2012 and is “a good balance between different countries views,” said EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas.

“It is one of the substantial achievements of this conference.”

Saving tropical rain forests, especially in the Amazon, Indonesia and Congo basin in Africa, has been marked for decades by a series of failures.

Efforts to include protection schemes in the Kyoto agreement were first rejected over concern that credit for saving forests would take pressure off the West to reduce emissions, but also because some nations were unconvinced it would be possible to verify reforestation efforts.

Western governments, instead, rolled out programs aimed at getting villagers in Africa or Southeast Asia to shift to other businesses or ensure logs being exported from developing countries came from sustainable sources.

The programs failed to slow the pace of illegal logging, resulting in about 13 million hectares (32 million acres) of forest each year or an area twice the size of Panama, according to the World Bank. Brazil and Indonesia — where 80 percent of carbon dioxide emissions come from deforestation — are the worst effected due to rampant illegal logging and the growing demand for biofuels and other commodities like soybeans.

But with as much as US$23 billion (€15.6 billion) — the amount of money that could be raised through REDD — conservationist and governments from tropical countries say there is renewed hope that the trend can be reversed.

The program is being hailed not only as a climate change solution, but also as a way of helping protect biodiversity and providing a cheap way to shield communities from the worsening floods and landslides that are so common in much of Southeast Asia.

“This is an important agreement because we need to have emissions included in the Bali roadmap,” said Greenpeace Brasil’s Paulo Adario.

Already, word of the deal has led to several related projects to protect forests. On Wednesday, eight Western governments were announcing plans to donate US$165 million (€114 million) to the World Bank’s newly created Forest Carbon Partnership Facility. Norway, which contributed to the fund, also announced it was spending US$542,152 (€375,855) annually for the next three years to reduce deforestation projects in developing countries over three years.

The agreement calls for countries in the tropics to be provided assistance to reduce deforestation and what is called degradation — mostly farming and small scale logging that destroys the forest undergrowth. It also includes a reference to conservation, a demand of India and Costa Rica who want financial assistance for the work already done to protect their forests.

Sticking points, however, remain.

Brazil would like Western governments to provide aid to a fund that would dole out money to countries that are reducing deforestation. Papua New Guinea and other developing nations want a system where countries could get credit for saving their forests, which eventually could be traded for money.

“We are saying ‘Brazil can have its fund and we will pray with them that there will be enough donated,” said Kevin Conrad, a special envoy for the Papua New Guinea’s prime minister who helped craft the deal. “But for the other developing countries, most are saying we see the power of markets and we understand markets.”

Other concerns are the methodology for verifying a country’s reforestation efforts, the corruption that remains rife in forest departments and concerns that the bid to save forests will force indigenous people off their land.

“The outcomes of the forest negotiations here in Bali do not include any guarantee that the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities regarding their forests,” Global Forest Coalition’s Managing Coordinator Simone Lovera said. “Instead, this entire process is dominated by the corporate interests of logging, soy and palm oil companies that have started to demand compensation for every tree they don’t cut down.”

Source: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/12/15/asia/AS-GEN-Bali-Saving-Trees.php

The father of a Sydney boy with cerebral palsy claims his son was used for an election stunt by former prime minister John Howard.

Mr Howard paid a visit to the Terrey Hills home of 11-year-old Daniel Clarke on November 5, in the midst of the election campaign, to announce funds to save endangered orang-utans in Borneo and Sumatra.

Daniel lobbied Mr Howard about the plight of the apes after a chance meeting in the Australian rugby team’s dressing room in May.

Daniel’s father, Rodney Clarke, 40, said he has now been informed the $200,000 is no longer going ahead because it was an election promise.

“The prime minister looked into my son’s eyes and made him a promise,” he said.

“Daniel had worked so hard and faithfully to make a difference and at no time did the prime minister indicate that this commitment would be an election promise.

“My wife and I raise our children on values in which your word is your bond, which made it particularly difficult for us to explain the prime minister’s actions to Daniel.”

