bioenergy Archives - Page 7 of 8 - Resilient Landscapes (RL)

Potential benefits of integrated bioenergy and food production systems on degraded land in Wonogiri, Indonesia

Cultivating suitable biofuel crops on degraded land by involving local communities can be a promising solution for energy and food security while restoring land. This chapter provides information on the socioeconomic and environmental benefits of Calophyllum inophyllum L., known locally as nyamplung, based on agroforestry systems practiced by local farmers in Wonogiri district, Central Java province, Indonesia. Relevant information was gathered through field observations and a focus group discussion with 20 farmers practicing “nyamplung-based agroforestry systems” with rice, maize, peanuts and honey. The net present values (NPVs) of rice and peanuts indicated negative profitability when they were grown as monocultures, whereas maize generated only marginal profits. Amazingly, honey production utilizing nyamplung produced an NPV nearly 300 times higher than maize. However, combined with nyamplung, honey was also the commodity most sensitive to decreases in production, followed by nyamplung–peanut and nyamplung–rice combinations. While decreases in production had little effect on the NPVs of rice, peanuts and maize, these annual crops can only be cultivated for a maximum of six years within nyamplung’s 35-year production cycle, due to canopy closure after this time. In conclusion, Nyamplung-based agroforestry systems can provide economic, social and environmental benefits on different scales. Additionally, considering the high profit potential of combining nyamplung with honey production, it is necessary to improve and develop bee husbandry practices to make doing so a viable option for local farmers.

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Landowner perceptions towards bioenergy production on degraded lands in Indonesia

Various tree species have been identified as having potential for bioenergy and restoration of degraded land. Using degraded land for bioenergy production provides Indonesia with an opportunity to meet its rapidly growing energy demand while creating productive landscapes. However, bioenergy production is not feasible without landowner participation. This study investigates factors affecting preferences for restoration tree species by analysing responses from 150 landowners with fire experience in Buntoi village in Central Kalimantan l. Results indicate 76% of landowners preferring familiar species with readily available markets, such as Albizia chinensis (sengon) and Hevea brasiliensis (rubber), for restoration on degraded land, with only 8% preferring Calophyllum inophyllum L. (nyamplung) for bioenergy production. The latter group of landowners revealed a capacity to handle the uncertainty of the bioenergy market as they had additional jobs and income, had migrated from Java where nyamplung is prevalent, or preferred agricultural extension to improve their technical capacity. These results contribute to identifying key conditions for a bottom-up approach to bioenergy production on degraded land in Indonesia: a stable bioenergy market for landowners, application of familiar bioenergy species, and agricultural extension support for capacity building.

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Review of bioenergy initiatives in Indonesia for multiple benefits and sustainable development

Indonesia has committed to advancing its use of new and renewable energy (NRE) through its National Energy Policy (Kebijakan Energi Nasional). It has targeted NRE contributing 23% of the national energy mix by 2025, with bioenergy cited as one strategic measure for achieving this target. With Indonesia’s abundant biomass resources, it is worth assessing and exploring potential bioenergy feedstocks, and identifying opportunities and challenges for development and upscaling. With sustainability being on global and national agendas, Indonesia is no exception with its focus on bioenergy. This chapter discusses bioenergy development initiatives in Indonesia over the past 15 years through a review of literature from 2005–2018, and provides a general review and updates to 2020. It discusses emerging issues pertinent to multiple-benefit potentials, competing uses and other development agendas. The study looks at Indonesia’s abundant resources that could be developed for bioenergy, and discusses numerous studies dedicated to bioenergy development potential. Palm oil, Jatropha curcas and biogas are the most well-studied potential sources of bioenergy. Beyond these, implementation at scale remains a challenge, and feasibility studies including linkages with major offtakers are necessary. While many bioenergy initiatives have faced challenges with uptake, oil palm (Elaeis guinensis) biofuel is by far the most widely developed and used in Indonesia. Although opportunities exist to synergize bioenergy development with various development agendas, in some instances trade-offs might be necessary.

