Forests and biodiversity
the agrofuels debate in africa: challenges and opportunities
Friends of the Earth Nigeria, November 2008: Mitigating Climate Change, Providing Food Security and Self-Reliance for Rural Livelihoods.
Jatropha: wonder crop? - Experience from Swaziland
Friends of the Earth England Wales and Northern Ireland / Swaziland, May 2009: Local non-government organisations (NGOs) have raised concerns about the social and environmental impacts of jatropha and studies have questioned some of the claims made about jatropha’s benefits. This report highlights those concerns for media and policy makers and questions some of the claims being made by D1 Oils and others for biofuel from jatropha.
Complaint to the ASA about Malaysian Palm Oil Council
June 2009, Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland's: A complaint to the Advertising Standards Association (ASA) on the Malaysian Palm Oil Council's misleading green claims. In September 2009 the ASA called for the advertisement in question to to be withdrawn.
Background paper: free trade and plantations
Friends of the Earth International, July 2010: Bilateral or multilateral free trade agreements have been signed or are being negotiated in many countries. All these agreements have impacts on the peoples, nature and the society. At the same time, they represent legal frameworks that perpetuate a development model that promotes exploitation, unfairness and inequality, while securing rights for corporations.
Position paper: plantations are not forests
Friends of the Earth International, July 2010: Tree plantations are not forests. They are a monoculture which causes huge impacts throughout the world. Plantations are a huge number of very rapidly growing single species of trees of the same age that are sawn to occupy considerable land areas, with very high consumption of soil nutrients and water. When they reach their reproductive cycle, they are all cut down to the ground.
What is environmental justice?
Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland, August 2010: Friends of the Earth believes that tackling environmental injustice will not only protect people, but also the natural world. If you have healthy people, you get a healthy planet. But to do this we have to get to grips with some big problems.
The financing of Stora Enso
Prepared for Friends of the Earth International, May 2010: The objective of this report is to analyse the financial stakeholders of the Finish-Swedish paper and pulp producer Stora Enso. Significant shareholders and bondholders and all private and public banks which have been involved in loans to and stock issuances by Stora Enso in the past three years, have been identified.
What you should know about Stora Enso
Friends of the Earth Brazil and Uruguay, 2010: Factsheet on Stora Enso's activities in South America.
Africa: up for grabs
Friends of the Earth Europe and Africa, August 2010: The African continent is increasingly being seen as a source of agricultural land and natural resources for the rest of the world. National governments and private companies are obtaining access to land across the continent to grow crops for food and fuel to meet growing demand from mainly overseas countries. This report discusses the scale and impact of land grabbing for agrofuels.
Losing the plot: Jatropha in India
Friends of the Earth Europe, January 2010: As India’s economy has grown, its energy demand has increased rapidly and the Indian government has looked to alternative supplies, including biofuels. The jatropha plant – a bush native to South America which grows in dry areas and can produce oil-rich seeds – has been identified as an ideal source of biodiesel, with a target set to replace 20% of diesel consumption by 2017. However, evidence suggests that jatropha grown in its present form is unlikely to deliver the benefits its supporters have promised.
the jatropha trap? the realities of farming jatropha in mozambique
Friends of the Earth International, September 2010: In Mozambique, the debate on agrofuels has advanced steadily over the last five years, fueled by industry speculation and demand, grand promises, and foreign interests. Meanwhile the Mozambican government is rushing to create favourable conditions for investors in the industry as quickly as possible, at the expense of Mozambicans' civil rights. This study evaluates jatropha production in Mozambique and highlights the significant gap between the rhetoric and reality.
Calling the EU's bluff: who are the real champions of biodiversity?
Friends of the Earth Europe and Latin American, December 2009: Global Europe and the EU's Raw Materials Initiative are designed to bolster the EU's economic position – whatever the cost – in the face of fierce global competition for both markets and resources, especially from emerging economies such as China and India. The EU also fears losing trade to the US, which has already secured trade and investment concessions from countries in the Western hemisphere, through the Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) and other bilateral trade agreements.
Europe's demand for palm oil driving deforestation and land-grabbing
Friends of the Earth Europe/Netherlands, March 2010: One of the leading suppliers of "green" palm oil to Europe is causing illegal encroachment upon Indonesian forest and peat land, according to a report published by Friends of the Earth Europe. This report exposes the illegal activities of the Malaysian showcase company IOI Group and shows that the increasing demand in Europe for palm oil in food and biofuels is leading to deforestation, breaches of environmental law and land conflicts in Asia.
European biofuel policies: failing governance - avoiding responsibilities
Friends of the Earth Netherlands and Friends of the Earth Indonesia, September 2009: European biofuel policies and oil palm plantation expansion in Ketapang District, West Kalimantan.
Climate justice times
Friends of the Earth International, Copenhagen 2009: Newspaper released by FoEI during the UN climate talks in Copenhagen highlighting our positions on issues such as carbon offsetting and agrofuels.
