How rural communities can benefit from bioenergy development

5 March 2012, Rome - FAO has released a suite of guidance documents and policymaking tools that governments can use to help rural communities benefit from bioenergy development and ensure that biofuel crop production does not come at the expense of food security.

Materials released by FAO's Bioenergy and Food Security Criteria and Indicators (BEFSCI) Project include: methodologies for assessing the environmental and socioeconomic impacts of bioenergy production, indicators that can be measured when doing so, recommended good practices, and policy measures for promoting sustainable bionenergy development.

"In a few months the international community will gather for the Rio+20 conference to explore new ways to combat rural poverty and promote sustainable development. Undertaken responsibly and where appropriate, bioenergy production can offer farmers and rural people the opportunity to take part in building a new green economy, and can help counter the effects of decades of underinvestment in developing world agriculture and rural areas," said Alexander Mueller, FAO Assistant Director-General for Natural Resources Management and Environment.

Funded by the German Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection, the BEFSCI project was initiated to study the complex relationship between bioenergy and food security and help policymakers make informed decisions regarding bioenergy development.

The project has generated a number of products, including: a web-based tool for assessing potential food security impacts of bioenergy projects; a comprehensive list of methodologies and indicators to assess the impacts of bioenergy on food security at the national level; a set of good environmental practices to minimize negative environmental impacts; and a compilation of socio-economic practices currently being implemented by producers that provide examples of how bioenergy development can foster rural development and enhance food security.

The project also assembled an inventory of management and policy measures that can be used to address negative social, food security or environmental impacts of bioenergy production. And it has explored how to better include smallholders in global bioenergy value chains.

Additionally, a BEFSCI briefing paper identifies and analyzes various policy instruments that governments and planners can use to require or promote good practices in bioenergy. "The paper looks at the pros, cons and appropriateness of these various instruments, so that governments who are just beginning to wrestle with these issues can learn from the experiences of others," explained Heiner Thofern, who heads up the BEFSCI project at FAO.

Rwanda unveils first bio-diesel bus

26th March 2010. Rwanda unveils first bio-diesel bus. Rwanda's first bio-diesel bus has begun its inaugural trip from the capital Kigali to the town of Akanyuru on the border with Burundi. The Rwanda Biodiesel Express runs entirely on oil plants, animal fats and even used cooking oil from restaurants. Some say Rwanda is too small to grow enough bio-diesel crops for many buses.

The BBC's Geoffrey Mutagoma, who attended the inauguration, says that it took three years to develop the bus. The Rwandan government hopes that bio-diesel will help reduce the country's dependence on fossil fuels.

Reference: BBC 26/03/2010
Related:
Global trade and environmental impact study of the EU biofuels mandate

EC/IFPRI The primary objective of this study is to analyse the impact of possible changes in EU biofuels trade policies on global agricultural production and the environmental performance of the EU biofuel policy as concretised in the RED. The study pays particular attention to the ILUC effects, and the associated emissions, of the main feedstocks used for first-generation biofuels production.

IFPRI Research Fellow discusses recent report, "Global Trade and Environmental Impact Study of the EU Biofuels Mandate," in this interview conducted Monday, March 29, 2010

Bioenergy development. Issues and impacts for poverty and natural resources management

New sources of bioenergy including “black liquor”, biodiesel, cellulosic ethanol and many more, have great promise and generate great controversy. In developing countries, the impact of bioenergy on poverty alleviation will depend on the opportunities that are presented for agricultural development, including income and employment generation and the potential to increase poor peoples' access to improved types of bioenergy.

This book presents an introduction to bioenergy, provides a background and overview of solid biomass and liquid biofuels, and examines opportunities and challenges at the regional and country level. It also examines potential impacts for specific types of bioenergy.

