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• Thursday, January 18, 2007 05:36 AM

  Coconut does not thrive in rainforest zones

  Interesting paradoxes, but one small detail: Cocos nucifera does not thrive in rainforest zones. Even though this postcard crop is now found pantropically, it is a typical shoreline crop. Coconut plantations never stretch further inland than 1 kilometer. Nypa fruticans is similar; you can't grow it in a rainforest zone.

  As a small organisation, we try to make a clear distinction between rainforest-damaging crops (such as palm oil), and those that clearly, agro-climatically speaking, cannot stand rainforest zones: savannah grasses and shrubs, giant reeds, cassava, sweet potato, sorghum, etc...

  The media too often lump togehter all these tropical and subtropical crops saying all biofuels from the South are deforestation fuels. But the tropics are more than their forests.

  If a crop is destructive to pristine ecosystems, we say so in our reporting. But when it is not, we say so too. We wish the media would do the same.

  As an organisation, we try to find out how much land will actually be available for non-destructive biofuel production in the future, under scenarios that do not push farmers to invade rainforests. In short, we analyse (more or less) 'sustainably' produced tropical bioenergy.

  It's important that we don't deny the poor farmers in the South the opportunity to participate in a green energy market. One step towards this goal is nuanced reporting.

  Kind regards,

  Biopact

  —Biopact
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