Biomass fuels destroy rain forests and threaten native peoples

Today the EU summit takes place in Brussels and the Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) has pointed out the threat to the native inhabitants through the biomass fuel boom and warned of an undifferentiated massive use of biomass fuel. "The rain forests in south-east Asia and the Amazon are being cut down to sow oil plants or soya and the habitat of hundreds of thousands of native people is being destroyed”, reported the human rights organisation. The conflicts over land rights have increased dramatically since the beginning of the palm oil boom three years ago in Indonesia. In Brazil also the conflicts have escalated over the extension of the soya planting, to which increasingly large areas of rain forest are being sacrificed. It is senseless for the EU on the one hand to emphasise in its guide-lines for the indigenous the support of the native population and on the other to support with its energy policies the destruction of their means of life.

It is short-sighted for the EU to work for an increase in the amount of biomass as an energy source. The production of biomass fuel only makes sense if the palm and soya oil needed for the biomass fuel is conducted taking consideration of nature and people. Therefore the EU must emphasise that these biomass fuels come from sustainable planting. Prime Minister Angela Merkel wants to make sure that the EU commits itself to an increase of 20 percent in the share of biomass and other alternative energy sources by the year 2020.

"The biomass fuel boom has particularly noxious effects on the indigenous peoples of Indonesia”, said the GfbV Asia expert Ulrich Delius. The area being planted with palm oil is with 18 million hectares three times the size of Hessen. A further 18 million hectares have already been cleared for huge plantations. The authorities are planning a 43-fold increase in production. An additional 20 million hectares of rainforest is shortly to be designated for clearance. The consequences of this deforestation are particularly catastrophic for the native people in West Papua (western New Guinea) and Borneo (Kalimantan). Chinese and Malay investors are planning the construction of several huge plantations in West Papua, each a million hectares in size. Indonesian human right organisations registered at the end of 2006 350 land conflicts caused by the extension of palm oil production.