Applying the Ecosystem Services Approach to Biofuels

Per Stromberg1, Alexandros Gasparatos2

1Visiting Fellow, United Nations University –

Institute of Advanced Studies 2Research Fellow, Environmental Change Institute, Oxford

University

Workshop South at the Steering Wheel

May 29th 2012

1Per Stromberg also works at the Policy Analysis Unit, Swedish Environmental Protection Agency

Applying the Ecosystem Services Approach to Biofuels

Aim of the presentation

• Highlight a conceptual framework that can be used as a first step to identify the trade-offs and the direct/indirect effects of biofuel production on ecosystem services and human wellbeing.

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United Nations University - Institute of Advanced Studies

Biofuel impacts

Positive impacts • net energy suppliers (e.g. Hill et al., 2006) and increase energy security (e.g. EU, 2008) • environment and climate (e.g. Zah et al., 2008) • might not affect food security (e.g. Zhou and Thomson, 2009) • economically/socially beneficial (e.g. Arndt et al., 2009; FAO, 2009)

Negative impacts • net energy consumers (e.g. Pimentel and Patzek, 2005) or provide lower energy gain

when compared to other biomass-based renewables (Campbell et al., 2009) • environment (e.g. SCOPE, 2009) • climate (e.g. Fargione et al., 2008) • biodiversity (e.g. Fitzherbert et al., 2008) • food security and food prices (Runge and Senauer, 2008; Mitchell, 2008; IIASA, 2009) • social exclusion of the poor (e.g. IIED, 2008)

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Need for a framework for assessing biofuel sustainability

“…tradeoffs…need to be explicitly considered by using a framework that allows the outcomes of alternative systems to be consistently evaluated and compared”

Robertson et al., 2008. Science, 322, 49-50.


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Our proposal

The ecosystem services concept and the associated conceptual framework can form the basis of an assessment framework for evaluating biofuel production practices


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Background – ecosystem services Various definitions “…the benefits people obtain from ecosystems” (MA, 2005: 27) “…components of nature, directly enjoyed, consumed, or used to yield human

wellbeing” (Boyd and Banzhaf, 2007: 619) “…the aspects of ecosystems utilized (actively or passively) to produce human

wellbeing” (Fisher et al., 2009: 645) Various classifications • Pre-MA*: (Daily, 1997; Costanza et al., 1997; de Groot et al., 2002) • MA*: (MEA, 2005) • Post-MA*: (Boyd and Banzhaf, 2007; Wallace, 2007; Fisher et al., 2009)

* MA – Millennium Ecosystem Assessment


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MA classification


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Why ecosystem services?

Biofuels provide ecosystem services (e.g. fuel, climate mitigation) and can compromise others ecosystem services (e.g. food, freshwater services). However, this knowledge is fragmented and there is yet no full understanding about their effect on human wellbeing.

– Helps to make explicit links between ecosystem functioning

and human wellbeing

– Focuses on trade-offs

– Already high buying in by stakeholders

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1.Provisioning services 1.Fuel

(+) Bio ethanol, biodiesel, straight vegetable oil

(+) Generally speaking net-energy producers, e.g. (Menichetti and Otto, 2009; de Vries et al., 2010; Panichelli,et al., 2009)

2.Food

(-) May compete with food directly (e.g. Fisher et al., 2009) and indirectly (e.g. for labour) (Sano et al., forthcoming)

3.Fresh water

(+) Wastewater can be used for the cultivation of bioenergy crops (e.g. Borjensson and Berndes, 2006) and biofuel crops can possibly be used to restore contaminated aquifers (Gopalakrishnan et al. 2009)

(-) Possible overexploitation and degradation (through pollution), and high water footprint (Gerben-Leenes et al., 2009a; 2009b)


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2.Regulating services

1.Climate change mitigation (+) Several LCAs have shown that biofuels can emit less GHG during their whole life cycle

(Hess et al., 2009; Delucchi, 2006). (-) However, if Land Use Change (LUC) related GHG emissions are properly accounted for

then biofuels can be significant net GHG emitters (Fargione et al., 2008; Danielsen et al., 2008; Gibbs et al., 2008)

2.Ambient air quality

(+)/(-) Biofuel production can impact the atmospheric environment at various stages of the life cycle, positively (compared to fossil fuels) and negatively (particles from fires from land clearing).

3.Erosion control

(+) Feedstocks that can be grown on marginal land such as Jatropha can improve soil quality and control erosion (Acten et al., 2008; Gmunder et al., 2010).

