Alexandros Gasparatos

The argument against a reductionist approach for measuring sustainable development performance and the need for methodological pluralism

Abstract Both sustainability and sustainable development continue to remain elusive concepts even now, 20 years after the Brundtland Commission report that brought them into prominence. This situation most likely stems from the fact that sustainability science encompasses the need to address a wide set of issues over different time and spatial scales and thus inevitably accommodates opinions from diverse branches of knowledge and expertise. However, despite this multitude of perspectives, progress towards sustainability is usually assessed through the development and utilisation of single sustainability metrics such as monetary tools, composite sustainability indices and biophysical metrics including emergy, exergy and the ecological footprint. But is it really justifiable to assess the progress towards sustainability by using single metrics? This paper argues that such a choice seems increasingly unjustifiable not least due to these metrics’ methodological imperfections and limits. Additionally, our recent awareness of economies, societies and ecosystems as complex adaptive systems that cannot be fully captured through a single perspective further adds to the argument. Failure to describe these systems in a holistic manner through the synthesis of their different non-reducible and perfectly legitimate perspectives amounts to reductionism. An implication of the above is the fact that not a single sustainability metric at the moment can claim to comprehensively assess sustainability. In the light of these findings this paper proposes that the further elaboration and refinement of current metrics is unlikely to produce a framework for assessing the progress towards sustainability with a single metric. Adoption of a diverse set of metrics seems more likely to be the key for more robust sustainability assessments. This methodological pluralism coupled with stakeholder involvement seems to offer a better chance of improving the outcome of the decision making process.

Socioeconomic and environmental impacts of biofuels : evidence from developing nations

International discussions on the sustainability of Brazilian ethanol biofuel and efforts to develop biofuel sustainability certification have, until recently, concentrated on the environmental effects – notably deforestation and the indirect land use impacts – of the expected expansion of sugarcane cultivation. The social impacts of large-scale sugarcane cultivation have received major attention in the debate only during the past few years. However, this attention has primarily concerned the impacts in Sao Paulo State, currently the main sugarcane producing area of the country, and in the Center West, the expected main area of expansion for sugarcane cultivation. This chapter brings into focus the socioeconomic situation and potential impacts of further biofuel expansion in the coastal area of the poor Northeast of Brazil, whose economy and society have been fundamentally shaped by sugarcane cultivation since the late sixteenth century. In particular, the chapter starts from the assumption that the highly unequal power relations in the Northeast crucially condition the impact of biofuel expansion in this region and that the various forms of exercise of power should be given greater attention when designing biofuel policies, notably international sustainability certification. In the context of the highly polarized social relations and competing development paradigms, a crucial question concerns the degree to which sustainability certification can indeed help profoundly transform rather than consolidate the prevailing unequal social and power relations.Foreword Stephen Polasky Part I. Global Overview: 1. Biofuels at the confluence of energy security, rural development and food security: a developing country perspective Per Stromberg and Alexandros Gasparatos 2. The interrelations of future global bioenergy potentials, food demand and agricultural technology Karl-Heinz Erb, Andreas Mayer, Fridolin Krausmann, Christian Lauk, Christoph Plutzar, Julia Steinberger and Helmut Haberl 3. Air pollution impacts of biofuels Kristina Wagstrom and Jason Hill 4. Water for bioenergy: a global analysis Winnie P. Gerbens-Leenes, Arjen Y. Hoekstra and Theo H. van der Meer 5. The challenges of estimating tropical deforestation due to biofuel expansion Yan Gao, Margaret Skutsch and Omar Masera Part II. The Case of Brazil: 6. The Brazilian bioethanol and biodiesel programs: drivers, policies and impacts Alexandros Gasparatos, Matteo Borzoni and Ricardo Abramovay 7. Power, social impacts, and certification of ethanol fuel: view from the northeast of Brazil Markku Lehtonen 8. Implications of global ethanol expansion on Brazilian regional land use Amani Elobeid, Miguel Carriquiry and Jacinto F. Fabiosa Part III. Asia: 9. Biofuel expansion in southeast Asia: biodiversity impacts and policy guidelines Janice S. H. Lee, John Garcia-Ulloa and Lian Pin Koh 10. Jatropha production for biodiesel in Yunnan, China: implications for sustainability at the village level Daisuke Sano, Jane Romero and Mark Elder Part IV. Africa: 11. Biofuels and Africa: impacts and linkages at the household-level Siwa Msangi 12. Energy security, agro-industrial development and international trade: the case of sugarcane in southern Africa Bothwel Batidzirai and Francis X. Johnson 13. Environmental and socio-economic considerations for jatropha growing in Southern Africa Graham P. Von Maltitz, Anne Sugrue, Mark B. Gush, Colin Everson, Gareth D. Borman and Ryan Blanchard Part V. Synthesis: 14. Biofuels in developing countries: a synthesis Alexandros Gasparatos and Per Stromberg.

