The giant Kashagan offshore field was discovered in July 2000, 80 kilometres south of Atyrau. It is the largest Caspian offshore field and one of the largest fields discovered anywhere in the world in the past 30 years. Named after a prominent 19th century Kazakh poet, it covers an area 75 kilometres long and 45 wide. The Kashagan field was formed 350 million years ago in shallow warm sea conditions, lying below salt fields at a depth of ...

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As populations are rapidly rising in the Greater Congo Basin, so is the pressure on great ape habitat, and even more, the numbers killed relative to the gorilla populations to supply bushmeat.

Figure 27: Loss of biodiversity with continued agricultural expansion, pollution, climate change and infrastructure development. (Source: GLOBIO; Alkemade et al., 2009).

Trans-boundary collaboration in parks in the greater Congo Basin.

Energy access is a primer for any type economic development. Nowhere is energy access a greater challenge than in areas and regions where the population lives in poverty. As illustrated, bioenergy can deliver considerable positive social impacts to these communities. Small-scale bioenergy applications, such as generators fuelled by biofuels, can power many technologies which increase productivity and output, including water pumps to irrigate cro...

Studies indicate that global bioenergy use is approximately 10 percent of the global energy mix, with a growth rate of 1.3 percent per year. Future projections for the supply of bioenergy are shown in the figure. The analysis is based on four scenarios for environmental targets, based on technical potentials that differ depending on agricultural efficiency, production systems, technology and water supplies. The scenarios span a wide range of gl...

Over the past few years a small energy revolution has taken place in the village of Bot Trang in northwest Cambodia. Bot Trang is not on Cambodia’s national grid: in the old days Mr. Tham Bun Hak, a local farmer, would supply 80 households in the village with electricity from his diesel fired generator – but now it’s all run on jatropha. With the assistance of local NGOs and public partnerships, Mr. Tham developed a jatropha project that has made...

Gains and losses in forest area vary globally, and the impact divers greatly between the various crops used for biofuels. Forest-cover is enhanced through aorestation or by natural expansion, and reduced either by deforestation or natural disasters which may prevent forest from naturally regenerating itself. Forest degeneration is often caused by overexploitation of forest areas by humans, pests, disease or recurrent forest fires. Generally,...

Biofuels have been criticised for causing food insecurity, but many other factors often play a far more significant role than biofuels. But rapid, largescale growth in biofuel production without sufficient safeguards does pose a risk for food security. This risk needs to be seen in the context of population growth, changing diets, slowing crop-yield improvements,and climate-change impacts on agriculture. While much has been said about the risk...

This figure outlines possible scenarios for the impact of biofuels on agricultural prices and food security. Although there are several factors that affect agricultural prices, including seasonal variation, market speculation,and extreme weather patterns, some biofuel development scenarios indicate a relationship between agricultural prices and biofuel production. Here, the scenario projects that the largest price increase will be for cerea...

The graphic compares different liquid biofuels and alternative drive systems such as an electric vehicle running on electricity produced from wind power.

Poor land tenure security due to lack of appropriate rules and processes, and biofuels production encroaching on land used by pastoralists or for cultural purposes affect local livelihoods and access to land, particularly for poor rural people in developing countries. This figure indicates various measures which should be taken to mitigate this risk.

Recently Uganda has outlined its national strategy for bioenergy to contribute to increasing the renewable energy mix from 4 to 16 percent by 2017. Alongside the energy challenge, the country faces a number of other difficult tasks including loss of ecosystems and systemic low rural employment. Ugandan officials have pointed out that in addition to serving as a new source of renewable energy, growing crops for bioenergy can help tackle unemploy...

Recently Uganda has outlined its national strategy for bioenergy to contribute to increasing the renewable energy mix from 4 to 16 percent by 2017. Several biofuel crops have been identified, including sugarcane, maize, oil palm and jatropha. A suitability assessment of these crops illustrates that the potential output from certain biofuel feedstocks is high. Several projects are underway to help the country meet their target. To red...

Recently Uganda has outlined its national strategy for bioenergy to contribute to increasing the renewable energy mix from 4 to 16 percent by 2017. Several biofuel crops have been identified, including sugarcane, maize, oil palm and jatropha. A suitability assessment of these crops illustrates that the potential output from certain biofuel feedstocks is high. Several projects are underway to help the country meet their target. To red...

This figure indicates land requirements for biofuels production in response to current biofuels mandates. Depending on projected biofuels demand and available arable land, additional land requirements may exceed a nation’s own resources, and hence have a spill-over effect on other countries and regions. For example, studies indicate that most European countries will not have sufficient available land resources to produce the feedstocks requ...