Bioenergy in rural development

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Bioenergy > Issues > Development > Bioenergy in rural development

Jatropha planted in Senegal.

Production, processing and sale of biofuels and bioenergy can contribute to rural development.

Topics:

• Biogas in rural development
• Jatropha in rural development
• Land use
  • Land tenure issues

Projects

Projects in developing countries

Projects in developed countries

BioTown, USA

• BioTown, USA - "BioTown, USA" is a project to make the town of Reynolds, Indiana self-sufficient in energy by using biomass resources.
  • The town is currently installing a "Technology Suite" as part of phase II of the project that will consist of anaerobic digestion, gasification, and fast pyrolysis technologies converting municipal and agricultural waste into electricity, biofertilizer, thermal energy and biodiesel.
  • The BioTown, USA Sourcebook of Biomass Energy (pdf) by Mark Jenner, PhD; Indiana State Department of Agriculture and Reynolds, Indiana, 3 April 2006. The sourcebook outlines the biomass resources and technologies potentially available to the town.

Publications

Women and girls in parts of developing countries spend many hours collecting wood for cooking in the home. (Flickr Creative Commons image by Genocide Intervention Network).

See books, reports, scientific papers, position papers and websites for additional useful resources.

• Biofuels, land access and rural livelihoods in Tanzania (PDF) by Emmanuel Sulle and Fred Nelson for IIED: This paper describes "patterns of biofuel development and crop cultivation in Tanzanian rural areas" and "various potential threats and opportunities from biofuels expansion." December 2009

• Agrofuels in the Americas (PDF file) - report released April 2009 by Food First; examines impacts of biofuels development, including on rural development and related issues in countries such as Brazil and Guatemala.

• Validation Report of a Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Biomass Gasifier Power Plant Project in the north-Indian State of Bihar (pdf) by Andreas Gantenbein (Validation by Prof. D. Spreng), Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zurich, October 2005.

Events

• 6-7 October 2009, Accra, Ghana: Katoomba XV - Ghana: Payments for Ecosystem Services in West Africa (and looking forward to Central Africa) (Themes: REDD, local peoples, ecosystem services, West Africa, Central Africa, developing countries, forests)

News

• 'Invasive' biofuel crops require monitoring and mitigation measures, 21 January 2010 by ENN/European Consumers Bioenergy Division: "Biofuel crops will impact on biodiversity and natural ecosystems unless tightly controlled, says a panel of European experts."
  • The Bern Convention "adopted a recommendation on potentially invasive alien plants being used as biofuel crops (Recommendation 141, 2009). They warn that some biofuel crops are able to escape as pests, and in so doing impact on native biodiversity. As rural communities plan to grow more biofuel crops, the likelihood of new and harmful 'invasions' will increase apace."[1]

• CLIMATE CHANGE: Brazil Defends Biofuels, 9 December 2009 by IPS/TerraViva: "Being the world’s largest producer and exporter of ethanol it is natural for the Brazilian government and its partners to push biofuels as the only real alternative for a world trying wean itself away from fossil fuels that contribute to global warming."
  • "Brazilian authorities were ready with their arguments at the United Nations climate change summit"...."at pains to show that not only is biofuel production the best way to reduce greenhouse gas (GhG) emissions but can also combat poverty as exemplified by the country’s scheme to promote micro-distilleries to provide additional income for rural families."
  • "While admitting that "biofuels are no silver bullet," Brazilian authorities insist that biofuels are the best way forward for developing countries."[2]

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