Bioenergy Biodiversity and Land use

1
BioenergyBiodiversity and Land use
Expert meeting on biodiversity standards and
strategies for sustainable cultivation of biomass
for non-food purposes 12-15 March 2008, Isle of
Vilm/Germany
Martina Otto Head, Policy Unit, Energy
Branch United Nations Environment Programme
2
Bioenergy trade offs

• between drivers

Energy Security
Development (energy access, MDGs, rural areas)
Climate Change
Sustainable Use of Natural Resources Biodiversity
provides the basis for ecosystems and the
services they provide.

• between country specific (needs country
  conditions)
• between the local, national and global agendas

energy
basic energy Cooking, heating, lighting
Transport fuel
productive energy
food
labour / economic development
Biophysical Climatic conditions, Water
availability, Soil quality
Current structure and Growth potential Of
agricultural sector Crops, Trade flows
Climate change Impacts Adaptation potential
3
Competition for land use

• Human settlements
• Agriculture (food, feed, fibre !)
• Protected areas / high conservation value areas
  (biodiversity !)
• and ecosystem services

• Increasing pressure from
• Population growth
• Lifestyle changes / consumption patterns
• CC

4
Potential
5
Biodiversity hotspots
6
Water stress
Source WRI, 2006
7
Zoom on agriculture

• Both cultivated and wild biodiversity provide
  services necessary for agriculture livelihoods
  are directly linked
• Potential impacts from agriculture on
  biodiversity through
• Land use change
• Soil erosion and degradation
• Water overuse and contamination
• Invasive species and GMOs
• Biofuels exacerbating the risks or
• opportunity to spur improvements?
• recovery of marginal lands
• prevention of desertification
• increased efficiency of agriculture (new
  technologies and fresh investment)

8
Zoom on energy

• High level of energy consumption in developed
  countries
• Growth in demand in emerging economies
• Impacts from production and distribution of
  energy on biodiversity through
• Fuelwood collection
• Coal mining
• Oil and gas extraction, pipelines / shipping
  (spills)
• Dams (flooding of biodiversity reach areas)
• Batteries (production and end of life / waste)
• Impacts from use of fossil energy Climate
  change, which in turn, has an impact on
  biodiversity
• Biofuels an opportunity to reduce
  impacts or posing new threats?

9
Need for good planning and management

• Choice of the area (no go areas, e.g. PA, HCVA
  no regrets, e.g. marginal land)
• Choice of the crop (adapted to local conditions
  and needs)
• Good agricultural practices (water, soil, new
  technologies, methods serving double purpose)
• Involvement of local communities (planning,
  production, use)
• governments mmt of natural resources
• industry risk management
• local communities improvement of livelihoods

10
Set of rules RSB principles and criteria

• 7. Biofuel production should avoid negative
  impacts on biodiversity and areas of high
  conservation values
• a. Identification of the production site
  (plantations, transformation facilities and other
  infrastructure). Balanced contribution from
  producer, according to their financial means, and
  governments to identify and map HCV areas, native
  ecosystems, ecological corridors, and other areas
  of importance.
• b. No conversion of HCV areas, native ecosystems,
  ecological corridors and other biological
  conservation areas. Limited exploitation of such
  areas under management as long as HCVs are
  preserved, as well as degraded areas (to be
  defined and cut off date to e set)
• c. Avoid or minimize negative impacts on
  ecosystem functions and services.
• d. Buffer zones to be set between production
  sites and surrounding areas.
• e. Avoid disruption of ecological corridors, even
  on the production site.
• f. Good practices promote the use of degraded
  land, native species, crop rotation, global
  landscape management system, no-till practices,
  green harvesting, etc.

11
Set of rules RSB principles and criteria II

• definitions (HCV areas, marginal / degraded land)
• indicators
• implementation protocols
• capacity building incl. information on crop and
  pathway requirements and impacts (LCA)
• financial assistance in developing countries
• monitoring tools / certification

12
Indirect land use changes

• High risk for both biodiversity and climate
  change solution through linkage between
  biodiversity and climate change regimes?
• Market based mechanisms and financial instruments
• (more realistic evaluation of biodiversity/ecosyst
  em functions, internalisation of environmental
  cost, payments for effective management of
  biodiversity)
• Risk adder (Fritsche, 2007)
• REDD
• GIS monitoring (impacts going beyond the farm
  level, level of monitoring needs to go beyond the
  farm level as well)