Deforestation Diesel
This piece comes from China Confidential– an exceptional blog that we highly recommend you look at.
Palm Plantations Will Release 30 Times More Carbon Than Petroleum
22 December 2007 - The devastation from palm-based biodiesel–also known as deforestation diesel or rainforest diesel–has again been confirmed. EU Research reports new data shows that massive amounts of carbon dioxide are being released from tropical Southeast Asian peatland after the conversion of natural swamp forest to oil palm or pulpwood tree plantations.
The findings are in accordance with other recent reports on the growing negative environmental impacts of planting palm oil and pulpwood forests.
When peatland is deforested and then left bare and unmanaged the denuded land is susceptible to both fire and flooding.
Destroying Forests to Fuel Cars
Natural peatland accumulates huge stores of carbon dioxide as a result of centuries of tree growth. When this land is deforested to grow oil palms and pulpwood, carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere thereby contributing to climate change. Even worse, when peatland is deforested and then left bare and unmanaged, the denuded land is susceptible to both fire and flooding. Tropical peatlands are not only rich repositories of vegetation and an important part of the global carbon cycle, they are also extremely important for biodiversity as they contain many rare species of animals and fish including orang utans, Sumatran tigers and blackwater fish.
Peat swamp forest is the only land in Southeast Asia that is not yet fully developed but the increasing demand for pulp and palm oil for biofuels is accelerating their conversion into plantations. Oil palm plantations in Malaysia and Indonesia now cover 420,000 hectares and 2,800,000 hectares respectively. Ironically, many experts believe that the oil palm plantations will release up to 30 times more carbon dioxide than the fossil fuels that they are supposed to replace. It has been estimated that producing 1 tonne of palm oil will cause carbon dioxide emissions of between 15 and 70 tonnes over each 25-year planting lifecycle due to forest clearance, fires drainage and peat decomposition.
Climate Change in the Name of Clean Energy
Climate change has been focused up to now on greenhouse gases emitted by large industrial plants; but attention is now starting to be focused on carbon dioxide emissions from deforestation. Dr Susan Page from the University of Leicester in the UK is working on two EU-funded projects: CARBOPEAT and RESTORPEAT. Both have been designed to raise awareness of climate change. She says: “Current land use and land practice developments in Southeast Asia give grave cause for concern. Deforestation of peatlands has been rising for the last 20 years. In 2005, 25 percent of all deforestation in Southeast Asia was on peatlands owing to demand for land on which to establish plantations.”
The CARBOPEAT and RESTORPEAT projects involve partners from Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Holland, Finland and the UK. The partners are conducting research in Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia on how tropical peat swamp forest could be used more productively to create sustainable and environmentally friendly livelihoods for local communities.
Source: http://chinaconfidential.blogspot.com/2007/12/deforestation-diesel-data-palm.html
