Gaia Foundation and Biofuelwatch seem to be spreading lies in africa: telling that small scale biochar stoves poison air, people and plants....

[Max Turunen]

...and that each such small local self-usable biochar stove project is a trojan horse used to grab one billion hectares of farmland away from food production in africa, for charcoal plantations.

http://www.africanbiodiversity.org/content/challenging_false_solutions#Biochar

http://www.africanbiodiversity.org/sites/default/files/PDFs/Biochar%20Land%20Grabbing%20-%20the%20impacts%20on%20Africa.pdf
Do note that they list each existing small local stove project, locale, and involved organizations... as the intentionally vicious poison and powerty making devices.

And at least some african and other ngo peoples are taking these seriously.

These person list themselves as authors of these claims:
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, CONTACT:
- Almuth Ernsting, Biofuelwatch, UK alm...@ernsting.wanadoo.co.uk +44(0) 1224 324 797
- Teresa Anderson, the Gaia Foundation, UK ter...@gaianet.org +44 (0) 20 7428 0055
- Anne Maina, the African Biodiversity Network, Kenya anne...@gmail.com, +254 67 20 229

Sourcewatch lists these as funders:

Institutional: • Austrian Government - Global 2000 • Comic Relief • DANIDA • Dutch Biodiversity Fund • European Commission • Finnish Government • IFAW • IUCN-Netherlands Committee • NOVIB and HIVOS (Holland) • SIDA • SwedBIO • Swiss SDC •

Non-institutional: • AIM Foundation • Foundation for Deep Ecology • Hygeia Foundation • LifeBridge Foundation • Mulberry Trust • Network for Social Change • Polden Puckham Charitable Trust • Rudolph Steiner Foundation • Sigrid Rausing Trust • SOS Planet Earth • Tudor Trust • Wayward Trust • Source

MaxT

  So that the physical reality of 'test and find out for yourself', is not forgotten, lost over some sociopolitical squibbles... http://www.ymparistojakehitys.fi/energia_terrapreta_english.html

[Ruy Korscha Anaya de la Rosa]

Well, massive land grabbing is happening inside Africa to produce biomass for energy outside Africa.

From today:

<http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/may/31/biofuel-plantations-africa-british-firms>

Biomass for biochar - are residues enough?

Enough for what? - enough for whom?

I personally believe that fears about the beautiful biochar story being used to scale up land grabbing in Africa are well founded.

Ruy

[Dr. Reddy]

Dear Mac Turunen and Ruy, 

Yes, critiques are always there. The value of Biochar is known to indigenous communities all over the world and it had been in use for various purposes including for soil fertility management. Recently I have see some more biochar practices in Uttarakhand http://biocharuttarakhand.blogspot.com/. The approach of facilitating Biochar as a centralized industrial product on a massive scale is drawing criticism. Similarly as we see in parts of India, in the name of biofuels / biodiesel land grabbing is happening in parts of Chattisgarh State, India.http://groups.yahoo.com/group/chhattisgarh-net/message/7657

Dr. N. Sai Bhaskar Reddy

[PERSES BILIMORIA]

One of the few great intrinsic values of us, humans, if I may say, is evolution, and criticism is a part of evolution !!! So my message to all you fellow humans out there, is to do your bit the way your mind directs you and leave the rest to the critics ?!!
 
We are not yet evolved to judge anything in our current capacities !!
 
Take care and have a great week ahead !!

Thanks & Regards

 

Perses Bilimoria
CEO & Founder 
President, The Society of Biochar Initiatives- India
Member- IBI Advisory Council

Earthsoul India Pvt. Ltd.
"Sealand", 4th Flr,
41, Cuffe Parade,
Mumbai 400 005
Tel       :             +91 (22) 22150374       
Fax      : +91 (22) 2215 2065
Mobile :             +91 98210 50328       
Email     : bili...@vsnl.com
Website : www.earthsoulindia.com


 

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Date: Tue, 31 May 2011 22:44:15 +0300
Subject: Gaia Foundation and Biofuelwatch seem to be spreading lies in africa: telling that small scale biochar stoves poison air, people and plants....
From: maxtu...@gmail.com
To: bio...@yahoogroups.com; biocha...@googlegroups.com; biochar...@yahoogroups.com; terra...@bioenergylists.org

[Max Turunen]

