03/12/2007 (Radio Netherlands Worldwide) - Bio fuels are controversial. Proponents point to their climate neutral character; the growing plants have already absorbed the carbon dioxide released during burning, but opponents point out that the production of bio fuels carries enormous societal costs and causes ecological damage. Let's weigh the pros and cons.

From some perspectives, bio fuels are a disaster. Tropical rainforests are chopped down to make way for palm oil plantations, farmers in poor countries are driven off their land and monoculture leads to the destruction of biodiversity. However, the market for bio fuels is growing explosively.

Indonesia
According to Sawit Watch, an Indonesian non-governmental organisation that studies issues surrounding palm oil plantations, between 1999 to 2004, some 400,000 hectors of palm oil plantations were planted annually in Indonesia alone.

Some of the plantations were opened in protected areas such as Tanjung Puting National Park and the Danau Sentarum Nature Reserve in Kalimantan.

Norman Jiwan of Sawit Watch says biodiversity is being seriously damaged by monoculture palm oil plantations. He says that the growing world consumption of palm oil must be halted or any attempt to prevent deforestation is doomed to failure.

Non-food bio fuels
There are alternatives for palm oil and other bio fuels made from edible plants and it is unnecessary to use valuable arable land to grow them. It is possible to extract oil from plants that grow in areas that are unsuitable for growing crops.

The Netherlands has been conducting a pilot project for sustainable bio diesel for some time. The first clean 'petrol' station opened recently in Amsterdam North. You can fill up your car with PPO, or pure plant oil, made from cabbage or jatropha seeds. Cars run on PPO emit less soot and sulphur dioxide. Using PPO also reduces carbon dioxide emissions. Paulien Westendorp director of the Opgwekt.nu  Foundation says:

"At the moment, you can only fill up with cabbage seed oil but starting in 2008, people will be able to fill their cars with jatropha oil. She also favours jatropha oil as the proceeds go to small farmers."

Ms Westendorp says that bio fuels are not necessarily bad but that the situation in countries such as Indonesia and South America cannot be allowed to continue. Both the environment and local people are suffering in order to produce biofuels for rich western countries.

Manure
There is another solution: instead of bio oil you choose bio gas. Test farm Nij Bosma Zahte near Leeuwarden is making bio gas from cow manure.

A mixture of corn, sunflowers and other waste products from the food industry form the basis for the fermentation process that produces bio gas. It is excellent for producing electricity and can heat entire neighbourhoods. Bio gas delivers a 50 percent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions and means that no fossil fuels are being burned.

Diego Cardona of Friends of the Earth International says that other methods of producing sustainable energy have not been fully developed and deserve a chance.

"All eyes are on bio fuels but we are forgetting other sustainable and local sources of energy such as sun, wind and water. Neither wind or sun energy have had the necessary impulse or investigation to fully develop their potential, probably because agribusinesses have been protecting their interests. Of course there are alternatives for fossil fuels but you always have to take people in poor regions into account and make sure that you look at the entire picture".