Beschreibung:
Liquid biofuels have been produced on a commercial scale for many years, although political decisions made mainly in Europe and the United States have induced a sharp increase in demand. Furthermore, growing attention to rising greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) and global warming, combined with unstable and surging petroleum prices, are factors promoting biofuels as energy alternatives in the transportation sector. While sustainably produced biofuels have the potential to foster rural local development and to replace fossil fuels, their envisaged large scale and fast expansion has been contested on various fronts, including concerns about food security, impacts on small scale farmers, equity, increased competition for water, local pollution, and increased deforestation. The latter concern is in part related to the additional GHG emissions from forest clearing, broader concerns about the loss of natural heritage and biodiversity, and the loss of environmental and other services and goods that forests provide to local communities. This report examines whether the recent increase in biofuel feedstock production is resulting in increased deforestation rates and magnitudes within tropical regions. It reviews several methodological challenges for undertaking this analysis, and presents a set of preliminary findings. The analysis is focused on three regions from a global perspective: Latin America, southeast Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa ..