The rising demand for a dominant form of renewable energy worldwide can drive yet more acquisitions of land in developing countries where food insecurity is rising and land rights are weak. This view was expressed by researchers at the International Institute for Environment and Development, IIED..

The experts warned that this new trend needs greater public scrutiny and debate. According to them, wood accounts for 67 percent of global renewable energy supplies, and many countries in the global north are increasing their use of it both to reduce their reliance on costly fossil fuels and to mitigate climate change.

The researchers contended that such countries are setting ambitious targets for using renewable energy, including biomass, but with demand for wood set to outstrip supply by up to 600% in some countries, and high tree growth rates in the tropics, investors are beginning to look south.

They are optimistic that new tree plantations in developing countries that will be harvested to export wood could spell good news in terms of jobs, investment, climate change and conversation if they are managed well. They pointed out however that, but there is also a risk that plantations will displace poor and marginalised communities from land they have tended to for generations but have no formal claim over.

The briefing, aimed at policymakers in both developed and developing countries, warned that rising demand for wood could harm food security and the livelihoods of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people if governments lease large areas of land for fuel wood plantations.

“All eyes are turned to food and biofuels, but tree plantations for biomass energy may soon become an important driver in the global land rush,” says Dr Lorenzo Cotula, a senior researcher at IIED and co-author of the paper.

Duncan Macqueen, also a senior researcher and co-author adds: “Wood is a vital renewable energy source, and countries in the South should develop it for local energy security, not export it to fuel Northern energy deficits at the expense of their own people.”