Expert to warn UK about biofuel damage

Published on Monday 23 November 2009 21:58

SO FAR, it is not an issue in this country with production outstripping demand for food but now large tracts of Africa and South America are being bought up by multinational companies determined to claim that they are meeting their renewable energy contracts and this action is having a major effect on local farmers.

This week, Stephen Ruvuga, an expert on biofuels, who leads a farmers group in his native Tanzania, will come to Scotland to explain the damage to his homeland and other countries experiencing the same tactics.

He is in Scotland principally to speak at a conference at the Moredun on 2 December but will also attend the Royal Highland Winter Fair tomorrow.

Speaking prior to his visit, which is sponsored by the Scottish charity Vetaid, Ruvuga said he believed biofuel production would interfere with traditional food production patterns. It will also disrupt the livelihood and ecology in Africa.

"Primarily, it targets markets in Europe and seeks to address the European consumer patterns rather than the African economic and energy challenges."

He stated there are currently about 38 companies, the majority of which are European and American, that have applied for land for biofuel production in Tanzania.

The nine regions that have been earmarked for biofuel cover roughly 40 per cent of the total land of Tanzania. Most of the tracts that have either been earmarked or already purchased range from 500,000 hectares to about 20,000 hectares.

Ruvuga gave actual examples of this business saying SEKAB from Sweden is reported to have acquired about 200,000 hectares from the Coast Region.