A letter from Malcolm Turnbull, dated November 9, confirms the funding and does not specify it as an election promise. It reads: “I am delighted to advise that the Australian Government has agreed to provide funding of $200,000 in 2007/08 to the Australian Orang-utan Project (AOP) to continue the valuable work of the orang-utan protection units.”

Heritage Strategy Branch assistant secretary Greg Terrill withdrew the funding commitment in an email.

“The minister’s decision to provide new funding to support the work of the orang-utan protection units was made during the caretaker period and is considered by the department to be an election commitment,” he wrote.

An earlier commitment announced in August, before the election campaign, to an American group, the National Conservancy, and worth $500,000, is still going ahead.

But the $200,000 to the Australian group, promised after the meeting with the Clarkes, is funding that has been identified as an election promise.

Daniel Clarke has now written to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in an appeal for the funding to go ahead. He is still waiting for a response.

Source: http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,22929893-5006009,00.html

Many countries at this year’s climate change conference – including China, the European Union countries, and the U.S. – have set targets for the use of biofuels to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

Biofuels are liquid fuels made from animal or plant matter. Burning them to power vehicles can result in fewer emissions per unit of energy than using petroleum fuels. Their production may also promote rural development and national energy security.

Biofuels may not in fact be a sustainable solution to climate change. Depending on the plants used to make the fuel, the production process, and the policy frameworks of governments, biofuels may lead to rising food prices, soil degradation, loss of biodiversity, increased rural poverty, and greater GHG emissions due to deforestation.

The U.S. is the world’s second largest producer of biofuels, and this is mostly ethanol made from corn. The enthusiasm of the Government for corn ethanol arguably has little to do with its environmental benefits, and much more to do with reducing dependence on oil imports, and reducing government subsidies paid to corn farmers.

An increase in demand for corn because of new domestic targets for ethanol has driven up the price and in turn leads to the government saving some US$6billion in subsidies to corn farmers.

These economic benefits of corn ethanol to the United States economy are what drive its growth. But it has negative consequences elsewhere. As demand for corn as a fuel rises, so too does its price. In late 2006 prices of corn jumped by 65 percent, effecting both global corn prices and the price of other foods such as soy beans which are used to substitute for corn in animal feed. These shifts in production, demand and price for U.S. corn have significant implications for food security in food importing countries.

These impacts on food prices need to be set against the modest reductions in GHG emissions from corn ethanol. At present ethanol can only be mixed with gasoline in quantities of up to 10 percent (described as E10) without engine modification. Given ethanol provides less power to an engine than gasoline, more fuel is required to travel the same distance. Therefore studies indicate using E10 may actually result in a net increase in emissions.

The development of palm oil biodiesel in Indonesia provides another example where biofuels may have significant negative impacts. The aggregate economic benefits of palm oil biodiesel seem good. The Government aims to create millions of jobs and $1.3 billion worth of exports by 2010 through new palm oil plantations and value-added exports. Recent regional development plans have designated 20 million hectares for oil palm plantations, mainly in Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi and West Papua.

The areas suitable for oil palm cultivation in Indonesia overlap significantly with the areas of lowland tropical rainforest, which are home to more than 6 percent of the world’s plant species, 6 percent of mammal species, 7 percent of reptile and amphibian species, 10 percent of bird species, and 15 percent of the world’s fish species. An expansion of plantations into these areas would mean the loss of large amounts of biodiversity.

Clearing rainforests that grow in peat spoils for new palm oil plantations would also mean a huge release of emissions. These emissions would be many times larger than those saved by the burning of biodiesel instead of conventional diesel. Already a quarter of the plantations in Indonesia are on peat soils, and most of the new expansion is likely to be in these areas.

The establishment of palm oil plantations in Indonesia has also often involved the forced displacement of communities, and this can result in violent conflict, assault, torture, murder, and the destruction of property.

The growth in employment from new plantations may not mean an improvement in livelihoods as local people have little choice but to become palm oil labourers when the forests surrounding their village are occupied by plantations.

