國家地理:莫桑比克：麻瘋樹生產(chǎn)綠色柴油

Mozambique's Better Biofuels 莫桑比克：麻瘋樹生產(chǎn)綠色柴油
With rising fuel prices, more attention is turning to biofuels. But (the) use of food crops for biofuel raises the concern of food shortages. But one non-food biofuel source is gaining attention. Just inland from the southern Mozambique beach resort of Bilene lies the newly established Deulco Jatropha plantation. Nearly 178,000 acres have been prepared for Jatropha, a hardy plant that produces oilseeds used for biodiesel production. Aubrey Dunn is one of the project managers for the South African firm Deulco.
"And you can see, you can see the ground. It's very very sandy. It's very low in organic matter. And also the soil here, um, is very high in salt, being so close to the sea. So it's not suitable for , um, for any other food crops."
After two months in the nursery, the young Jatropha are planted in the prepared ground. From there it will take about two years for the plants to reach full maturity. One year after planting the first batch of Jatropha trees, the first oilseed fruit are visible.
"The fruit itself color , they go to a yellow and browned color. And then when the, the fruit is the yellow brownish color, then you reap your fruit, and then you take out your seeds. And this is what you're actually gonna press and get oil from."
As Jatropha can be grown on marginal land which is not suitable for other crops, here in Mozambique there seems to be less conflict between land needed for food and land suitable for Jatropha. However, locals use parts of this land for farming and there are concerns that increased demands for land to grow crops for biofuel could dramatically increase the cost of living here. These people were offered compensation in the form of other land to use for agriculture and some gained employment with the new development. But while some may be satisfied with the compensation, a local activist in Mozambique is concerned that the value of subsistence farmers is underestimated.
"Up to now, maybe we can say that the real conflicts related to biofuels maybe are not visible, at this stage. But we can just have a slight picture on what is happening on the land conflicts, because we have this problem, these kinds* of problems on conflict related to the land."
It's widely hoped that Jatropha biodiesel production will offer a new, more sustainable energy source. But that's yet to be proven.
參考中文翻譯：
隨著燃油價格日益攀升，生物燃料引起了月來越多的關(guān)注。利用糧食作物生產(chǎn)生物燃料引發(fā)了糧食短缺的擔憂。但是另外一種生產(chǎn)生物燃料的非糧食作物引起了人們的注意。莫桑比克南部的濱海度假村遍布著新種植的麻風樹。接近17.8萬英畝的土地將準備生產(chǎn)種植麻風樹，它們產(chǎn)地油籽將被用來生產(chǎn)生物燃油制品。Aubrey Dunn 就是該項目的負責人之一。
“你可以看一下這篇土地，含沙量非常高，有機質(zhì)含量非常低，而且鹽分很高，和海水的含鹽量差不多。所以不適合種植其他糧食作物。”
經(jīng)過兩個月的育苗之后，麻風樹幼苗就會被種植在這片土地上，大概兩年的時間樹苗就會成年。第一批麻風樹苗種植之后以年，就可以看到第一批油籽果實。
“果實本身是有顏色的，最終會變成棕黃色。當果實變成棕黃色之后，就可以收獲果實了，把種子取出，然后從種子中榨油。”
由于麻風樹可以在不適合糧食作物的非常貧瘠的土地上生長，所以在莫桑比克不會有糧食作物用地和麻風樹用地之間的沖突。但是，當?shù)厝擞闷渲械囊徊糠滞恋胤N植作物，用人擔心正在這里種植生物燃料作物會增加對土地的需求，這可能導(dǎo)致這里的生活成本急劇增加。這些人可以得到其他形式的農(nóng)業(yè)用地的補償，其他一些人會由于這個新的發(fā)展而被雇傭。雖然人們可能會對這些補償感到滿意，莫桑比克當?shù)氐囊粋€社會活動家仍然擔心對農(nóng)民的補償成本被低估了。
“到目前為止，或許我們可以說在目前這個階段，有關(guān)生物燃料的沖突是無形的。但是我們可以提前魯厄蘭一下土地方面的沖突，因為我們確實面臨著土地方面的問題，以及一些和土地相關(guān)的問題。”
人們希望麻風樹生產(chǎn)生物燃料真的可以提供一個新的，可持續(xù)的能源。但是目前這一點尚未證實。