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CAMPRIELLO:
The panel took place during the UN Forum on Indigenous Issues. Ann Peterman, of the Global Environmental Justice Project, said there are lots of reason why deforestation is taking place.
AX PETERMAN (16.15 seconds):
The basic driver, I think, of deforestation globally at this point is just massive over consumption of all kinds of wood-based products from construction material to paper to advertisements in newspapers to, you know, throw-away cups, you know, you name it.
CAMPRIELLO:
And there's one more: forests are being used for biofuel production.
Trees are either felled and pulped and converted into biofuel, or, forests are cleared so that farmers can plant other crops, like eucalyptus, poplars and oil palms, which can be used to make biofuels.
That's bad news for indigenous people who live in forests, according to Abdon Nababan, the secretary general of an Indonesian group called Indigenous Peoples Alliance of the Ark-ih-PELL-uh-go. He says that Indonesia has seen the world's most rapid rate of tropical forest deforestation. Between 1950 and 2000, Indonesia lost forty percent of its forest cover. Over the last ten years, the rate of loss has increased by over sixty-six percent.
He played a video for the panel that showed scenes of uncut, natural forests full of life, human and animal…and then pictures of dry, barren land.
Income from logging and production of wood-based ethanol has been good for the country, he says, but bad for indigenous people who have lost their forest homelands and landed in poverty.
AX NABABAN (1.71 seconds):
Poverty in the midst of plenty.
CAMPRIELLO:
Nababan says corrupt political and economic systems in Indonesia have made the problem only worse. The gap between these people and the elite has become even more apparent.
AX NABABAN (2.38 seconds):
So you control the forests, you control the country.
CAMPRIELLO:
Meanwhile, as more and more land is being used to grow crops for fuel production, the price of food has gone up according to Simone Lovera, of the Global Forest Coalition.
AX LOVERA (9.33 seconds):
[I] mean there are so many poor families all over the world who cannot buy food for their children anymore as we speak because of agri-diesels, because of agri-fuel.
CAMPRIELLO:
There are also serious ecological problems that accompany deforestation. Ann Peterman says that burning roots and stumps to clear a logged forest pumping carbon into the atmosphere.
AX PETERMAN (7.62 seconds):
The burning of peat forests for oil palm plantations has made Indonesia the third largest emitter of carbon in the world.
CAMPRIELLO:
Also, agri-businesses genetically engineer plants to produce more biofuel and to resist insect infestations. Just as the use of antibiotics can give rise to so-called super-bugs, Peterman worries that engineering trees to naturally produce a pesticide known as "Bt" may literally create super-bugs.
AX PETERMAN (16.3 seconds):
The use of Bt trees will contribute to the existence to Bt-resistant super-insects. In other words, because there's Bt present all the time in every part of the tree, insects can rapidly develop an immunity to the Bt, which means more toxic pesticides will be needed in the future.
CAMPRIELLO:
Peterman says the world needs to address overconsumption first, before the global discussion turns to generating biofuels.
Susan Campriello, Columbia Radio News.