Stop the Destruction of Forests and Lands for Wood-based Bio-energy

The undersigned NGOs, Indigenous Peoples’ Organizations and social movements call upon the European Union and EU member states to halt and reverse the expansion of large-scale wood-based bio-energy production as well as the development of wood-based agrofuels. Bio-energy promotion is based on a severe underestimation of the direct and indirect impacts of large-scale bio-energy production on forests and forest peoples. Large-scale, industrial bio-energy bears little resemblance to traditional and other local uses of biomass, which are an essential source of energy for local communities, especially in developing countries. Replacing highly energy-dense fossil fuels with plant materials requires far more land per unit of energy than almost all other types of energy.  Much greater pressures on forests and other ecosystems, on soils and freshwater as well as more land-grabbing for tree plantations are the certain consequence of a new global market in wood for bio-energy. The main victims are Indigenous Peoples and other forest-dependent peoples in the South, in particular women, who depend on access to forests for fuelwood and other local bio-energy sources for their families. It is widely, yet wrongly, assumed that wood power stations burn only ‘residues’, such as sawdust, mill ends, branches and trimmings, rather than whole trees. Even the use of such residues is problematic since materials, such as sawdust, are often already in demand for low-grade wood products. Burning residues for heat and electricity displaces other demand and can thus trigger more industrial logging and plantation expansion.  Furthermore, deadwood, branches, leaves and twigs and even tree stumps are increasingly defined as ‘residues’ even though they are essential for recycling nutrients and thus for keeping soils fertile, for biodiversity and for carbon storage. Moreover, the demand for wood biomass far outpaces the production of “residues”, thus increasingly whole trees are being turned into woodchips and pellets for power stations. The demand for industrial wood bio-energy is beginning to cause large areas to be taken over by monoculture tree plantations. Despite plantation expansion and destructive levels of logging and ‘residue removal’, the EU is nowhere near capable of providing enough wood biomass to satisfy its’ own demands for bio-energy as well as other uses. As a result, competition for wood biomass is escalating. Most European wood imports for bio-energy still come from North America, but European demand competes with North America’s own wood bio-energy expansion as well as with previously established pulp and paper manufacturers. This displacement of North American paper production increases the likelihood of massive pulp mill and plantation expansion in South America, South-east and East Asia and southern Africa as well as in Russia.  Moreover, expansion of tree plantations explicitly to meet new bio-energy demands has already been reported from, amongst others, West Papua, the Republic of Congo and Guyana. The demand for wood (and other forms of biomass) will rise even further if ‘second generation’ agrofuels become commercially viable. So far, these liquid fuels remain largely in the research and development phase, but biotech firms, pulp and paper companies and oil firms have joined forces to invest billions of dollars into research on wood-based agrofuels, including through research in genetically engineered trees. Genetically engineered trees pose a major new threat to forests, forest-dependent communities and the climate. It is impossible to predict the impacts of GE trees because unexpected mutations are the norm rather than the exception with all genetically engineered plants. Trees can spread themselves across large areas. GE trees can therefore easily establish themselves in native forests and/or cross-fertilise with native trees. Unstable low-lignin trees are being engineered for cellulosic ethanol production whereas fast-growing and cold-resistant trees are attractive for wood bio-energy for heat and electricity. The European debate regarding biomass has so far largely focused on sustainability standards – which the European Commission has, for the time being, ruled out as far as EU-wide standards are concerned. The question whether a further massive increase in Europe’s demand for wood can possibly be met sustainably if one takes into account all the indirect impacts, particularly in a global market, has been largely ignored in the policy debate. Yet no standard can prevent higher prices for wood driving plantation expansion and increased logging elsewhere in the world. The wider, indirect, impacts of ecosystem conversion to industrial monoculture plantations and greater and more destructive logging of natural forests are likely to be equally severe as the indirect impacts of agrofuels have proven to be. By driving up the European demand and the global price for wood industrial bio-energy is set to increase land grabbing and speculation for tree plantations, expand destructive logging and speed up the conversion of biodiverse native forests to monoculture tree plantations. That is why the undersigned groups call upon the EU to immediately abandon all support measures for large-scale wood-based bio-energy and agrofuel production. Signed by:   A.W.A.R.E. eV., Germany Acción Ecológica, Ecuador Africa Europe Faith and Justice Network, Belgium Agribusiness Action Initiatives, Latin America Amazon Fund Amazon Fund International Amigos de la Tierra, Spain ARA/Arbeitsgruppe Regenwald, Germany Asociacion ANDES, Peru Asociacion Cultural Mazarribah, Spain Asociacion Indigena Ambiental, Panama Barker & Sheldon Ltd, UK Berne Declaration, Switzerland    Bharat Jan Vigyan Jatha, India, South Asian Dialogues on Ecological Democracy, India Biofuelwatch, UK Biomass-in-Pankow, Germany Bismarck Ramu Group, Papua New Guinea BUND Neu-Isenburg Bureau for Regional Outreach Campaigns, Russia CADDE, Gabon Canadians for Action on Climate Change CENSAT Agua Viva/ Friends of the Earth-Colombia        Centro Humboldt, Nicaragua    CESTA, El Salvador Circle for Humanity, Netherlands CODEFF, Chile Corporate Europe Observatory Ecological Internet USA and Papua New Guinea Ecological Society of the Philippines Ecology Action Centre, USA Ecoropa, Germany European Consumers for the Promotion of Sustainable Energy in Europe FASE, Brazil Foundation Pro Papua, the Netherlands Friedens- und Begegnungsstatte Mutlacher, Germany Friends of Peoples close to Nature, Germany Friends of the Earth International Friends of the Earth-Sierra Leone    Friends of the Siberian Forests, Russia Fundacion para la Promocion del Conocimiento Indigena, Panama GenderCC, Germany            Genesis Farm, USA Global Forest Coalition Global Justice Ecology Project, USA    GM Watch GMX, Germany Hababusch Hostel, Germany Haverhill Environmental League, USA Indienhilffe e.V., Germany International Analog Forestry Network Keep Trinidad and Tobago Beautiful, Trinidad and Tobago Latino Club, Germany Native Forest Council Observatorio Latinoamericano de Conflictos Ambientales, Chile Ojalá, Netherlands Ole Siosiomaga Society, Samoa    Oregon Toxics Alliance, USA Otros Mundos, Mexico Pacific Indigenous Peoples Environment Coalition Pacific Institute of Resource Management, New Zealand Protect Ozark Wildlife and Rivers, USA Provincial women, Russia Pro-Wildlife, Germany Rainforest Information Centre, Australia RECOMA-Latin American Network against Monoculture Tree Plantations REDES/Friends of the Earth-Uruguay Rettet den Regenwald, Germany Salva la Selva, Spain Savia, Escuela de Pensamiento Ecologista, Spain Sobrevivencia/Friends of the Earth-Paraguay Society for Threatened Peoples International SOSNA Association, Slovak Republic Stichting Tierra Nossa, Netherlands Sustainability Watch Network Central America    Timberwatch Coalition, South Africa Union Paysanne, France Viola, Russia WeForest, Netherlands XminY solidarity fund, the Netherlands Individuals: Knut Steffen, Marketingberating Gartenbau, Germany Professor Helmut Burkhardt, Ryerson University, Ontario, Canada