The book does not pretend to be definitive, especially with respect to the controversial interplay of subjects like the impact of bioenergy on food prices, but it does try to suggest the tradeoffs that need to be examined in considering bioenergy policies, and it has five main findings:

• Solid biomass will continue to provide a principal source of energy and should not be overlooked.
• There will be major land use implications resulting from bioenergy developments.
• It is critical to consider tradeoffs, including those related to poverty, equity and the environment, when considering bioenergy policies.
• There is considerable potential for greater use of forestry and timber waste as a bioenergy feedstock.
• The climate change impacts of bioenergy development are uncertain, and highly location and feedstock specific.

Reference
World Bank Publications January 2010, 232 pages, by Elizabeth Cushion , Adrian Whiteman , Gerhard Dieterle

Expert Workshop on Biofuels and Land Use Change

20-21 November 2008. Sao Paulo, Brazil. The workshop was organized by the Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels and brought together biofuel and land-use modelers, agricultural economists, policy analysts and specialists from related disciplines to develop an international discussion concerning the linkages among local drivers of land-use change, global economic trends and biofuels production.
FARA participated in the workshop and presented the West African case study of Land Use Changes and biofuels expansion: “Farmers’ Strategies and Land Use Change in the Perspective of Biofuels Development in West Africa”.

References:
Final Report
Minutes from break-out sessions

Charcoal and Communities in Africa

16-18 June. Maputo, Mozambique. A conference was organised under an IFAD funded project, implemented by the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan (INBAR), under the framework of the Global NonTimber Forest Products (NTFP) Partnership.

The Global Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFP) Partnership aims to link global, regional, and national organizations currently engaged in research and development activities concerning the systematic conservation and management of NTFPs in four regions: Africa, East and Southeast Asia, Latin America, and South Asia.

The objectives of the conference were

• To understand the severity of dependence on wood for energy needs in Africa and globally
• To better understand charcoal flows, specifically
• To understand the trends in deforestation due to charcoal production
• To identify areas suitable for charcoal production not currently utilized
• To find effective and alternative sources of charcoal production, in order to curb deforestation and global warming, including the promotion of bamboo for bio-energy
• To propose possible policy interventions that can be carried out in order to secure the supply of charcoal to the low-income population and to mitigate adverse effects of charcoal production
• To explore the potential and facilitate technology transfer and adaptation
• To establish a network and create a community of practice
• To develop project concept notes
• To raise awareness and create interest among the donor community

Click here for the agenda of the Charcoal and Communities Conference, Maputo, 16 - 18 June.

Forum on biofuels for development in Africa at the World Bioenergy 2008

1200 delegates from some 60 countries took part in the World Bioenergy 27-29 May 2008 at Elmia in Jönköping, Sweden. Exhibiting companies numbered 200, of which half came from outside Sweden. The trade fair was visited by 5564 people.

Sub-Saharan African has the greatest bioenergy potential of any world region but at present this potential is vastly under-utilised. At World Bioenergy in Jönköping, Sweden the Stockholm Environment Institute organised a forum on biofuels for development in Africa.

An expert panel with several African and international analysts and partnership/project developers addressed the key issues through short presentations followed by a panel discussion and an open discussion with the audience.

• Addressing the African Biofuel Debate: Bothwell Batidzirai, Chinhoyi University, Zambia
• Bringing a Swedish Product to an African Market: The Role of Partnership and International Cooperation for Developing a Locally Owned Ethanol Stove Business in Ethiopia ; Milkyas Debebe, Gaia Association, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
• A biofuels prenuptial: Questions for Southern policy makers before marriage ; Margaret Matinga, University of Twente, Netherlands
• Development and Implementation of Biomass Energy Pilot Activities in Uganda ; Sunil Dhingra, Fellow at The Energy Resources Institute (TERI), Delhi, India
• Bioenergy investment in Africa: Michael Nilsson, Chairman, Biomassive, Sweden
• Common challenges to sustainable rural biogas programmes in China and Africa ; Lailai Li, SEI

Biomass energy currently forms 70 to 90 per cent of the total final energy supply in sub-Saharan Africa. But there is one major problem, as Sunil Dhingra of the Energy Resources Institute (TERI) in Delhi, India explained:

Sunil Dhingra,

Fellow at the Energy Resources Institute

(TERI) Delhi, India
“This biomass is now being used in a very inefficient and traditional way. There is great development potential in Africa for biomass but the real challenge in working in these countries is the lack of access to modern biomass technology.”

