Bioenergy, conservation and wildlife protection can boost each other

(Biopact) - Discussions about biofuels and bioenergy often focus on their potential impacts on biodiversity and on risks like deforestation. However, these legitimate concerns should not veil the fact that energy crops can just as well contribute to strengthening ecosystem services, to conservation, to the fight against desertification and erosion, and to the restoration of wildlife habitats.

Biopact has referred to numerous examples of this kind: the creation of the Green Wall of the Sahara, the greening of toxic brownfields by energy crops to allow wildlife to reemerge, the revitalisation of depleted soils via carbon negative bioenergy (terra preta), or the restoration of prairies and biodiversity with high-yielding polycultures of native grasses in the U.S. More: the creation of bioenergy plantations to stop desertification in Inner Mongolia, the prevention of forest fires by utilizing undergrowth as biofuel feedstock, replanting lost genetic resources (e.g. switchgrass varieties) to restore original biodiversity, switching to modern biofuels as a way to prevent deforestation, or stripping biomass for energy to revitalise ecosystems destroyed by nitrogen pollution.

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