Unraveling biofuel impacts on ecosystem services, human wellbeing and poverty alleviation in Sub-Saharan Africa

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In the past decade, biofuel production expanded significantly across Africa, with jatropha (for biodiesel) and sugarcane (for bioethanol) attracting the most attention. Sugarcane ethanol has a proven commercial model with excellent energy balances. Jatropha is not yet proven commercially but it might offer valuable socioeconomic benefits in Africa, particularly for small-scale farmers.For several African countries the biofuel policy priorities at national level revolved around energy security and rural development, as well as attempts to take advantage of carbon finance where available. Some countries have relied heavily on ambitious state-sponsored investment/expansion plans, whereas others have encouraged private sector investment. Foreign investors have been actively seeking out African land for the establishment of feedstock production. In fact almost all projects in the region to date have been based on direct foreign investment or international NGO initiatives. Despite this policy and investor interest, several early biofuel ventures collapsed. There is evidence to suggest that was a result of i) lack of proper agronomic knowledge (particularly for jatropha), ii) appropriate institutions that could regulate the nascent biofuel sector, iii) investor caution during the 2008 global financial crisis, iv) lack of market development and v) a growing understanding of the potential environmental and socioeconomic impacts. In several cases this left the poor local communities, even poorer. Some of these poverty outcomes are directly related to the loss of access of local communities to natural ecosystems (and the goods and services they provided). This implies that there are significant linkages between the environmental and socioeconomic performance of biofuel projects but we still have an incomplete understanding of these interrelations in Africa lest developed countries. Considering the above, the aim of this interdisciplinary project is to provide clear empirical evidence on whether, and how, biofuel production and use can improve human wellbeing and become an agent of poverty alleviation in African least developed countries (LDCs). The understanding of the environmental impact of biofuel production must be a pre-requisite for understanding the true human wellbeing and poverty alleviation effects of biofuel expansion in Africa.In order to answer these questions we have carefully selected six case studies in Malawi, Mozambique and Swaziland that reflect the main modes of biofuel production and use encountered across Africa. The comparative analysis of their performance can provide important insights for the poverty alleviation potential of these diverse biofuel strategies in Africa least developed countries. Furthermore, Malawi and Mozambique are low-income countries while Swaziland is low-middle income country. As a result our research can have a great development impact to the lives of poor people in these countries. Finally, our strong focus on Malawi is due to the fact that Malawi is the only African country that has been continuously blending biofuels with conventional transport fuel (up to 20%) in the past 30 years. The success of Malawi with biofuel production will allow us to identify what has contributed to Malawi's success, and the lessons than can be learned and transferred to other countries in the region. Overall, our vision is to provide knowledge that can inform the development of evidence-based institutional mechanisms for enhancing the poverty alleviation potential of biofuel projects in Africa LDCs, and to reduce the risks of such ventures, particularly to poor smallholders. We will disseminate our results to a wide variety of stakeholders including local biofuel/feedstock producers, national, regional and the global policy-makers, practitioners, NGOs and academics in the case countries and beyond.