Reference:
India and Uganda collaborate on biomass technology
North-south-south forum on biofuels for development in Africa: The role of regional policies and public-private partnerships

High-Level Conference on World Food Security: the Challenges of Climate Change and Bioenergy

The recent thirty-fourth session of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Conference, held during November 2007, called for a series of expert meetings and stakeholder consultations on climate change and bioenergy, to be followed by a High-Level Conference on World Food Security and the Challenges of Climate Change and Bioenergy.

FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf today appealed to world leaders for

US$30 billion a year to re-launch agriculture and avert future threats of conflicts over food.

The preparatory meetings were held January-April 2008 and the High-Level Conference takes place 3-5 June 2008. The High-Level Conference is informed by work undertaken and findings which emerged from the expert meetings and stakeholder consultations, as well as new analysis undertaken by the Organization, as part of its regular activities.

This High-Level Conference has become even more timely in light of soaring food prices and the additional challenges this situation poses to achieving global food security. Many Heads of State and Governments attend, as well as the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, transforming the June High-Level Conference into a true Summit on world food security.

The High-Level Conference on World Food Security: the Challenges of Climate Change and Bioenergy opened on 3 June 2008, at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) headquarters in Rome, Italy. In the morning, after an opening plenary, a High-Level Segment convened. In the afternoon, the High-Level Segment resumed and a Committee of the Whole (COW) met to review the draft declaration of the Conference (HLC/08/3). The COW decided to reconvene the Informal Open-ended Working Group to carry out that review.

As delegates gathered in Rome on Tuesday, they seemed to be well aware of the heavy responsibility placed on their shoulders: formulating concrete strategies and practical solutions to tackle the world’s growing food crisis. The attendance of some 30 Heads of State and Government to what was qualified as a “de facto” summit by FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf reinforced their sense of urgency. Some delegates remarked that the various leaders’ statements served a political purpose in asserting the importance of the issue, and succeeded in touching upon the very heart of the situation: uncertainty and discussion – some say speculation – about the causes of the current crisis and their relative importance.

João Bernardo Vieira, President of Guinea Bissau, stressed the need to increase investment in agriculture, especially in Africa.

Absalom Themba Dlamini,Prime Minister of Swaziland, drew attention to the linkages between climate change and the food crisis.

Gabriel Ntisezerana,Vice President of Burundi, underscored that bioenergy should not threaten food security.

Maria Madalena De Brito Neves, Minister of Environment and Agriculture of Cape Verde

Bethuel Pakalitha Mosisili,Prime Minister, Lesotho

Sayyadi Abba Ruma, Minister of Agriculture and Water Resources of Nigeria

Representative of Sudan

References:

FAO Newsroom 03/06: The world only needs 30 billion dollars a year to eradicate the scourge of hunger

Reporting Service: International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD)

"Planet Diversity" The World Congress in the Future of Food and Agriculture

550 participants from 90 countries met from May 12 -15 in Bonn; Germany for a world congress on the future of food and agriculture. It is an alternative summit to the UN Convention on Biodiversity and the Biosafety Protocol meeting. The fourth meeting of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (COP-MOP 4) is held in Bonn, Germany, from 12 to 16 May 2008. The ninth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 9) will be held in Bonn, Germany, from 19 to 30 May 2008.

