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Unsurprisingly, entrepreneurs in developing countries quickly enter markets for biological materials desired by developed country customers. Conservationists have been lamenting the conversion of ag land and newly cultivated land for biofuel production, and it now seems that something similar is happening for biochar. The forests of Indonesia are being cut and chared for use by fashion forward agriculturalists and climate warriors.
Perhaps this is an improvement? The forests are being cut anyway to clear land for cropping, but the wood is simply being burned to dispose of it. The atmosphere would be improved if that wood was turned into char rather than CO2, and developing countries can use the extra income. It would be better if they dosed their own land with the char rather than exporting it, but they need or at least want the cash.
I'd welcome a clear headed analysis of the situation by some competent scholars that quantified these trends and proposed advantageous, realistic behaviors. It seems to me that forest lands will continue to be cleared as population rises and economies flounder. How might this seemingly inevitable process be best managed, considering the whole system with its various pressures and opportunities?
Here's a trend which hasn't been so widely reported as deforestation.
http://notes.helsinki.fi/halvi/tiedotus/pressrelease.nsf/e1e392ad852e72f5c225680000404fa8/35e978c90d5cad8fc2257226002b538a?OpenDocument
Posted by: alice at March 20, 2009 05:31 PMHi Alice,
Yeah, I saw a press release for this paper earlier, and considered posting about it since I have old posts that challenge the "dominant deforestation narrative", especially in Africa. See Mystified Obscurity from four years ago.
It's a messy subject made messier by dynamic factors over time. Will developing world ag productivity become less pathetic? Will the developing world actually develop and so experience the environmental benefits of wealth as in developed world Kuznets curves? And what about all those dire warnings about degradation of ag land on which 1 in 4 humans depend? And then there's climate concerns. And other things that I know, and things I don't even suspect. . . yet.
While it's clear that the deforestation narrative in the past was muddle minded advocacy for instrumental reasons, it's not clear that there are no future concerns. Biofuels have made things worse, and biochar might do so as well if it isn't done sensibly.
Posted by: back40 at March 20, 2009 06:18 PM