Bioenergy

Latin America

In Mexico, research is underway in sites where the link between biofuel feedstock production and deforestation may be closely observed. These include the Yucatan Peninsula, where jatropha is being promoted both by government agencies through small holder cultivation systems and by the private sector (foreign owned companies, using combinations of plantation and smallholder production). Although the jatropha is being grown on ´wasteland´, the starting hypothesis is that much of this wasteland was in fact degraded secondary forest, which had had value as a carbon sink and store.

A sugarcane plantation, in Latin America. Photo by Manuel Guariguata

A major consideration is the impact conversion of this woodland has had on local supplies of domestic fuel (firewood and charcoal). Research is also being carried out in Chiapas, where there has been significant oil palm expansion in recent years. Although the palm oil is not, at present, destined for conversion to biodiesel (the price is much too high), the impacts of oil palm plantations is being assessed from an environmental and a social angle to suggest what might happen in the future if relative prices change and palm oil-based biodiesel becomes competitive.

Two research sites have also been selected in Brazil, one of which focuses on production of biodiesel from soya in the Amazon region.