Parliamentary C'tee briefed on biofuel policy paper

Page 17, March 29, 2010
Story: Emmanuel Adu-Gyamerah
THREE non-governmental (NGO) organisations leading advocacy actions to highlight the food security and environmental implications of large-scale biofuel production last week met the Parliamentary Committee on Food, Agriculture and Cocoa Affairs.
The NGOs are the General Agricultural Workers Union (GAWU), Actionaid Ghana and Food Security Advocacy Network (FoodSPAN).
The meeting, which was also attended by chairmen and ranking members of the Parliamentary Committees Lands and Forestry, Local Government and Rural Development, Environment, Science and Technology, and Employment enabled the NGOs to brief the committees on a policy paper they had prepared.
The policy paper was prepared after a comprehensive nation-wide study as well as consultations with affected communities and various stakeholders.
Briefing the MPs, the Secretary-General of GAWU, Mr Kingsley Ofei-Nkansah, noted that the policy shift of developed countries towards the use of biofuels as an alternative source of energy for heating and transportation had resulted in the rush to grab land for biofuel production in developing countries.
He said because it was seen as an alternative, relatively cleaner and cheaper source of energy, biofuel could help meet energy needs of rural populations if managed and in a desirable manner.
Mr Ofei-Nkansah said, however, biofuel production could have serious negative implications for food production and livelihood security, land and water use, environmental and human rights.
He stated that crops that had become ready candidates for the development of biofuels include corn, soya beans, sugar cane, sorghum, cassava, ?????rapeseed, palm oil, coconut oil, sunflower and jatropha.
Mr Ofei-Nkansah said significant proportions of these crops, which otherwise would have been used for food, were being diverted into ethanol and bio-diesel production, thereby raising food prices and affecting food availability and accessibility among poor small-scale farm families and households.
He noted that if not checked, the competition for fertile land for biofuel production by rich and powerful companies would inexorably lead to low food production and food insecurity among Ghanaians.
On the impact on livelihoods and rural development, Mr Ofei-Nkansah there was real concern that large-scale foreign-dominated companies establishing biofuel plantations were destroying the environment on which rural people depended for their livelihood and threatened rural development.
He added that already some communities in the country had evidence of how the operations of biofuel companies were adversely affecting the food security and threatening their livelihoods.
“Biofuel production could help in improving livelihoods and rural development, only if it is produced in sustainable manner by the rural people themselves to address local/community energy needs”, he said.
He said the NGOs, therefore want the government to put in place a comprehensive policy framework that was an embodiment of a nationally-driven biofuel agenda, which was complementary to food and livelihood needs of the people.
Mr Ofei-Nkansah said policymakers should also carry out further in-depth investigations into the industrial plantation system of monocultures that entailed drastic land use changes and adaptation by local communities.
In addition, companies investing in biofuel production in the country should be compelled by a legislation to make full disclosure of their plans for land use and other resources, in order to improve the knowledge of the local communties and help them make informed decisions.
He called for a mandatory Environnmental and Social Impact Assessment before permission was granted for large-scale biofuel plantation development.
Mr Ofei-Nkansah said there was also the need for a five-year moratorium to be placed on further development of large-scale biofuel production to enable the country to right what was wrong and prevent further social and environmental abuses.
After the briefing, MPs who contributed to the ensuing discussion thanked the NGOs for their early wake-up call.
The Member of Parliament (MP) for Asikuma/Odoben/Brakwa, Mr P.C Appia-Ofori, said all efforts should be made by the government to halt the destruction of the country’s virgin food land which were being used for the cultivation of jatropha.
He said if efforts to halt further developments of large-scale biofuel plantations failed, he would send the matter to court to seek redress.
For his part, the Chairman of the Food, Agriculture and Cocoa Affairs Committee, Dr Ahmed Yakubu Alhassan, said every effort would be made to ensure that the concerns of the NGOs received the necessary attention.