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Tropentag, October 6 - 8, 2009 in Hamburg
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Certification as a Means for Sustainable Biofuel Production? - Potentials and Constraints
Emeka Umejesi, Christian Lippert
University of Hohenheim, Department of Farm Management, Germany
Abstract
Within the past few years there has been significant increase in biofuel production in several countries across the globe with governments making policies to encourage its production. While biofuel has been applauded as a potential means to reduce dependence on fossil fuels which also account for a high share of worldwide green house gas emissions, concerns have been raised about its possible social and environmental hazards such as reducing access of smallholder farmers to land, food insecurity, as well as green house gas emissions caused by indirect land use changes.
Due to their potential for growing biofuel feedstocks many developed countries are now looking towards tropical countries for meeting their blending targets and mandates. As a means to avoid the perceived negative impacts of biofuel production, several governments and independent organisations have come up with certification initiatives in order to ensure that certain minimum sustainability standards are met when producing biofuels. At present, efforts are made towards an internationally recognised certification scheme.
Based on the review of current literature, the purpose of this paper is first, to assess all possible impacts of biofuel production especially in rural areas of Africa, second to assess progress made so far in creating certification schemes for biofuel production and third, to analyse under which conditions certification can be a successful instrument of promoting sustainable resource use.
In the focus of this analysis will be the trade-offs between biofuel production and food security as well as between land use for biofuel purposes and forest conservation. On the one hand biofuels could be a source of increased farmers' income in rural areas of Africa. On the other hand, due to subsidies and tax incentives in developed countries the marginal product of the land used for biofuel production rises when compared to food production. Using a comparative-static approach the related trade-off and its possible effects on food prices and land use will be analysed by means of a graphical model. Finally, based on the model results main implications regarding farmers' income, food security, land conversion, climate change mitigation and effects on biodiversity will be discussed.
Keywords: Biofuel, certification, food security, sustainability
Contact Address: Christian Lippert, University of Hohenheim, Institute for Farm Management, 70593 Stuttgart, Germany, e-mail: clippert
uni-hohenheim.de