Jatropha cultivation in Malawi and Mozambique: impact on ecosystem services, local human well-being, and poverty alleviation

Jatropha-based biofuels have undergone a rapid boom-and-bust cycle in southern Africa. Despite strong initial support by governments, donors, and the private sector, there is a lack of empirical studies that compare the environmental and socioeconomic impacts of Jatrophas two dominant modes of production: large plantations and smallholder-based projects. We apply a rapid ecosystem services assessment approach to understand the impact of two Jatropha projects that are still operational despite widespread project collapse across southern Africa: a smallholder-based project (BERL, Malawi) and a large plantation (Niqel, Mozambique). Our study focuses on changes in provisioning ecosystem services such as biofuel feedstock, food, and woodland products that can have important effects on human well-being locally. Qualitative information is provided for other regulating and cultural ecosystem services. Although at this stage no impact is tremendously positive or negative, both projects show some signs of viability and local poverty alleviation potential. However, their long-term sustainability is not guaranteed given low yields, uncertain markets, and some prevailing management practices.

Assessing the food security outcomes of industrial crop expansion in smallholder settings: insights from cotton production in Northern Ghana and sugarcane production in Central Ethiopia

The current industrial crop (IC) expansion in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) may have important ramifications for food security. This study proposes a rapid appraisal method that can capture the food security outcomes of IC expansion in smallholder settings in SSA. A key element of this approach is a common unit of household caloric intake that captures food security across its four pillars (availability, access, utilization, stability). This approach also considers the role of women in household food security. The proposed approach is tested in two radically different smallholder IC settings: cotton production in Northern Ghana and sugarcane production in Central Ethiopia.

Forest conservation and the private sector: stakeholder perceptions towards payment for ecosystem service schemes in the tobacco and sugarcane sectors in Malawi

The tobacco and sugarcane industries play an important role in the national economy of Malawi. Collectively, they account for approximately 79 and 22% of the national foreign exchange earnings and gross domestic product, respectively. However, the sustainable production of high-quality tobacco and sugarcane has been threatened due to the continued deterioration of forest ecosystems. Considering the importance of tobacco/sugarcane production for the national economy and rural livelihoods, there is an urgent need to implement effectively different forest conservation initiatives in the country. Considering the complex linkages at the interface of deforestation, sugarcane/tobacco production, and economic activity, this is a complicated task that must be undertaken by both the government and tobacco/sugarcane companies. Incentive-based forest conservation management approaches, including Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) schemes, can be one of the approaches that can help curb deforestation. However, there are significant knowledge gaps regarding how the private sector can be meaningfully involved in PES schemes, especially in developing country contexts. This paper draws on expert interviews with multiple stakeholders at the interface of tobacco/sugarcane production and forest conservation in Malawi to highlight the role of the private sector in promoting forest conservation among farming communities and the potential for participating in PES schemes. Different forest conservation initiatives are currently being implemented by the sugarcane and tobacco sector, but are not coordinated. While PES schemes are currently not operational in Malawi, there seems to be a relatively high support among private companies towards such incentive-based conservation mechanisms. The introduction of PES schemes as corporate social responsibility (CSR) projects or on a credit-based form (e.g., as conditionality to access credit for farm inputs or eligibility to be contracted to farm tobacco/sugarcane) could be the most appropriate structures for effectively involving the private sector. Establishing an independent multi-stakeholder PES coordination committee would be necessary for the effective coordination and implementation of such PES schemes. However, any future effort to promote a PES scheme in Malawi needs to informed with on-the-ground knowledge and should be weighed against other forest conservation options.