It is not the criticism of the truly destructive actions that are being masked under the appearance and facade of biochar that worries me... those should and need to be criticized and exposed. It is the part where they go as far as labelling all small biochar stove projects, even the ones where less, or no smoke is emitted... ones that can be, and are being, made from local materials... as always parts of the insidious colonial type pillages by corporations... and instead favor the currently used methods causing deforestation and smoke emission, as traditional and ecological. Especially that the small Do It Yourself charcoal making cooking stove method projects, for households to increase the fruitfulness of their surrounding soils for their own food growing uses... are explicitly named and listed as intentional trojan horses, facades, for pushing the worst eucalyptus tree charcoal plantations on place of current farmlands... along with massive centralization projects like nuclear powered microwave bulk charcoaling of gmo charcoal trees.

This seems like over generalization in most harmful ways: sending a message much like "all that is Biochar or Terra Preta is against local people in most vicious ways". And this kind of message can cause local and global activists to actively work against the very methods that could be useful for self enablement of local peoples and their surrounding environments... while thinking that they are protecting them. Currently used Slash and Burn, and hidden Charcoaling Mounds... idolized as Traditional and Ecological... emitting much smoke, wasting all the generated heat and smoke energy for nothing, except for increased air soot particle contents... or locally made smoke burning, charcoal making, houshold cook stoves for currently unused biomasses, reducing tree cutting for firewood... like Anila Stoves, or Holon methods or World -stove methods ?

What if there is pyrolysis charcoaling can added to the Suuxat Rao -clay stove... will that be vilified and worked against as method for GMO corporations and pillaging profiteers ?


What is the sanity of trying to tie the Terra Preta charcoaling to the follies of land grown"Biofuels" which seem to crash disastrously soon enough (putting 100units of nutrients to land... to take 150units units nutrients out of land, depleting it... and then instead of even getting food... getting 50units of nutrients turned to inedible fuel for engines... which turn it to 40units of machine work energy... it's nuts ! (the bad allegorical nuts, not edible and natural nuts).


MaxT

  perhaps this could be a rule of thumb:
"Do not grow anything for machine fuel, on land, nor with nutrients in any route, *taken* from land"
?

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[Dr. SAI BHASKAR REDDY NAKKA]

Dear Max Turunen and All,

>>The biofuelwatch and gaia foundation were not here just criticising some
genuinely vile land grabbing projects and corporations... but *all* charcoaling
gasifier small home methods also... by their names. Kind of like blaming all
local organic farming of being insidious intentional cover for monsanto
glytophosphate and gmo agri-industry farming... because they both are
'farming'... and then listing the locations and names of the local farms as
dangerous infiltrants :s <<

We all are interested in facilitating most efficient and best
technologies for Biochar. But only ongoing best practices (community
point of view) and some good technologies, we are able to facilitate
to the communities. Because Best technolgies are adoptable by big
farmers. The best technologies are not accessible as they are patented
and each farmer need to pay for the patents and as well for the huge
costs of such technologies, because they are complex and not easily
can made.

For the management of about 800 million tonnes of crop residue
produced every year in India has no stringent rules. Most of that is
burnt now (from January to June), yes the smoke is generated and the
valuable biomass is wasted. Because of the complexity of biomass
(types, values, size, shape, density, etc) converting into Biochar is
difficult by any single technology, so there is a requirement of many
designs. The farming is not sustainable for majority of small and
marginal farmers in parts of India. Over years they have been
dependent on the government policies of subsidies of power, water,
seeds,
fertilizers, minimum support price for the produce, etc. Although our
farmers are happy with the Biochar compost results, it is difficult
for them to adopt on a large scale. Because of cost of production, not
able to adopt the costly technology, they prefer in-situ production
rather carrying to a common place (mobile biochar technologies
required), the cost of time spent in procuring the biomass and
converting into biochar is higher than the cost of buying the same
quantity of biochar.
How do we address these issues

1. Identification of all the traditional Biochar practices / Terra
Preta Practices
These practices many not be exactely as being defiend by experts of
Bichar. But there is a component of charcoal plus matter reaching the
soil as part of soil fertility management.
2. Can we ban the non sustainable traditional practices? - say Earth
kilns / crop residue burning etc.
No it is not possible in many countries.
3. Requirement of biochar for small and marginal farmers
Access to low cost efficient Biochar technologies (Open source) - Can
we assess and list these available technologies.
4. Biochar as a byproduct
There are many sources, including stoves, need to make a list with
advantages  and disadvantages