Degraded grasslands better option for biofuels for palm oil production relative to rainforests, finds study

From: World of Bioenergy - December 03, 2008

Producing biofuels from oil palm plantations established on degraded grasslands rather than tropical rainforests and peat lands would result in a net removal of carbon from the atmosphere rather than greenhouse gas emissions, report researchers writing in Conservation Biology. The results confirm that benefits to climate from biofuel production depend greatly on the type of land used for feedstocks.

"Our analysis found that it would take 75 to 93 years to see any benefits to the climate from biofuel plantations on converted tropical forestlands," said lead author Finn Danielsen of Denmark's Nordic Agency for Development and Ecology (NORDECO). "Until then, we will be releasing carbon into the atmosphere by cutting tropical rain forests, in addition to losing valuable plant and animal species. It's even worse on peatlands, which contain so much carbon that it would be 600 years before we see any benefits whatsoever."

The authors — which include botanists, ecologists and engineers from seven countries — found that biofuels produced from oil palm cultivated on degraded Imperata grasslands would lead to a net removal of carbon in 10 years. Imperata is a grass that takes hold after forests are burned and cleared. It prevents natural regeneration of forest and once established, generally results in the abandonment of land. At least 8.5 million hectares of land in Indonesia are classified as Imperata grassland, according to a 1997 study published in Agroforestry Systems. Another 5 million hectares are degraded grasslands.

While these lands offer great potential to expand palm oil production without encroaching on carbon-rich and biodiverse ecosystems like tropical rainforests and peat swamps, developers have traditionally been hesitant to develop Imperata grasslands due to the lack of a "logging subsidy" generated by selling the timber harvested from forest land prior to planting with oil palm. Thus forests across Malaysia and Indonesia continue to be cleared for oil palm plantations. While a recent collapse of palm oil prices may offer a temporary reprieve from the relentless expansion the region has experienced over the past generation, many observers expect palm oil demand to continue to grow for use in food, industrial applications, and biodiesel production, putting remaining forests at risk.

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