Biofuel demand leading to human rights abuses

Biofuel Demand Leading to
Human Rights Abuses, Report Claims. By Jessica Aldred, London
Guardian, February 12, 2008. "EU politicians should reject targets
for expanding the use of biofuels because the demand for palm oil is leading to
human rights abuses in Indonesia, a coalition of international environmental
groups claimed today. A new report, published by Friends of the Earth [of the
UK] and indigenous rights groups LifeMosaic and Sawit Watch, said that
increasing demands for palm oil for food and biofuels was causing millions of
hectares of forests to be cleared for plantations and destroying the livelihoods
of indigenous peoples. The report, Losing
Ground [PDF, 108 pp] said many of the 60-90
million people in Indonesia who depend on the forests are losing their land to
the palm oil companies... 'The unsustainable expansion of Indonesia's palm oil
industry is leaving many indigenous communities without land, water or adequate
livelihoods. Previously self-sufficient communities find themselves in debt or
struggling to afford education and food. Traditional customs and culture are
being damaged alongside Indonesia's forests and wildlife,' the report reads. It
claims that oil palm companies often use violent tactics as they move in to
convert the land to plantations... The alleged human rights abuses come after
several recent reports have highlighted the environmental problems caused by the
conversion of land for farming palm oil. Last week a study by the University of
Minnesota and Nature
Conservancy, published in Science, found that
the carbon lost through the clearance of forests, peat lands or even grasslands
far outweighs the greenhouse gas savings that can come from biofuels. Conversion
of land for corn, sugarcane, palm oil or soybeans released 17 to 420 times more
carbon than the annual savings from replacing fossil fuels with bioethanol or
biodiesel, the researchers said."