Priority areas for sustainable bioenergy production: ground-truthing of top-down analysis

1. Priority areas for sustainable bioenergy production: ground-truthing of top-down analysis • Executive summary As part of an existing research project, priority areas for sustainable bioenergy production with low negative impacts on the environment (greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity, soil) will be identified using existing global and national spatial analysis data (top-down), illustrated with a series of country studies (China, South Africa, Brazil). Further ground-truthing of this top-down identification of such large-scale areas by a field-level, test-site analysis will be strongly improved by access to high resolution satellite and remote sensing images as well as high-resolution GPS units for location-finding and point-line-area fixing during the site study phase of the project. For the China study, the project team is functional since November 2008, and the field-site analysis is planned to be carried out from January 2009 through March 2009.

2. Priority areas for sustainable bioenergy production: ground-truthing of top-down analysis • Context The potential role of biomass within a sustainable energy system is receiving significant attention globally, especially liquid biofuels. Depending on production pathways, bioenergy production can have both positive or negative environmental (greenhouse gas emission, biodiversity, soil, water) and social impacts (land-use pattern, land-use rights). Especially land-use issues (direct and indirect land-use effects) are an important factor when looking at biomass supply from energy crops. The cultivation of biomass on abandoned farmland and especially on unused degraded land offer may offer a safeguard against negative indirect land-use change effects (no displacement of land-use). The Oeko-Institut (www.oeko.de ) and IFEU (www.ifeu.de ) carry out a research project on sustainable biomass with a focus on bioenergy financed by the Federal Environment Agency (UBA, Germany) which includes methodical aspects concerning climate protection, biodiversity, water and land use, as well as aspects of bioenergy trade and legal concerns.

3. Priority areas for sustainable bioenergy production: ground-truthing of top-down analysis • Mission The aim of the overarching project is to identify priority areas for sustainable bioenergy production including the minimization of negative trade-offs. The mission of this project is to enhance the ground-truthing of top-down identification of such large-scale areas by a field-level, test-site analysis. The support from Planet Action as a co-financing will strongly improved this task by access to high resolution satellite and remote sensing images as well as high-resolution GPS units for location-finding and point-line-area fixing during the site study phase of the project.

4. Priority areas for sustainable bioenergy production: ground-truthing of top-down analysis • Partners for the Chinese Sub-Project Oeko-Institut (Institute for Applied Ecology), Darmstadt, Germany; Contact: k.hennenberg@oeko.de University of Science and Technology Beijing (USTB), Beijing, P.R. China; Contact: zifulee@yahoo.com.cn Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), Bejing, PR China; Contact: qinzh@caas.net.cn China Meteorological Administration (CMA), Beijing, PR China; Contact: jiangtong@cma.gov.cn Jiuzhaigou National Park (JNP), Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, PR China; Contact: andrew.scanlon@cimonline.de Institut für Energie- und Umweltforschung Heidelberg GmbH (IFEU), Heidelberg, Germany; Contact: horst.fehrenbach@ifeu.de

5. Priority areas for sustainable bioenergy production: ground-truthing of top-down analysis • Objectives Within the overarching project, country case studies will be carried out that aim: • to provide GIS data for mapping of abandoned and degraded land and biodiversity-relevant areas on a national and sub-national scale, and to compare these data with globally available results of mapping; • to identify potential sustainable bioenergy production areas with a focus on degraded land, abandoned farmland as well as natural unused areas; • to identify sustainable cultivation systems for these areas; • to check the achieved results of top-down GIS analysis with selected data from the field, involving respective stakeholders (bottom up) • to draw up a positive list of area types, including their spatial mapping, where sustainable biomass production has clear positive effects and very low risks for negative ones. Within the above described top-down analysis priority areas for potential sustainable bioenergy production are identified.

6. Priority areas for sustainable bioenergy production: ground-truthing of top-down analysis • Local actions Based on this top-down analysis, two focus areas with high amount of potential areas for biomass production are selected. The focus areas will have an area of at least 100 ha and include in a reasonable manner different types of available land (e.g., degraded land, abandoned land, and unused natural land). For each of these two focus areas, a site visit will be organized together with policy makers, NGOs, local people and other relevant stakeholders. Site-visits will ground-truth if the areas identified by the top-down analysis are really available and suitable for sustainable bio-energy production (bottom-up). Two areas in China will be selected from the top-down analysis (not available yet).

7. Priority areas for sustainable bioenergy production: ground-truthing of top-down analysis • Partners • Objectives • Local actions • …