(-) Feedstock production can can be a driver of soil erosion, e.g. in Brazil and Argentina (Martinelli and Filoso, 2008; Van Dam et al., 2009)


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3.Cultural services

• Lack of biofuel specific literature

• However monocultures, deforestation, occupation of marginal land and invasive species have been identified as potentially having a negative impact on cultural ecosystem services (MA, 2005)


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MA classification

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Impact on human wellbeing

Biofuel production can impact human wellbeing through 1. Rural development

2. Access to energy/energy security

3. Access to food/food security

4. Health

5. Conflict/Land tenure

6. Gender issues


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Human wellbeing impact:

Rural development Income and employment opportunities

Labour intensity of different feedstock

Huge role of the choice of production system (e.g. outcropping/decentralised small production units vs. large scale plantations (Arndt et al., 2009a; 2009b)

Information gaps in some biofuel practices can cause market risk particularly for small holders


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Energy security and access to energy

National: Bioethanol from sugarcane constitutes a significant fraction of all the transport fuel consumed in Brazil

Local: the energy self-sufficient villages (ESSV) program in Indonesia (1000 villages to meet their own energy demand from locally available renewable resources by 2010) (Kusdiana and Saptono, 2008, FAO, 2008; Energia, 2009)


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Food security and access to food Increased biofuel demand/production has been

identified as one of the interconnected reasons behind the sharp increase of food prices since 2002 (Mitchell, 2008; RFA, 2008)

Effects on human wellbeing varies between net producers and net consumers, urban and rural, etc.

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Human wellbeing impact: Health

Cases of deployment of agrochemicals exposing workers to risks.

Conflict/land tenure Cases of land grabbing/ land conflict (e.g. Cotula 2009).

Gender issues The effects of biofuel production on human wellbeing

might not be proportionate between genders (Rossi and Labrou 2008, Energia 2009).

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Source: Gasparatos, A., Stromberg, P. (2011) Biofuels, ecosystem services and human wellbeing. Agriculture, Ecosystems and

Environment.

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Thank you for your attention


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• Stromberg, P., Esteban, M., Gasparatos, A. (under review at Environmental Science and Policy) Climate change effects on mitigation measures: the case of extreme wind events and Philippines´biofuel plan.

• Gasparatos, A., Stromberg, P. (2011) Biofuels, ecosystem services and human wellbeing. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment.

• Gasparatos, A., Stromberg, P. (Eds.) (forthcoming) Socio economic and environmental impacts of biofuels: evidence from developing nations. Cambridge University Press.

• Stromberg, P. Gasparatos, A. (forthcoming) Biofuel production and its trade-offs: a developing country perspective. In Gasparatos, A., Stromberg, P. (Eds.) Socioeconomic and environmental impacts of biofuels: evidence from developing nations.

• Gasparatos, A., Stromberg, P. (forthcoming) Conclusions: the sustainability of biofuel in developing countries. In Gasparatos, A., Stromberg, P. (Eds.) Socioeconomic and environmental impacts of biofuels: evidence from developing nations.

• Stromberg, P. (forthcoming) Ecosystem services impact of biofuels – rural development, current and future deforestation. United Nations University-Institute of Advanced Studies, Working Paper Series, Yokohama.

List of publications

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• Penaranda, R., Gasparatos, A., Puppim de Oliveira, J., Suwa, A., Stromberg, P. (2011) Local impacts on ecosystem services: the case of oil palm production in Indonesia. In Takeuchi, K. et al. (Eds.) UNU Press. Tokyo.

• Stromberg, P., Gasparatos, A., Lee, J.S.H., Garcia-Ulloa, J., Koh, L.P., Takeuchi, K., (2010) Impact of liquid biofuels on ecosystem services and biodiversity. UNU-IAS Policy Report. United Nations University-Institute of Advanced Studies, ISBN 978-92-808-4518-1, Yokohama.

• Stromberg, P., Esteban, M., Thompson-Pomeroy, D. (2009) Interlinkages in climate change-vulnerability of a mitigation strategy: Implications of increased typhoon intensity on biofuel production. UNU-IAS Policy Report. United Nations University-Institute of Advanced Studies, Yokohama.

Conference papers and special sessions:

• Intl. Assoc. Energy Economics, Intl. Soc. Ecol. Ecs., etc.

Under elaboration

• Gasparatos, A., Stromberg, P. Costanza, R., Ghazoul, Takeuchi, K. (to be submitted to Science) Biofuel and ecosystem services.

• Stromberg, P., Olaniyan, K., Gasparatos, A. Biofuels directive and tropical deforestation: econometric evidence from Indonesia.

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Conclusions • Biofuel production (during its whole life cycle) affects ecosystem services and human wellbeing.

– Can provide and enhance ecosystem services thus contributing positively to human wellbeing.

• The source of the challenge of biofuel sustainability is an inadequate understanding of the biofuel production chain, explicitly, the fallacy to acknowledge the many routes nature takes in creating human wellbeing (e.g. fuel). In contrast, taking ecosystem services as the unit of analysis the multifunctional role of nature becomes evident for the planner as do the effects on human wellbeing of using environment for different welfare enhancing objectives. By taking ecosystem services as the unit of analysis sustainability analysis will help to address both temporal and spatial scales, including the causality between current consumption choices for energy and their future implications in often faraway production sites.

• Biofuel sustainability depends greatly on the context (feedstock, socio-economic context etc.) of feedstock/biofuel production and trade. As a result the widely adopted tendency of grouping biofuels under the same banner when discussing their potential seems unjustified.

• “Biofuels” include vastly different production practices that take place in different ecosystems, for different reasons and compete with other human activities. As a result in our opinion it is important to clarify the associated trade-offs which are context specific when attempting to tackle biofuel related dilemmas.

We make the case that it is both possible and justified to make such trade-offs explicit by using


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Technology

Applying the Ecosystem Services Approach to Biofuels