African member of the organisation committee:

• Juan Lopez Villar, Friends of the Earth International, Angola
• Meriem Louanchi, AREA-ED Association de Réflexion, d'Échanges et d'Actions pour l'Environnement et le Développement, Algeria
• Sue Edwards, Institute for Sustainable Development, Ethiopia
• Ibrahim Ouedraogo, COPAGEN, Ivory Coast
• Mamadou Goita, IRPAD, Forum Nyeleni, Mali
• Mamadou Lamine Coulibaly, représentant des Organisations productirces de bananes auprès de la Coordination Nationale des Organisations Paysannes du Mali, Mali
• Mariam Mayet, African Centre for Biosafety, South Africa
• Leslie Lidell, BioWatch Southafrica, South Africa
• Marjorie Chola Chonya, Participatory Ecological Land Use Management, PELUM, Zambia
• Andrew Mushita, Community Technology Development Trust, Zimbabwe
• Cathy Rutivi, Consumers International Africa, Zimbabwe

Presentation from Africa:

• Africa needs smart technologies, not GMOs: Dr. Coulibali, Mali
• GMOs in Africa organised by IRPAD and Copagen, Mali
• Participatory breeding in Africa: Assétou Founé Samaké, Mali
• The small farmers' agenda: Mamadou Goita, Mali
• Education and Cultural Biodiversity: Million Belayin, Ethiopia
• Organic Agriculture, Abdoulaye Sarrin, Senegal
• Guinea Fowl Raising and Hunting: Romeo Mpoack, Cameroon

Related:

Press release Montreal 08/05 Secretariat Convention Biodiversity GERMANY HOSTS GLOBAL CONFERENCE ON BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY - PROMOTING A GLOBAL RESPONSE FOR ADDRESSING THE UNPRECEDENTED LOSS OF BIODIVERSITY

La Présidence française du Conseil de l’Union européenne, en partenariat avec la Commission européenne et le Parlement européen organisera, au Parlement européen à Bruxelles le 3 juillet 2008, une conférence internationale intitulée « Qui va nourrir le monde ? Vers des agricultures diverses et durables, moteurs du développement ». Le programme de la conférence est maintenant disponible

New resource on the why's, how's, and where's of biofuels

CropLife International has created a new website which is a resource on the why's, how's, and where's of biofuels, and how innovations in plant biotechology can help produce biofuels in a sustainable manner.


CropLife International is a global federation representing the plant science industry and a network of regional and national associations in 91 countries. The company members include BASF, Bayer CropScience, Dow Agrosciences, Dupont, FMC, Monsanto, Sumitomo and Syngenta. These companies conduct innovative research and technology in the areas of crop protection, non-agricultural pest control, seeds and plant biotechnology.


Friedrich Berschauer, Chairman of the Board of Management of Bayer CropScience, has been appointed Chairman of the Board of Directors of CropLife International, the global federation that represents the plant science industry. (press release 11/03/2008).

Worldwide Biotech Crop Area Set to Almost Double by 2015

Despite opposition to genetically modified crops in Western Europe and elsewhere, farmers continue to increase their plantings of biotech crops at double-digit annual growth rates.

According to a new report from the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA), biotech crop area grew 12% or 12.3 million hectares in 2007 to reach 114.3 million hectares, the second highest area increase in the past five years.
The ISAAA predicts that by 2015, the number of farmers adopting biotech crops could increase up to tenfold to 100 million, almost doubling the area to over 200 million ha.

According to the group, “the first dozen years of biotech crops have delivered
substantial economic and environmental benefits to farmers in both industrial
countries and developing countries, where millions of poor farmers have also
benefited from social and humanitarian benefits which have contributed to the
alleviation of their poverty.”

In 2007, the number of countries planting biotech crops increased to 23, and comprised 12 developing countries and 11 industrial countries; they were, in order of hectarage, USA, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, India, China, Paraguay, South Africa, Uruguay, Philippines, Australia, Spain, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, France, Honduras, Czech Republic, Portugal, Germany, Slovakia, Romania and Poland.
Related:
CLIMATE CHANGE: Biofuels Worse Than Fossil Fuels, Studies Find
GM and climate change – A hungry world needs answers on GM crops Ethical Corporation

Prioritizing Climate Change Adaptation Needs for Food Security in 2030

David Lobell of the Stanford University's Programme on Food Security and the Environment says the world community should focus its efforts where climate threats are likely to make the greatest impacts.

