30862: Minsky(article) Jatropha as alternative fuel (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: "tminsky@ix.netcom.com" <tminsky@ix.netcom.com>


Sunday, August 5, 2007

Facing Environmental Catastrophe, Haiti Seeks Alternative Fuels
Carmen Gentile, | World Politics Review

PORT SALUT, Haiti -- Dardy Saint-Jean looks at the rock-strewn river
coursing through his village and shakes his head in disgust.


"Look at this river -- it's filled with stones from the mountains," said
Saint-Jean, lamenting the results of decades of erosion caused by
deforestation.

Much of the destruction can be blamed on the way the majority of the
populace subsists in this poor Caribbean nation, where public utilities are
unreliable and often unavailable.

With few reliable sources of fuel, most Haitians rely on charcoal made from
local trees to heat water for cooking and cleaning.

Charcoal use over the last several decades has left the country's once lush
countryside decimated, leading to serious problems with soil erosion.


Daily rainstorms during the summer hurricane season often lead to flash
flooding and the dumping of massive amounts of silt and stones into the
country's streams and rivers, blocking water sources.

Erosion coupled with pollution has also muddied the once bountiful fishing
waters off Haiti, forcing fisherman to cast their nets farther out to sea.

Hoping to reverse that trend, Haiti is looking to alternative energy
sources such as biofuel in hopes of curtailing the rampant deforestation,
Haitian Prime Minister Jacques-Edouard Alexis told World Politics Review.

By finding an alternative to charcoal, said Alexis, "we could finally begin
thinking about ways to protect our environment."

"But we must work to diversify our sources of energy. . . . It will not
happen on its own," he added.

It won't be easy for a country with so many other problems to give priority
to saving its environment.

Haiti's new government, led by President RenîArù?l, is already under
pressure to reduce poverty and corruption, as promised by the president
ahead of his election last year. Alexis, meanwhile, emphasized the
importance of getting some half-a-million school-age Haitians back in the
classroom and improving the level of education for all of the country's
citizens.

Those priorities would seem to leave little time and money for promoting
and funding alternative fuels. That's why the government is relying on
privately funded research to introduce alternatives such at jatropha
curcas, a hearty seed-bearing plant already grown in India and Africa for
use in lamps and stoves.

Once planted, the jatropha curcas needs little moisture and can thrive for
up to 50 years, even in poor soil conditions like those in Haiti. Livestock
and other animals won't eat jatropha after it is three months old, and the
plant begins bearing seeds needed to make fuel after nine months, yielding
anywhere between 6 and 12 tons of fuel annually per hectare. In comparison,
soybeans used to make biofuels yield less than one ton per hectare.

Despite the positive reviews of farmers and users of jatropha, however,
private and public funding sources alike have expressed concern about
investing in such projects in Haiti, where political upheaval is tragically
common, stability requires the assistance of international peacekeepers and
corruption is endemic.

"It's the chicken and the egg problem," noted Peter Hakim, president of the
Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue. "If you never do anything in the
country [Haiti] to address the problem of stability, then you won't have
stability . . . and you'll never get it without taking a risk."

Others are less pessimistic about Haiti's chances of improving its lot, at
least when it comes to finding an alternative to charcoal.

Last month, at a regional summit in Panama, U.S. Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice touted Bush administration plans to promote alternative
energy development in the Western Hemisphere. Following in the path of a
recent biofuel agreement with Brazil, Rice mentioned U.S.-backed pilot
projects to promote alternative energy in Central America and the
Caribbean, including Haiti.

"We seek to promote the democratization of energy in the Americas,
increasing the number of energy suppliers, expanding the market and
reducing supply disruption," said Rice at the Organization of American
States summit.

For Haitians, that means a chance, perhaps a final one at that, to do
something to save a country literally eroding beneath their feet.

Carmen Gentile is a Miami-based freelance journalist and a regular WPR
contributor.
























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