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Allometric Equations for the Biomass Estimation of Calophyllum inophyllum L. in Java, Indonesia

Reliable data on CO2 quantification is increasingly important to quantify the climate benefits of forest landscape restoration and international commitments, such as the Warsaw REDD+ Framework and Nationally Determined Contributions under the Paris Agreement. Calophyllum inophyllum L. (nyamplung as a local name or tamanu tree for the commercial name) is an increasingly popular tree species in forest landscape restoration and bioenergy production for a variety of reasons. In this paper, we present allometric equations for aboveground biomass (AGB), belowground biomass (BGB), and total above- and belowground biomass (TABGB) predictions of C. inophyllum L. Data collection was carried out twice (2017 and 2021) from 40 trees in Java, Indonesia. Allometric equations using the natural logarithm of diameter at breast height (lnDBH) and ln height (lnH) for biomass prediction qualified the model’s fit with statistical significance at 95% of the confidence interval for AGB, BGB, and TABGB predictions. The results showed that the linear models using both lnDBH and lnH were well fit and accurate. However, the model with lnDBH is more precise than the model using lnH. Using lnDBH as a predictor, the R2 values were 0.923, 0.945, and 0.932, and MAPE were 24.7, 37.0, and 25.8 for AGB, BGB, and TABGB, respectively. Using lnH as a predictor, the R2 values were 0.887, 0.918, and 0.898 and MAPE were 37.4, 49.0, and 39.8 for AGB, BGB, and TABGB, respectively. Consequently, the driven allometric equations can help accurate biomass quantification for carbon-trading schemes of C. inophyllum L.

Charcoal production from invasive Prosopis juliflora in Baringo County, Kenya

Key lessons

Originally introduced to dryland areas in Kenya as a solution to deforestation and fuelwood shortages, the shrub Prosopis juliflora has become highly invasive, displacing native plants, and negatively impacting both biodiversity and livelihoods.
Efforts to control Prosopis include, among others, using it to produce sustainable charcoal, which can both fill a major bioenergy gap and clear land for agriculture.
However, limited knowledge and a lack of proper equipment for pruning have prevented communities from realizing the full economic potential of Prosopis.
In Baringo County, CIFOR-ICRAF and partners took an integrated approach to sustainable charcoal production using Prosopis, through participatory mapping and ‘training of trainers’ on sustainable harvesting and the use of improved kilns.
Results show that using Prosopis for charcoal production is sustainable in three ways: it is abundant, it can be regenerated through selective pruning, and it produces high-quality charcoal more efficiently than other woody species.
This brief describes these results and offers recommendations for the use of invasive species for charcoal production.

Prospects for wood-based electricity for the Indonesian National Energy Policy

To achieve the target of 23% renewable energy by 2020, Indonesia has been actively exploring options to loosen its dependence on fossil fuels. While biofuels have been developing fast and remain a priority for the government, wood-based energy also holds great potential. This report is a first attempt to assess its state of development and feasibility.

Wood-based energy could be based on the high-profile large-scale industrial tree plantation program in Indonesia. This is one of the largest in the world with millions of hectares planted, but it has failed to achieve all of its public objectives. The government envisions its revival, with bioenergy as an alternative to the mature pulp and paper market. To do so, a flagship feed-in tariff policy has been put in place as an incentive for power plants to using biomass (or biogas material).

Our research – based on intensive interactions with stakeholders at all levels, secondary data and three case studies – leads to one straightforward message that this source of energy is not going to represent a significant share of the energy mix for a long time. Major obstacles include the difficulty in establishing and managing large-scale tree plantations dedicated to energy production with recurrent claims and conflicts on the ground, the inability of the feed-in tariff policy to compensate investors for the risks of shifting to a new type of energy, the absence of subsidies provided to the state-owned electricity company that sees little interest in buying relatively expensive power, and the lack of proof of concept that lowers the probability of significant investments in this field.