The increasing international demand for palm oil as a fuel and as a substitute for corn as an animal feed has meant palm oil producers in Indonesia can earn more from exports than from domestic sales. For this reason local palm oil prices have increased by a third in recent times.

These examples illustrate that many biofuels may be good for business, but are not a sustainable solution to greenhouse gas emissions from the transport sector. They result in an increase in greenhouse gas emissions and an increase in poverty and food insecurity in many parts of the world.

There are many more efficient and effective means for reducing emissions from transport that do not present significant risks to people and the environment. Alternatives include reducing the weight of vehicles and the size of engines, increasing the efficiency and fuel economy of vehicles, increasing fuel prices, improved urban planning to encourage walking, cycling, and the use of public transport.

Josie Lee and Jon Barnett, Jakarta. Josie Lee and Jon Barnett are environmental professors at Melbourne University.

Source: The Jakarta Post

By Lucy Williamson
BBC News, Kalimantan

Trees in Setulang village are viewed the old-fashioned way - as building material for boats.

Tucked into the Borneo rainforest, there is not much debate about climate change here. No one reads about carbon stocks in the morning paper - there isn’t one.

But a few months ago, something happened on Setulang’s doorstep that brought this village face to face with the cutting edge of carbon trading.

A London-based company called Global Eco Rescue has begun setting up a project to offer companies carbon credits in return for protecting the forest.

Until now, carbon trading schemes have focused on replanting trees, rather than protecting those that already exist.

But it is an idea that makes a lot of sense to Setulang village head, Elisar Ipui.

“At first we had no idea what carbon was,” he explained, “but we were told that there’s carbon in the forest, and it can be sold, and the compensation given to the village. And that’s how we’re thinking right now.”

Illegal logging

Like many of the communities here, Setulang could use some extra money.

Usually, the quickest way to get it is from plantation and logging companies.

Making money from keeping the forest intact is a new idea, but Elisar says he has seen other villages hand over their forest to outside investors, and he likes the idea of a scheme that leaves the forest intact.

Whether this works will depend on how much companies in the developed world are willing to pay for the carbon it holds - and also how much they are willing to invest in a remote, largely unpoliced patch of rainforest.

The river up to Setulang is scattered with logs - overspill from a bloated timber industry, much of which is illegal.

And with global demand for timber largely out-stripping supply, that is a powerful lobby to take on.

So how do you protect your carbon investment from people who want to cut it down?

Gabriel Eickhoff has been working on this problem for Global Eco Rescue.

The organisation’s project covers 325,000 hectares - much of it surrounded by logging concessions.

“For the first time,” he said, “there’s a very solid partnership between the regional government, the local government and an organisation, whereby we are able to implement a project on the ground using local people, and also watch it from the sky using satellites.”

Spreading awareness

There is little doubt the government here is on board, but getting the support of everyone on the ground is still a long way off.

A five-hour journey down river, in the provincial capital, the local forestry head, Gerard Silooy, is out planting trees.

It is part of a government drive to raise awareness of deforestation and climate change.

But spreading awareness of the new carbon project has not really taken off yet, and he admits that many of those living inside the area do not even know it is happening.

Setulang is taking a chance on this project - much like the companies who will invest in it.

There is little data as yet, and little idea of how the market will take to it.

But it could mean large amounts of money flowing to the government, and in a remote region like this, that is going to need careful accounting.

To make this scheme work, the rewards will need to be felt here, in Setulang, as well as Jakarta, London or New York.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/7136345.stm

By Sue Cameron

Meanwhile, Team Brown has been in Borneo secretly filming companies destroying the rainforest to meet consumer demand for palm oil. The exposé, which comes as the United Nations conference on climate change meets in Bali, is to be broadcast on Sky. No, the undercover camerawork has not been done by Gordon Brown, the prime minister, but by his gutsy sister-in-law Clare Rewcastle.

Ms Rewcastle, who is married to the prime minister’s younger brother, Andrew, went to Borneo alone to find out the truth about claims that the rainforest is being torn up to make way for palm oil plantations. Born in Sarawak, in the Malaysian part of Borneo where her father was “in the colonial service, I’m afraid”, Clare lived there until she was eight and has always cared about the rainforest.

