Massively increasing demand for “biomass” is resulting in land grabs and expansion of destructive industrial monocultures at the expense of forests, biodiversity and food production. Deepak Rughani and Rachel Smolker from Biofuelwatch are in Cancun monitoring and participating in events relevant to bioenergy, biofuels and biochar. They will pay particular attention to the proposals under “land use, land use change and forestry” (aka “LULUCF”). Along with REDD (reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation), the LULUCF proposals seek to expand marketing of carbon not only forests, but further to include soils, “revegetation” and agriculture practices. This would result in far more CDM and other carbon offset supports for bioenergy plantations and biochar.
Upcoming event:
>Dec 3 1100: press conference with ETC Group, Gaia (Africa) (Azteca/Luna room)
>Dec 4 1730: panel presentation at La Via Campesina forum
Documents/briefings:
Biochar:
>Biochar: Save a burning planet with charcoal?
http://www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/docs/biochar_handout_nov_2010.pdf
>Biochar and tar sands (English and Spanish)
http://www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/docs/biochar_and_tar_sands_handout.pdf
and
http://www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/docs/biochar_and_tar_sands_espanol.pdf
"Biochar Landgrabbing: The Impacts on Africa", joint briefing with African Biodiversity Network and Gaia Foundation http://www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/docs/biochar_africa_briefing2.pdf .
Biomass:
>Big green lies
http://www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/docs/big_green_lies.pdf
see also: Getting To The Roots: underlying causes of deforestation and forest degradation and drivers of forest restoration. Global Forest Coalition
https://globalforestcoalition.org/paginas/view/33
Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF):
>Media Briefing: Carbon trading in forests, soils, farmlands and grasslands.
https://globalforestcoalition.org/news/view/238
Joint Briefing on LULUCF with Econexus: (English and Spanish)
http://www.econexus.info/publication/carbon-market-dream
and
http://www.econexus.info/publication/el-sueno-del-mercado-de-carbono
**biochar is already being promoted for the Alberta Offset Scheme, with the intent of offering it as an offset for emissions from tar sands extraction. Advocates are pushing hard to ensure soil carbon sequestration is adopted, so that scaling up this technology would become economically viable, even though the impacts are poorly understood.
Contacts:
Deepak Rughani
Rachel Smolker: 998 108 3108
