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

在过去十年中，非洲各地的生物燃料生产大幅度扩大，其中麻风树（用于生物柴油）和甘蔗（用于生物乙醇）最受关注。甘蔗乙醇有一个经过验证的商业模式，具有良好的能量平衡。麻风树尚未得到商业验证，但它可能在非洲提供宝贵的社会经济效益，特别是对小规模农民。一些国家严重依赖雄心勃勃的国家赞助的投资/扩张计划，而另一些国家则鼓励私营部门投资。外国投资者一直在积极寻找非洲土地，以建立原料生产。事实上，迄今为止，该区域几乎所有项目都是基于外国直接投资或国际非政府组织的倡议。尽管有这样的政策和投资者的兴趣，一些早期的生物燃料企业还是倒闭了。有证据表明，这是由于i）缺乏适当的农艺知识（特别是麻风树），ii）可以监管新生生物燃料部门的适当机构，iii）2008年全球金融危机期间投资者谨慎，iv）缺乏市场开发和v）对潜在环境和社会经济影响的日益了解。在一些情况下，这使贫穷的当地社区更加贫穷。其中一些贫穷后果与当地社区无法利用自然生态系统（及其提供的货物和服务）直接相关。这意味着生物燃料项目的环境和社会经济绩效之间存在着重要的联系，但我们对非洲最不发达国家的这些相互关系仍然没有完全了解。考虑到上述情况，这一跨学科项目的目的是提供明确的经验证据，说明生物燃料的生产和使用是否以及如何能够改善人类福祉，并成为非洲最不发达国家减贫的一个因素。了解生物燃料生产对环境的影响必须是了解非洲生物燃料扩张对人类福祉和减贫的真正影响的先决条件。为了回答这些问题，我们精心挑选了马拉维、莫桑比克和斯威士兰的六个案例研究，这些案例反映了非洲各地生物燃料生产和使用的主要模式。对它们的业绩进行比较分析，可以为非洲最不发达国家了解这些不同的生物燃料战略的减贫潜力提供重要的见解。此外，马拉维和莫桑比克是低收入国家，斯威士兰是中低收入国家。因此，我们的研究可以对这些国家穷人的生活产生巨大的发展影响。最后，我们对马拉维的高度关注是因为马拉维是过去30年来唯一一个不断将生物燃料与传统运输燃料混合（高达20%）的非洲国家。马拉维在生物燃料生产方面的成功将使我们能够确定是什么促成了马拉维的成功，以及可以吸取并向该区域其他国家传授的经验教训。总的来说，我们的愿景是提供知识，为发展循证体制机制提供信息，以增强非洲最不发达国家生物燃料项目的减贫潜力，并减少这类项目的风险，特别是对贫穷小农的风险。我们将把我们的结果传播给各种各样的利益相关者，包括当地的生物燃料/原料生产商，国家，区域和全球的政策制定者，从业人员，非政府组织和学者在案例国家和超越。

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.