She was horrified by what she found. “I drove for six hours through devastated countryside,” she tells me. “It was like a first world war battlefield. They were burning and draining peatland, despite a presidential decree banning both in March this year. And I filmed rows of bulldozers chewing up the forest.”

She says that deforestation accounts for more greenhouse gases than all of the world’s transport. Indonesia, which controls part of Borneo, is the world’s worst deforester and a major contributor to climate change.

For years mankind has been cutting down the rainforest to make paper. If areas long-since devastated were being replaced by palm oil plantations there would be less concern. What is actually happening is that new tracts of rainforest are being destroyed, the trees pulped for paper and the land then covered with plantations to feed the west’s demand for palm oil.

The oil is used in 10 per cent of all the products we buy in our supermarkets, including margarine, lipstick and shampoo. Some of our best-known companies are involved in producing or using palm oil. Many belong to the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, chaired by Unilever, which is dedicated to stopping the destruction of the rainforest. Despite such good intentions, the devastation continues.

Ms Rewcastle’s undercover filming - she went out on a tourist visa - had some scary moments. The only way to cross the peatbogs, which can suck people under, is on logs, which is dangerous at the best of times. She fell in. “I threw myself flat, rescued the camera and managed to wriggle out,” she says. “But it was horrible.”

The Brown government is supportive. It will raise deforestation in Bali today.

Source: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f66fc6ce-a855-11dc-9485-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1

By Roger Highfield
12/12/2007

Empathy is also at work in apes, reports Roger Highfield

When an orangutan laughs, his friends laugh along too.

The discovery that our relatives have good moods that are contagious suggests that empathy, a key aspect of being human, was born at least 12 million years ago.

When we smile at friends they smile back. The same goes for yawns and this kind of mimicry - what scientists call “emotional contagion” - forms an aspect of empathy that allows us to experience the emotions of others.

Despite evidence that yawns are as infectious to apes and monkeys as they are to humans, there has been no other evidence of this at work to spread other emotions in animals.

Now emotional contagion has been shown to be at work in primates for the first time in a study by Dr. Marina Davila-Ross, University of Portsmouth, conducted with Prof. Elke Zimmermann at Institute of Zoology, University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, and Centre for Systems Neuroscience, Hannover, published in the journal Biology Letters.

They studied the way facial expressions were picked up and imitated by 25 orangutans during everyday play at Sepilok Rehabilitation Centre, Apenheul Primate Park, Tierpark Carl Hagenbeck and Leipzig Zoo.

The team focused on an open mouthed expression which is the orangutan’s equivalent of human laughter and found that it was reciprocated so quickly that the apes had no time to think about it. “Results clearly indicated that orangutans mimic open-mouth faces of their playmates within 0.4 second, which confirms rapid involuntary facial mimicry in nonhuman mammals,” they report.

Thus the human phrase “laugh and the whole world laughs with you” goes as much for orangutans as humans.

However, not every ape would smile back and this may reflect social factors familiar to humans: they were more clearly returning the smiles of friends than strangers.

This suggests that this attribute, a building block of emotional contagion, predates humans by many millions of years, since we share a common ancestor with orangutans some 12-16 million years ago.

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2007/12/12/scioran112.xml

Indonesia’s President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono says preserving the nation’s rich rainforests is now potentially worth more economically than cutting down the trees for profit.

He says Indonesia stands to gain potentially billions of dollars on an international carbon market by avoiding deforestation.

Yudhoyono made the comments as he unveiled a comprehensive Indonesian action plan that aims to save the endangered orangutan by stabilising the population by 2017.

“To save orangutans we must save the forests,” Yuhoyono said at the launch, on the sidelines of the key United Nations climate change conference in Bali.

“By saving, regenerating and sustainably managing forests we are also doing our part in reducing global greenhouse gas emissions, while contributing to sustainable economic development of Indonesia.”

Deforestation accounts for a fifth of all global greenhouse gas emissions.