Investments aimed at improving agricultural adaptation to climate change inevitably favor some crops and regions over others. An analysis of climate risks for crops in 12 food-insecure regions was conducted to identify adaptation priorities, based on statistical crop models and climate projections for 2030 from 20 general circulation models. Results indicate South Asia and Southern Africa as two regions that, without sufficient adaptation measures, will likely suffer negative impacts on several crops that are important to large food-insecure human populations. We also find that uncertainties vary widely by crop, and therefore priorities will depend on the risk attitudes of investment institutions.
A man holds a cob of maize as fields and crops were flooded after the Volta Blanc river overflowed due to heavy rain in 2007 in northern Ghana. Climate change will cause severe crop losses in Africa and Asia within the next 20 years unless farming practices are changed, a study released Thursday has found.
An already hungry Southern Africa could face a 30-percent decline in maize production in the next two decades. Production of other staples like millet and rice are projected to fall by at least 10 percent, the analysis found. "Rainfall and temperatures in the region are changing quite fast," Lobell said. Maize requires a great deal of water and rich soils -- or lots of fertiliser -- so it is not the best crop for regions that will get drier. Drought-resistant sorghum might be a better choice for farmers to plant from now on, Lobell suggested. In other areas, crops could be planted earlier than normal to avoid heat-related losses in summer.

"Innovations in policy are needed -- not in technology," said Geoff Tansey, a food policy researcher, writer and editor of a number of books on food policy, including the forthcoming "The Future Control of Food".

With climate change, the best strategy for agriculture is diversity not monocultures, says Tansey, who has worked in many parts of Africa. And by diversity he means not only diversity of crops but of information and knowledge, approaches to farming and diversity of income.

Much of the current agricultural research has been privatised and produces only products that can be patented and sold. There has been a major shift in the past two decades away from public research in agriculture, he warns. The most effective improvements needed to adapt to climate change could be as simple as finding ways for farmers to share their knowledge with each other or by increasing organic matter in soils with manures and crop residues.

Around the world, soils are in decline, largely because of the focus on increasing crop yields. Agriculture depends on using solar energy from the sun to recycle nutrients from the soils into crops that we eat. However, if the nutrients removed from the soils are not replaced, soils become depleted. Recent research has found that chemical fertilisers do not replace these nutrients but rather mask declining soil quality.

References
See report in Science Magazine 01/02/2008
Prioritizing Climate Change Adaptation Needs for Food Security in 2030
David B. Lobell, Marshall B. Burke, Claudia Tebaldi, Michael D. Mastrandrea, Walter P. Falcon, Rosamond L. Naylor
Links
IPS News 01/02/08 CLIMATE CHANGE: Africa, South Asia Could Face Famines
BBC report
USA Today
International Herald Tribune
Science Daily
Related
AFP 08/02/2008 Converting land for biofuel worsens global warming: study

Biofuel – the burning issues

The FARA bulletin of December-January 2008 - which will be shortly available on the FARA website - is dedicated to the issue of Biofuels.

The development of biofuel has been hailed as a sustainable way to combat dependency on declining oil reserves, but a new study suggests there are substantial obstacles to large-scale deployment of biofuels. It is still an open question whether biofuel can meet a significant proportion of the world’s energy needs, say John Fike and co-authors in a paper in CAB Reviews. There are numerous practical questions about biomass systems, from feedstocks to logistics to pretreatment/process technologies, to be addressed. While policies aimed at reducing carbon emissions may support biofuel, other environmental impacts are also of concern, say Fike and his colleagues at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

The cost of hauling the feedstock to the refinery is a key issue, and so a high proportion of farms within a given radius of the refinery would have to commit to producing the feedstock, as a need to transport the feedstock over long distances would make bioenergy production uneconomic. The distance of the refineries from the energy user is also an important factor. There are many logistic and socio-economic issues that will need to be resolved along with the purely technical issues, say the Virginia Tech team.

