Jatropha cultivation seen helping in reforestation
By Abigail L. Ho
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 05:20:00 04/26/2008
MANILA, Philippines—Contrary to some beliefs, cultivation of jatropha as energy resource can actually help the country’s reforestation efforts and ward off threats of deforestation triggered by increased use of charcoal and wood fuel, said a government company engaged in alternative fuels.
“With its strong, deepening roots, jatropha can further be used for reforestation,” PNOC Alternative Fuels Corp. said in a position paper. “This is jatropha’s strongest plus factor since, based on a University of the Philippines, Los Baños, study, approximately 15.7 million hectares of forest cover had been lost.”
The Los Baños campus of the University of the Philippines is known for its courses on agriculture.
PNOC Alternative Fuels said the biggest threat to the country’s forest cover was the increasing use of charcoal and wood fuel. It said industry estimates put consumption at 50 million cubic meters of wood for fuel by 2010.
The problem with cutting trees for use as wood fuel is that no replanting is done, PNOC-AFC said. When fuel users run out of trees to cut in one area, they simply move on to the next forested area, it said.
With the country’s forests becoming more and more denuded, even wood fuel and charcoal have become hard to come by, which drives their prices up, the government company said.
“Jatropha, being a renewable seed bearer that is convertible to cooking fuel, can change the situation and allow the Philippine forests to recover and expand,” its position paper stated. “This, in turn, makes for a better water balance, resulting in better food production.”
It also said that unlike palm oil production, “which requires converting forested areas into palm farms, like what is being practiced in Indonesia and Malaysia, jatropha plantations will not destroy wildlife habitat.”
It said no lands for food crops will be sacrificed to produce jatropha, as land conversion is not an option. With editing by INQUIRER.net
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