Environmental threats

crops for biofuel are becoming increasingly apparent. Richard Pike, chief executive of the Royal Society of Chemistry in London recently estimated that it would require the entire production of biofuel crops from 20 hectares to replace the kerosene for just one transatlantic flight from London to New York. Just a few kilometres from Heathrow is Windsor Great Park, a 2,000 hectare former Norman hunting estate. At present levels of activity at Heathrow airport, it would require an equivalent area to Windsor Great Park grown exclusively with food crops for conversion to biofuel every few days to fuel all the aircraft departing the airport. Over a year this could require a land area greater than that of the whole of London. And that is for just for one of the five airports serving the city. One of the biggest emerging worries for environmental researchers, therefore, is that European targets to introduce biofuel will presently be met largely by imports. Worries are growing that environments in many other, often developing, countries may be threatened by this new demand. Globally, it is estimated that around 12 million hectares — about one per cent of the world’s cultivatable land — is currently devoted to biofuel crops. At a meeting on ‘Crops, Cars and Climate Crisis’ last month in Ottawa, the problems with primary biofuels were highlighted. The world is on the brink of a major food crisis, exacerbated by rising grain prices, seriously depleted food supplies, and land being used to produce ethanol fuel instead of food, the organisers said. According to the UN World Food Programme, rising food prices are already causing conflict in 33 countries. So fears are growing that the additional pressure of devoting land to biofuel crops can only make this situation worse. Another report produced for the British government by Julia King, the vice chancellor of Aston University, looked at the potential in low carbon cars. But she cautioned against increasing current demand for biofuels. “Until we know where the bioethanol has come from and whether the country of origin has been ploughing up grassland or, worse still, removing rainforest to plant, it’s rather dangerous to expand demand.” One of the moves by the EU causing greatest concern for conservationists and biodiversity researchers has been the decision to abandon its policy of supporting arable farmers to ‘set aside’ land — removing it from production to the potential benefit of species becoming increasingly scarce within the intensive agriculture landscape. In the UK alone, it is estimated around 500,000 hectares of such set-aside land, which has proved highly successful as a haven for farmland species, is now thought vulnerable to being ploughed up. There are two kinds of set-aside: the rotational kind, where a field of stubble is left unploughed over winter, and the more permanent kind, where areas difficult to farm — on poor soil Food policy pressures: The loss of agricultural land set aside for environmental benefits for more than 20 years under new EU policy is worrying conservationists. Nigel Williams reports. Environmental threats