trends and future of sustainable development - TransEco

As can be seen from the graph above, in most of the studies, the share of the contribution of thedeveloping countries is much higher than that of the industrialized ones, though the amounts reportedhere do not necessarily correspond to the demand in the corresponding regions for the demand-drivenstudies. For examples, in the study by Johansson et al. (1993), Africa produces about 22 EJ/yr methanol(produced from 34 EJ/yr of biomass) in 2050, but only one third of this methanol is consumed in thesame region, the rest is exported. Also in the case of resource-focused studies it results that substantialvolumes of biomass can be made available for energy in developing countries, but, since the bioenergydemand in these regions is expected to be growing slowly, significant exports of biofuels to industrializedcountries may be necessary for the realization of this potential (Berndes at al., 2003)According to Oxfam international, so far the effects of agroindustrial biofuel production in the ruralareas of developing countries have been mostly negative. Agricultural land has been acquired by the bigagrofuels companies by illegal methods, severe ecological consequences have occurred on the soil andwater, the employment opportunities for the local population have been few and often with badconditions (Oxfam, 2008).According to White and Dasgupta (2010), agroindustrial biofuel production is a new form of colonialexpansion to the rural areas of developing countries and may open doors also to GM biofuel crops. Forthe local producers in developing countries the specific destination of their produce as food, fuel or someother end use in a faraway place is probably of less interest than the forms of direct or indirectappropriation of their land and the forms of their insertion or exclusion as producers in the globalcommodity chains (White and Dasgupta, 2010).4. Discussion and ConclusionsThe land use choices between food and energy production have different consequences at differentspatial levels. On a sub-regional (e.g. on the level of a province) and on a national level a shift towardsthe use of land for energy production can make sense, as long as trade assures on the one hand asufficient market for the energy produced and offers on the other hand enough food products for therespective region on an adequate price level. On the level of regional integration (e.g. European Union) adivision of labour between sub-regions and Member States may also be rational: some producing food,others energy. The picture changes essentially when the trade on food and energy products moves to theglobal level. In the industrialised countries, especially in the densely populated countries of Europe, thepopulation is requiring a land area much bigger than its own country to satisfy demand for agriculturalproducts. Thus land resources of other countries are used to produce food and increasingly also energy.In other words, the European impact on agricultural land is being displaced to developing countries(Bringezu et al., 2009) This increased demand for land to cover consumers’ demand on the other side ofthe globe threatens food security in the regions which are not self-sufficient in food production. Indeveloping countries like most areas of Africa and some regions of Asia, a shift away from foodproduction towards energy production might be disastrous considering the inappropriate nutrition ofthe population. On the global level a shift of the use of the land from local and regional food productiontowards the production of energy for the global market (mainly the needs of the industrialized north)results in increasing food prices and a lack of food in developing countries.236