New Publication – Novel Regional and Landscape-Based Approaches to Govern Sustainability of Bioenergy and Biomaterials Supply Chains

(IEA Bioenergy) Novel regional and landscape governance approaches aim at addressing complex sustainability challenges by enhancing commitment and collaboration between multiple stakeholders and sectors to achieve common goals for a more sustainable production at larger geographical scales and across sectors, regardless of the purpose of produced raw materials, or the end-destination of products. Several landscape governance initiatives are emerging, but there is a need to better understand what makes them effective in achieving their sustainability goals, and if such initiatives are adequate to provide documentation, legitimacy and trust to assure that bioenergy and biomaterial supply chains support a more sustainable development.

This topic was addressed in the study “Novel regional and landscape-based approaches to govern sustainability of bioenergy and biomaterials supply chains”, which is based on nine case studies from Africa, Asia, South America and Europe, where landscape governance has been adopted to manage the resources and land uses with the participation of the different stakeholders from government organisations, the private sector and non-governmental organisations. READ MORE

Excerpt from report summary: Certification is a useful tool to promote and guarantee sustainability of commodities, especially in international value chains. However, certification has its limitations, as it may not be taken up by all stakeholders in a region, nor will it even out differences among biomass suppliers in access to the needed resource input or their production. Equally, certification has limitations in its ability to address off-farm issues (such as water or tenure rights) that often involve processes operating at landscape level, or in wider regional or national context. Hence, certification promotes a producer’s sustainability but may be inadequate for effectively addressing the great complexity of interwoven sustainability concerns that exist along the whole value chain and in a landscape.

Novel regional and landscape governance approaches aim at addressing these challenges. They may enhance commitment and collaboration between multiple stakeholders across sectors to achieve common goals for a more sustainable production at larger geographical scales, regardless of the end-use of the produced raw materials or products, or the end-destination of products.

Landscape governance can be defined as “the process of multi-sector, multi-actor and multi-level interaction and decision-making at the landscape level”.

For actors seeking to establish bioeconomy supply chains, we recommend engaging with existing landscape governance initiatives to explore how they may help develop solutions to meet key challenges (e.g. climate change, deforestation, water scarcity), or identify sustainable residues and waste materials for bioenergy production or for the creation of novel bioproducts and biochemicals.

Where no landscape initiative yet exists, we recommended engaging with primary sectors (e.g. agriculture or forestry), to explore opportunities to launch one, and seek continuous, long-term financial support. Given the time it takes to develop a complex governance system, we suggest that initial efforts focus on developing and implementing process-based sustainability indicators, while moving over time towards adopting a wider number of performance-based indicators. READ MORE