Group States Biofuels May Threaten Mozambique Forests

The coordinator of Mozambican NGO "Amigos da Floresta" (Friends of the Forest)as issued a warning that the approval of the first mega-projects to produce biofuels will worsen the threat to the country's forests.

Carlos Serra is the coordinator of the Mozambican NGO "Amigos da Floresta" (Friends of the Forest). Serra has issued a warning that the approval of the first mega-projects to produce biofuels will worsen the threat to the country's forests. "Amigos da Floresta" was founded one year ago and Serra marked the occasion by stating that a great deal still has to be done to halt the illegal exploitation of timber in Mozambique, given that the number of forestry inspectors is manifestly inadequate to cover the entire country. The AllAfrica report says that a further complication to the existing situation is that “there is now a new element in play, which is the approval of the first mega-projects to produce biofuels". Serra has said that claimed that this would involve "hundreds of thousands of hectares of land". To date, only one large project has received government approval. This project, PROCANA, involves planting 30,000 hectares of sugar cane in the southern province of Gaza to produce ethanol. The government has promised that fertile agricultural land will not be used for biofuels but that they will be planted on "marginal land". Serra’s concern is that the term "marginal land" in reality means forests, which will be cleared to make way for biofuels. Deforestation is an evident reality in Mozambique, and Serra criticized the lack of scientific studies on the real situation of the country's forests. The forest inventory presented last year is not yet publicly available, and logging licenses were still being issued on a "doubtful scientific basis". Serra said that in 2008, "little has changed with regard to illegal exploitation of timber when compared with 2007". But there were "some slight improvements, the result of greater pressure on the part of civil society". "Amigos da Floresta" is now organizing a campaign of environmental education and awareness on the importance of forests; the campaign will include articles in the press, cartoon strips, theatre and music.