The global cropland footprint of the non-food bioeconomy

A rapidly growing share of global agricultural areas is devoted to the production of biomass for non-food purposes. The derived products include, for example, biofuels, textiles, detergents or cosmetics. Given the far-reaching global implications of an expanding nonfood bioeconomy, an assessment of the bioeconomy’s resource use from a footprint perspective is urgently needed. We determine the global cropland footprint of non-food products with a hybrid land flow accounting model combining data from the Food and Agriculture Organization and the multi-regional input-output model EXIOBASE. The globally interlinked model covers all cropland areas used for the production of crop- and animal-based non-food commodities for the years from 1995 to 2010. We analyse global patterns ofraw material producers, processers and consumers of bio-based non-food products, with a particular focus on the European Union. Results illustrate that the EU is a major processer and the number one consumer region of non-food cropland, despite being only the fifth largest producing region. Two thirds of the cropland required to satisfy EU non-food consumption are located in other world regions, giving rise to a significant dependency on imported products and to potential impacts on distant ecosystems. With almost 29% in 2010, oilseed production, used to produce, for example, biofuels, detergents and polymers, represents the dominant share in the EU’s non-food cropland footprint. There is also a significant contribution of more traditional non-food biomass uses such as fibre crops (for textiles) and animal hides and skins (for leather products). Our study emphasises the importance of comprehensively assessing the implications of the non-food bioeconomy expansion as envisaged in various policy strategies, such as the Bioeconomy Strategy of the European Commission.

Land use mediated GHG emissions and spillovers from increased consumption of bioplastics

Bioplastic production is a small but fast growing sector in the global bioeconomy, which may benefit from public support measures in the future as governments seek to promote more sustainable consumption patterns. Here we assess the potential net economy-wide impacts of a 5% bioplastic target relative to current plastic consumption in the main producing regions. We compare two alternative policy strategies to achieve the target in a general equilibrium framework that allows for substitution between conventional and bio-based plastics: a subsidy on bioplastics versus a tax on fossil-based plastic consumption. Our study is the first to quantify global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from an increased demand for bioplastics on a global scale, produced from arable crops, considering both direct and indirect land use change (LUC). The tax provokes a contraction of all sectors that employ plastics, which leads to a drop of 0.07% in global real GDP, whereas the subsidy has no significant effect on the global economy. Both tax and subsidy reduce world demand for petroleum products, by 0.37% and 0.07%, respectively, boosting demand for sugar- and starch-based feedstock in the bioplastic industry. This leads to emissions from LUC globally, which correspond to a carbon payback time of 22 years on average, with the associated annual abatement costs of over US$2000 per tonne of CO2-eq. The tax has greater GHG reduction potential in bioplastic producing regions but generates greater economic and environmental spillover effects in countries that do not enforce the target. Results show that promoting bioplastic consumption is not a cost-effective strategy for climate change mitigation if based on conventional feedstock, due to market-mediated GHG emissions from LUC. Bioplastics are not necessarily more sustainable than conventional polymers just because they are bio-based, although further assessment of potential environmental gains associated with biodegradability and recyclability is desirable.

Bio-economy in developing countries

A bio-economy comprises the knowledge-based production and use of biological resources to provide products, procedures and services in all economic sectors. Every country in the world thus has a bio-economy, even if the characteristics of individual bio-economies vary significantly globally. Modern bio-economy concepts aim to “biologize” the economy with the aim of sustainable development. In this respect, there are numerous overlaps with the scientific and sustainability strategies of many countries as well as with the “green economy” concept.

Economic Impacts and Land Use Change from Increasing Demand for Forest Products in the European Bioeconomy: A General Equilibrium Based Sensitivity Analysis

The European forestry sector is a potential driver of transformation towards a sustainable bioeconomy. Forest products are increasingly used in high-tech and high-value-added industries, e.g., chemicals and the automotive industry. So far, however, research on the European bioeconomy has largely focused on agriculture as a provider of food, feed, fuel, and fiber to bio-based industries. Here we assess the potential impacts of a stronger reliance on forestry sector inputs to the European Union (EU28) bioeconomy on output, prices, final demand, and land use. Specifically, we run a sensitivity analysis of a 1% increase of input use of forest products in the EU28 economy in a Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) framework accounting for land use by Agro-Ecological Zones (AEZ) and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions at high regional and sectoral resolution. We find that such a shift to a more forest-based bioeconomy would provoke small indirect land use effects globally due to existing international trade linkages and land market effects. Simulated increases in planted forest cover are associated with net GHG emission savings, but our scenario analysis also points to higher imports of forest products from countries with vulnerable tropical forest biomes, such as Brazil and Indonesia.

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