Bioenergy and sustainable development: The dilemma of food security and climate change in the Brazilian savannah

Abstract

The bioenergy has been greatly deliberated in Brazil. This has led the country to develop new policies and implement a biodiesel program (PNPB) in 2004 aiming at fostering the rural development and at the same time promoting a new and clean source of energy. Nevertheless, there is an ongoing international debate about the negative impacts of bioenergy, especially biofuels, such as, the consequences to native forests and on local food production. In this context, the present study aims to assess the relationship between small-scale oil seed activity and food production, as well as, with the deforestation of native forests. A cross-sectional study was conducted with small-scale farmers in the Brazilian savannah, in a transitional region between the Cerrado and the Amazon rain forest. A range of socio-economic and environmental indicators were collected among smallholders who cultivate Jatropha curcas and Ricinus communis and from them different scenarios were established, which estimated the impacts on climate change and on local food production due to oil seed activity. The results point towards a positive relationship between oil seed production and deforestation and a negative relationship between oil seed activity and local food production. The latter result, therefore, exacerbates local food insecurity. The research is unprecedented in the region and the results can be extremely effective in supporting regional and national government subsidies on clean energy that do not harm the local environment or food production; helping Brazil achieve regional sustainable development.