The popularity of biofuels has taken a hit recently. Blamed for rising food prices, food shortages
, they are now being flagged up as ecosystem destroyers.
The Global Invasive Species Programme and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature
warn today that many plant species slated for biofuel use are potential invasive species. Their report is released today at the Convention for Biological Diversity's annual conference in Bonn, Germany.
The Global Invasive Species Programme
(GISP) have catalogued all the species currently being considered as possible sources of biofuels. Turns out most of them are known to be invasive species. See the list of species in the report, here
Since the introduction of oil palm to Brazil as a biofuel crop, large amounts of jungle have been cleared, to form oil palm monocultures. But it is listed as invasive because it also spreads beyond the plantation and into intact jungle.
Maize does not appear on the list, despite being a major source of ethanol at the moment. According to Geoffrey Howard, IUCN's Global Invasive Species Coordinator, that's because corn is not considered native to any country any more.
It's the switchgrass I'm most interested in though. It has been hailed as the answer to the biofuel problem: it's not a food crop and so will not hike up the price of corn tortillas in Mexico and has the potential to produce more fuel than corn or sugarcane
. But according the GISP, it's a weed that could spread far and wide, displacing other species.
Looks like one more nail in biofuel's proverbial coffin.Catherine Brahic, online environment repoter