An important tool to help solid bioenergy planning is mapping of areas that should be exempt from bioenergy development because of their high conservation value in terms of biodiversity or in terms of CO2 storage capacity and of areas that would be suitable for bioenergy development. Such mapping needs to be based on common definitions of terms as well as a mix of a 'top down approach' via GIS mapping and a bottom up approach involving local stakeholders in the identification of high conservation value areas or degraded lands.

UNEP, the Oeko Institut and the Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels, in collaboration with Conservation International, IUCN, FAO and the WWF organized a first workshop on 'Bioenergy and Biodiversity: Joint International Workshop on High Nature Value Criteria and Potential for Sustainable Use of Degraded Lands'.

The following background papers were prepared for this event:

• Degraded Land and Sustainable Bioenergy Feedstock Production (PDF - 510 KB)
  
  
• Criteria and Indicators to Identify and Map High Nature Value Areas (PDF - 960 KB)
  
  
• Bioenergy production on marginal and degraded land:
  the potential social impacts (PDF - 541 KB)

In July 2009, the 2nd Joint International Workshop on Bioenergy, Biodiversity Mapping and Degraded Lands was held in Paris and brought together leading experts and organizations to discuss definitions, tools, data sources and methods for sustainable bioenergy planning.

The workshop brought together current knowledge on mapping and defining 'go' and 'no-go' areas for bioenergy, particularly in regards to defining and mapping biodiversity and degraded lands. A key sentiment from the workshop was that efforts are needed to develop processes and criteria to identify degraded areas or biodiverse areas, instead of creating definitions for them.

Another thread was that mapping tools and methods, although useful, have a lot of gaps in practice - including limited data availability and sources. In this regard, bioenergy planning must consider mapping from both a 'top down' and 'bottom up' approach, and larger spatial analysis has to be integrated with ground proofing at the site level.

Following are the proceedings from the workshop, and the workshop report:

• Proceedings from the 2nd Joint International Workshop on Bioenergy, Biodiversity Mapping and Degraded Lands
  
  
• Workshop report (PDF - 272 KB)

Related Links

Öko-Institut

FAO

IUCN

Conservation International

WWF