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80% of agricultural expansion since 1980 came at expense of forests mongabay.com February 15, 2009 Holly Gibbs, formerly of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, reached her conclusion after analyzing more than 600 satellite images from the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and other organizations. "What we found was that indeed forests were the primary source for new croplands as they expanded across the tropics during the 1980s and 1990s," Gibbs explained. "Cropland expansion, whether it's for fuel, feed or food, has undoubtedly led to more deforestation, and evidence is mounting that this trend will continue." "This is a major concern for the global environment," she continued. "As we look toward biofuels to help reduce climate change we must consider the rainforests and savannas that may lie in the pathway of expanding biofuel cropland."
Gibbs says the FAO is currently in the process of gathering data that will reveal the impact of the recent biofuels boom on forests and other ecosystems. She hopes the data can be used to influence policy makers to steer future agricultural expansion towards abandoned and degraded agricultural lands rather than forests. "I think that biofuels may have a critical place in our future energy plan, but the way that we're currently going about producing biofuels could have a lot of unintended consequences," she said. "The new administration should carefully consider the full consequences of any energy plan to make sure we protect the carbon stored in rainforests as well as reduce our fossil fuel emissions."
Tags: corn soy palm oil biofuels biodiesel ethanol deforestation energy forests rainforests rainforest agriculture farming agriculture environment green Environmental news index | RSS | News Feed | Twitter | Home Advertisements:
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Copyright mongabay 2010 Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions generated from mongabay.com operations (server, data transfer, travel) are mitigated through an association with Anthrotect, an organization working with Afro-indigenous and Embera communities to protect forests in Colombia's Darien region. Anthrotect is protecting the habitat of mongabay's mascot: the scale-crested pygmy tyrant. |
