Bioenergy and land use change: An overview

Bioenergy production can have direct and indirect land use impacts. These impacts have varied implications, ranging from land tenure, commodity production, urbanization, carbon sequestration, and energy independence to several others. In recognition of its broad and intricate impacts, a growing amount of research focuses on this area, hoping to address the controversies and inform the relevant policies in a way that ensures more sustainable outcomes. In this chapter, we provide a summary of the research around land use change economics and modeling. We examine various concerns, as well as their empirical evidences, and outline the conceptual opportunities and challenges involved in measuring both direct and indirect land use change. We also describe a number of modeling methods that have been used in previous studies, including spatially disaggregated modeling approaches, econometric land use change approaches, and integrated environmental economic approaches. The chapter concludes with an analysis of policy imperatives and suggestions that could form the foundation of a more sustainable bioenergy development pathway.