EUROPEAN EXPERTS RECOMMENDATION FOR BIOENERGY CROPS ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY
European experts recommendation for bioenergy crops environmental sustainability
Bioenergy
26-02-10
The Standing Committee of the Bern Convention (the Council of Europe Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats), worried that the increase of biofuel cropping systems may lead to cultivation escapes of invasive taxa with subsequent negative effect on native biological diversity, adopted advices to reduce impacts, of potentially invasive alien plants being used as biofuel crops, on species biodiversity and natural ecosystems (Recommendation 141, 2009).
ISPRA with a report submitted to the Bern Convention panel of European experts prompted these measures. The Italian Institute for Environmental Protection (an agency leaded by the Italian Ministry for the Environment) in the report drawn attention to the fact that sustainable development and environmental benefits can be jointly achieved only when biofuel crops are farmed in an environmentally sustainable manner.