Environmentalists have
warned that the bio fuel craze can also do much to cause food shortages, and
deforestation as we see parts of the Amazon Rainforest being destroyed every
year to produce bio-fuel crops. And now we are seeing some of the consequences
in Africa. A market has been created by British and EU laws requiring the
blending of rising amounts of bio fuels into petrol and diesel.
We must search other sources rather than food material, so forget corn, soy,
sugar cane, palm and even jatropha; Halophytes can be productive sources of
biomass energy; for example, Salicornia seed is 32% oil by mass. Halophytes
flourish in arid land and can be irrigated with seawater, making them suitable
for bio fuel development. Dominating many coastlines in tropical and subtropical
areas, mangroves are a bridge between terrestrial and marine environments. They
are also extremely productive ecosystems.
Mangrove forests are one of the world’s most threatened tropical ecosystems.
Mangrove forests require stable sea levels for long-term survival. They are
therefore extremely sensitive to current rising sea levels caused by global
warming and climate change. More than 35% of the world’s mangroves are already
gone. The figure is as high as 50% in countries such as India, the Philippines,
and Vietnam, while in the Americas they are being cleared at a rate faster than
tropical rainforests.
Freshwater diversions can also lead to mangroves drying out, if salinity becomes
too high, the mangroves cannot survive. Oil pollution can smother mangrove roots
and suffocate the trees. These communities also collect medicinal plants from
mangrove ecosystems and use mangrove leaves as animal fodder. Recently, the
forests have also been commercially harvested for pulp, wood chip, and charcoal
production.
We must continue to evolve bio fuels to incorporate feed stocks that are not
only sustainable, but actually regenerative and can restore the ecosystems where
they are found. Mangrove is a source of timber, fuel, railroad ties and tannin
in the tropics.