Conference to explore sustainability of biofuels

The conference will cater to scientists, natural resource practitioners and policy-makers, and the proceedings will be held in Spanish and English. Presenting at the conference will be William Laurance of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute; Philip Fearnside of the Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas de Amazonia; Fidel Mingorance of Human Rights Everywhere; Helena Paul of Econexus; Renton Righelato of World Land Trust; Stanley Burgiel of the Nature Conservancy's Global Invasive Species Program; and Arnaldo Viera de Carvalho of the Inter-American Development Bank.

Biofuels come from biomass, meaning trees, agricultural crops, manures, landfill methane and some household and manufacturing waste. Conventional thinking says that if society can get enough energy from the products of the living world, then energy consumption can be brought back into the natural cycle, with carbon being continuously released and recaptured by current plant growth. The buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that is a result of fossil fuel use has been implicated in global warming.

In some Central and South American countries, biofuels are being mandated to be part of all fuel used for transportation, and projections indicate that the United States will be importing more biofuels from the area in the near future. Many of the countries are receiving substantial international assistance to increase the production of biofuel feedstock, such as sugarcane and oil palm, either for domestic use or for export to the United States and elsewhere.

The mission of ELTI is to significantly strengthen and advance conservation in Asian and Latin American tropical forest regions. The initiative's principal investigators are faculty of the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies: Mark Ashton, Morris K. Jesup Professor of Silviculture and Forest Ecology; Lisa Curran, professor of tropical resources; Amity Doolittle, associate research scientist in conservation and development; and Bradford Gentry, senior lecturer in sustainable investments and research scholar. ELTI is supported by a generous grant from Arcadia, a grant-making fund established in 2001 that supports programs that preserve cultural and social knowledge or protect natural diversity.