As IATP's Sophia Murphy wrote this week, assessing the biofuel sector is complicated. In the U.S., the expansion of the biofuel sector is a hot button issue, due partially to higher food prices and partially to environmental issues (including water quantity and quality). But outside of the U.S., particularly in poor countries, the expansion of crop production to fill biofuel needs is downright incendiary.
Earlier this week, IATP hosted a tour coordinated by Rainforest Action Network (RAN), which has just launched its Rainforest Agribusiness campaign targeting Cargill, Archer Daniels Midland and Bunge. The tour included representatives from Paraguay, Brazil, and Papau New Guinea. The stories they told were eerily similar. Each talked about how these U.S.-based companies were working with their national governments to clear land for biofuel feedstocks and in the process destroying some of the world's most diverse natural ecosystems and indigenous cultures.
Francisco Avalos, a small farm leader from San Pedro, Paraguay, told us, "My biggest worry is the monoculture soy that is using the richest soil, forest and rainforest where indigenous campesinoes have lived. People are being displaced and it is displacing our culture and way of life. Our government and the transnationals are complicit in this lack of respect for human rights and nature."
Hiparidi Toptiro, an indigenous leader from the Cerrado region of Brazil, told us, "Agribusiness is having a party but not inviting the rest of us to join them." Toptiro characterized the experience of young boys from his region forced to work in sugar cane refineries as "a form of slavory."
Lynette Hamuga, a small farmer from Papua New Guinea, told us, "People are suffering. They are destroying our forests. Companies have made promises to landowners who plant palm that they will build new roads, schools, houses and hospitals. But I have not seen it. Only the company is getting richer and richer while the owner of the land suffers."
One of the incentives for developing country governments to expand production for biofuel feedstocks are loans from international financial institutions, explained George Laume, of the Center for Environmental Law and Community Rights, in Papua New Guinea.
Earlier this year, IATP's Jim Kleinschmit outlined key benchmarks for future development of the biofuel sector in the U.S., including an emphasis on farmer/community ownership, support for soil, water and wildlife habitat, and long-term environmental sustainability. From what we heard, none of these benchmarks for development are remotely being met in Brazil, Paraguay or Papau New Guinea.
As Lynette Hamuga told us, "What is development? Is development destruction? Is development people suffering? It is not in my language, so I don't understand."