Rapid Sustainability Appraisal of Collapsed Jatropha Projects in Ghana Using Local Community Perceptions: Methodological Implications for Sustainability Science

In the mid-2000s, Ghana experienced a biofuel boom driven by jatropha expansion, but within a few years almost all jatropha projects within the country collapsed. Limited community participation in biofuel project planning has played a key role in the failure of the projects, which have had a range of sustainability impacts on the local environment and society. Understanding the patterns of sustainability impacts through community perceptions can provide information that could enhance the sustainability of future biofuel projects in the country. By using a rapid sustainability appraisal that captures community perceptions, the present chapter compares the sustainability impacts experienced by communities around three failed jatropha projects in Ghana with those captured in their respective Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) reports. The authors found a mismatch between the impacts experienced by communities and those assessed in EIAs that arises, to an extent, from the limited participation of communities in the project planning and EIA processes. The findings suggest the need for adopting a bottom-up approach for the identification and selection of sustainability impact criteria. Sustainability science scholars can use rapid sustainability appraisals to gain an initial understanding of a given study area, in order to inform the framing of the research questions and help in the selection of an appropriate methodology to collect and analyse actual data through subsequent fieldwork.

Sustainability Science for Meeting Africa’s Challenges: Setting the Stage

Sub-Sahara Africa (SSA) is experiencing striking antitheses. Despite the long-term efforts to alleviate poverty, poverty still remains endemic in several of its regions (UNDP 2014). Currently, SSA contains a large fraction of the world’s poor and while poverty rates have declined drastically over time, it may take a substantial amount of time before chronic and multi-dimensional poverty is eradicated (World Bank 2016; UNDP 2014). This is particularly troubling as Africa is in fact blessed with abundant natural resources that could potentially assist its development. In reality, however, these resources are not always evenly distributed among segments of society or can have tremendous negative environmental impacts if mismanaged. For example, while large tracts of land are allocated across Africa for large-scale agricultural production to spur economic development (Schoneveld 2014), the continent registers some of the highest levels of under-nutrition and food insecurity globally (EIU 2015). At the same time some agricultural practices in SSA have been blamed for causing extensive land use change and environmental degradation (Reynolds et al. 2015). While, growth in the agricultural sector is challenged by an uncertain policy environment, poor infrastructural development and increasing post-harvest losses, among others (OECD/FAO 2016), enhancing the actual sustainability of the agricultural sector is a much more difficult puzzle to solve. Mining is another example of how the rich natural resource base of the continent does not always translate into positive sustainability outcomes. For example while mining has catalyzed economic development in some areas (UNECA 2011, 2013), it has often been detrimental to the natural environment (Edwards et al. 2013) and local communities (Hilson 2009). Several scholars have pointed that the paradigm of building development (let alone a sustainable development) based on resource extraction could, in fact, be misleading as attested by the signs of possible resource curse in some SSA countries (Badeeb et al. 2017). At the same time SSA host some pristine and highly biodiverse ecosystems, including eight of the 36 global biodiversity hotspots (Mittermeier et al. 2011). While the extent of protected areas has been increasing in SSA in the past decades (UNEP-WCMC 2016), protected and nonprotected areas are facing significant pressure as they cater for multiple human needs ranging from fuelwood to wild food and medicinal plants (Tranquilli et al. 2014; Brashares et al. 2011; UNEP 2010; Beresford et al. 2013; Laurance et al. 2012). In fact most African countries have little progress in meeting the Aichi Biodiversity Targets ratified during the 10th Conference of the Parties of the & Alexandros Gasparatos gasparatos@ir3s.u-tokyo.ac.jp