Indonesia’s tropical rainforests are disappearing at a rapid rate, sending its greenhouse gas emissions skyrocketing and making it the world’s third biggest polluter, behind the United States and China.

But President Yudhoyono said there was new hope for success of initiatives to halt deforestation, adding that the world was watching.

“This is a time when all these initiatives have new hope for success, even for avoided deforestation,” he said.

“Because the carbon market can for the first time provide an economic great competitive alternative to forest conversions.

“The carbon market value of intact forest can outweigh the most profitable of industrial forest developments.”

Yudhoyono said the orangutan conservation plan could help preserve 700,000 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in Indonesian forests and soils.

“These matters of climate protection may be worth billions of dollars on the international carbon market,” he said.

“Certainly the critical habitat of our orangutan forests deserve such an investment.”

It came as wildlife conservationist Terri Irwin called on countries to act now on climate change, adding the world was at a critical turning point.

“I think we are at a crossroads now. In another five or ten years the situation of the climate could become so critical that it would be difficult to turn back time,” Irwin told reporters.

“Steve (Irwin) took bureaucracy by the throat and strangled it.

“So let’s have our meetings, let’s join with 187 countries, let’s discuss these issues and then let’s go home and carry them out.

“We can no longer afford workshops, meetings and group hugs, now we have got to do something.”

She indicated Australia should commit to deeper emissions cuts.

“I think that if 25 to 40 per cent is not doable then we look at carbon credits until it can be doable,” Irwin said.

“Kevin Rudd is the new kid on the block, I applaud what he has in mind - let’s see how he goes in the long term.”

Australia’s new Environment Minister Peter Garrett attended the orangutan plan event, and pledged Australia’s support for helping Indonesia preserve its forests.

Source: http://news.smh.com.au/indonesia-treasures-rainforest-says-sby/20071210-1g77.html

By Tom Bergin

LONDON (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell is to fund a project that aims to produce transport fuel from algae, as biofuel production from palm oil and crops are increasingly criticized for causing deforestation and higher food prices.

Oil major Shell said on Tuesday it would build a pilot facility in Hawaii to grow marine algae from which it would extract vegetable oil that would be converted into a form of diesel for use in trucks and cars.

The Anglo-Dutch company said the research plant, which is being built with Hawaii-headquartered HR Biopetroleum Inc, would only use non-genetically modified algae.

Climate change and oil prices that almost reached $100 per barrel are driving strong interest in biofuels.

Scientists are excited about algae as a feedstock because they overcome the key shortcomings associated with the current generation of biofuels such as ethanol.

Palm oil or sugar cane plantations, cornfields and other feedstocks require land that would otherwise be used for food crops or left as forest.

However, algae grow rapidly, at any time of year, are rich in vegetable oil and can be cultivated in waste or sea water.

Shell has said it wants to develop one significant business in renewable energy, and in addition to advanced biofuels, it is also researching solar and wind power.

Although the company continues to make almost all its multi-billion dollar profits from producing and refining oil and gas, high oil prices in recent years have improved the economics of alternative fuels, which generally remain more expensive than hydrocarbons.

Shell is also motivated by government mandates in the United States and Europe that will require a small percentage of road fuels to be derived from renewable sources in coming years.

Environmentalists are cynical about such investments by oil companies, describing them as a fig leaf aimed more at greening a company’s image than solving the world’s energy needs in a ecologically responsible manner.

Despite the attractions of algae as a feedstock, no one has yet proven it as an economic proposition, although a number of other companies including private-equity-backed Massachusetts-based GreenFuel Technologies Corp. are also conducting research.

In the late 1980s the U.S. government-funded National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) researched the use of algae to produce biodiesel.

However in the mid 1990s, the Department of Energy cut funding to the research, choosing to focus resources on researching production of ethanol, which is produced from sugars in crops such as corn or cane.

In October, NREL said it was to collaborate with U.S. major oil company Chevron on research into producing road fuel from algae.

(Editing by Quentin Bryar)

Source: http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKL1153718120071211