Agrofuel moratorium call - URGENT

from Helena Paul, Econexus

Organisations and individuals around the world are extremely concerned about the way the European Union (EU) is rushing into agrofuels and the signals this sends to the rest of the world to race into agrofuel production.

The impacts are already serious worldwide. Millions of hectares are being designated for agrofuel production and export in Africa, Asia and South America. Indigenous peoples and local communities are being expelled from their land or forced into agrofuel production, forests and biodiversity are being destroyed.

In many places no impact assessment or consultations have been carried out; land is simply being handed over to European companies to exploit for export to Europe. In Africa, for example, land on which pastoralists depend and which only they can manage is being treated as unused or degraded land suitable for agrofuel production. In other countries, companies are taking over the most fertile, well watered land for agrofuels and driving food production to dry, marginal lands.

Agrofuels pose an unprecedented threat to regions that have hitherto not experienced the impact of industrial agriculture. Many of these are the final refuge of indigenous peoples, of precious biodiversity. The protection of such regions is also vital if we are to have any hope of preventing runaway climate change.

In the autumn, the EU will hope to finish the process of putting its agrofuel targets into law and drafting certification rules to reassure consumers and justify this unprecedented new push for agrofuel monocultures. We have to stop this process.

This is why we need more organisations and individuals to sign up to the call for an immediate moratorium on EU incentives for agrofuels, EU imports of agrofuels and EU agroenergy mopnocultures so that we can oppose the push more effectively. We will also need help in the Autumn!

Please think for a few moments about how to get more signatures.

To read the call and to sign up, please visit:
http://www.econexus.info/agrofuel_moratorium_call.html