Sustainability science for meeting Africa’s challenges

Africa is currently experiencing striking antitheses. Despite long-term efforts to alleviate poverty, poverty still remain endemic and multi-dimensional in several of its regions (UNDP 2014). Africa is, in fact, blessed with abundant natural resources that could assist its development (UNECA 2011, 2013). However, in reality, these resources are not always evenly distributed among the different segments of society (UNECA 2011), or can have tremendous negative environmental impacts if mismanaged (Evans et al. 2013). For example, while large tracts of land is allocated across Africa for large-scale agricultural production as a means of economic development (Schoneveld 2014), the continent registers some of the highest levels of under-nutrition and food insecurity globally (EIU 2015). At the same time, Africa’s biodiversity and largely pristine ecosystems cater for multiple human needs (Brashares et al. 2014; UNEP 2010), thus facing increasing pressure, especially outside of protected areas (Laurance et al. 2012; Beresford et al. 2013). The dual realities of a rapidly increasing population and global environmental change are expected to put further strain into the natural resource base of the continent. In fact, across Africa, there is a rapid urbanization (with unique patterns), low access of urban populations to basic amenities/materials (e.g., nutritional food, modern fuels), and increasing vulnerability of these population to environmental change (World Bank 2013). The combination of the above might take a significant toll on public health, and stifle development opportunities well into the future (UNHabitat 2015). These are only some of the multifaceted and intertwined sustainability challenges that Africa is currently facing, and will be facing for the decades to come. There is an urgent need to solve these challenges in a socially inclusive and environmentally friendly manner if a transition to a green economy is to be realized in the continent (UNEP 2015). Sustainability science has an interand transdisciplinary focus, a solution-oriented approach and an ability to link the social and ecological systems (Kates 2011; Komiyama and Takeuchi 2006). It is, thus, well positioned to lead the research agenda and to offer key insights to address these challenges in the African context. However, African voices and perspectives need to be more meaningfully integrated in current sustainability science practices, if these challenges are to be tackled effectively (Chilisa 2012).

Sustainable food systems—a health perspective

Malnutrition in all forms, ranging from undernourishment to obesity and associated diet-related diseases, is one of the leading causes of death worldwide, while food systems often have major environmental impacts. Rapid global population growth and increases in demands for food and changes in dietary habits create challenges to provide universal access to healthy food without creating negative environmental, economic, and social impacts. This article discusses opportunities for and challenges to sustainable food systems from a human health perspective by making the case for avoiding the transition to unhealthy less sustainable diets (using India as an exemplar), reducing food waste by changing consumer behaviour (with examples from Japan), and using innovations and new technologies to reduce the environmental impact of healthy food production. The article touches upon two of the challenges to achieving healthy sustainable diets for a global population, i.e., reduction on the yield and nutritional quality of crops (in particular vegetables and fruits) due to climate change; and trade-offs between food production and industrial crops. There is an urgent need to develop and implement policies and practices that provide universal access to healthy food choices for a growing world population, whilst reducing the environmental footprint of the global food system.

Towards a classification of the drivers of jatropha collapse in Ghana elicited from the perceptions of multiple stakeholders

Jatropha for biofuel production created high expectations in Ghana for boosting rural development and national energy security. In the mid-to-late 2000s, large areas were allocated across the country to jatropha investments that eventually collapsed. Jatropha collapse has been prevalent across Africa but few studies have empirically addressed the (a) drivers of jatropha collapse (b) post-collapse impacts, and (c) future acceptability of jatropha. Through household surveys and expert interviews, we capture the perceptions of key stakeholders in Ghana involved in the biofuel sector at the national/regional level and local communities around six collapsed jatropha projects. Key drivers of collapse include the (a) low jatropha productivity, (b) weak business planning, (c) community conflicts, (d) institutional barriers, and (e) civil society opposition. Land-related issues are central to almost all of these drivers of collapse. While there is currently considerable scepticism among stakeholders about the future of the biofuel sector in Ghana (and especially of jatropha), there is still some interest in jatropha as reflected in community surveys and recent government policies. As we could not identify a single dominant driver of jatropha collapse locally or nationally “silver bullet” solutions might not exist. However, improving the land administration system would be a key if the negative past experiences of jatropha boom and bust are to be avoided.