References:
Challenges for deploying dedicated, large-scale, bioenergy systems in the USA by John Fike, David Parrish, Jeffrey Alwang and John Cundiff appears in CAB Reviews: Perspectives in Agriculture, Veterinary Science, Nutrition and Natural Resources2, December 2007, No. 064, 28 pp.

Biofuels - our future in the balance? interview with Trevor Nicholls, CEO CABI (Commonwealth Agricultural Bureau International - UK).

Posting of 11/01/2008 on the CABI blog

Stakes and Perspectives for Biofuels in Africa

FARA is participating to an international conference organized by the International Institute for Water and Environmental Engineering and CIRAD, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso from 27 November 2007 to 29 November 2007.

The talks bring together more than 300 specialists from Africa, Europe and the Americas to evaluate Africa's potential to produce biofuels -- whilst assessing the environmental, economic and social impacts of biofuel production.

Participants examine the impact of growing biofuel crops on water, soil and food production on a continent already buckling under shortages of locally-produced food and escalating prices of imported substitutes.

"The aim is in fact to draw up biomass use strategies that respect the environment and food crop production systems in each African country," said the organisers in a statement.

The conference is organised by the International Institute for Water and Environmental Engineering and CIRAD, the French agricultural research centre international development.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) and the government of Burkina Faso are co-organisers.

A few African countries have in recent years begun to experiment with biofuel production to supplement fossil fuels, but some experts have raised concern at the increasing conversion of arable land to biofuels crops at the expense of food production.

See also:

• Les experts s'accordent sur un équivalent du GIEC en biodiversité
• A research project to help deliver sustainable and affordable energy to the poor in Africa and Asia has been launched 28/11 by the African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS) and collaborating partners. Funded by DFID to the tune of nearly £4 million and led by the ACTS, the Policy Innovation Systems for Clean Energy Security (PISCES) project aims to produce policy-relevant information and approaches that can be applied by governments in developing the role of bioenergy in delivering energy access for the poor.
• Zimbabwe: Country Pioneers Commercial Biodiesel Processing
• Biofuels: What a Biopact between North and South could achieveEnergy Policy, Volume 35, Issue 7, July 2007, Pages 3550-3570 John A. Mathews View Abstract
  

Similar events:
Expert Consultation on Biofuels on 27 – 29 August 2007.

Biofuels Africa 2007
Bryanston, South Africa 10 - 13 September 2007

Biofuelsmarket Africa

Cape Town, South Africa 5-7 November 2007

International Biofuels Conference, New Delhi
7-8 February 2008

The State of Food and Agriculture 2007

FAO publishes The State of Food and Agriculture 2007.

Paying farmers for environmental services

FAO annual Report. SOFA 2007. 15 November 2007

This year’s edition of The State of Food and Agriculture 2007 concludes that carefully targeted payments to farmers could be a promising approach to protect the environment and to address growing concerns about climate change, biodiversity loss and water supply.

The State of Food and Agriculture 2007 explores the potential for agriculture to provide enhanced levels of environmental services alongside the production of food and fibre.

Demand for environmental services from agriculture – including climate change mitigation, improved watershed management and biodiversity preservation – will increase in the future, but better incentives to farmers are needed if agriculture is to meet this demand.

As one among several other possible policy tools, payments to farmers for environmental services hold promise as a flexible approach to enhancing farmer incentives to sustain and improve the ecosystems. Nevertheless, challenges must be overcome if the potential of this approach is to be realized, especially in developing countries.
Download the full SOFA 2007 publication

Next year: November 2008: Bioenergy: Can it fuel a rural renaissance?