Pradipta Halder

Local perceptions of and responses to climate change: experiences from the natural resource-dependent communities in India

India is considerably vulnerable in the events of climate change impacts. Vulnerability and adaptive capacity among the population varies quite a lot in a country like India. This paper investigated local communities’ perceptions of and responses to the impacts of climate change on their livelihoods. The study employed village-level participatory qualitative research methods in three geo-cultural zones of the Indian states of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Odisha. It revealed that the local communities in those places had already visualized the impacts of climate change on their livelihoods and surrounding natural resources. Their observations corresponded to the broader scientific projections of the impacts of climate change in India. The study found that the local communities had started to adapt with the changing climate by altering their livelihoods and cultural practices. The study recommends urgent need of identifying the vulnerable communities in India and assessing their vulnerability from different perspectives that climate change might expose in the future. It also recommends implementing the present pro-poor policies of the government in an effective way to improve the socio-economic conditions of the poor and vulnerable communities in the country.

Rural households’ preferences and attitudes towards biomass fuels - results from a comprehensive field survey in Bangladesh

BackgroundBiomass fuel is the main source of rural household energy in many developing countries in South and Southeast Asia. This paper examines the preference and attitude towards biomass fuels of consumers living in rural areas of Bangladesh.MethodsA questionnaire survey was conducted to collect data of 240 households from four upazilas located in four distinct agro-ecological zones of Bangladesh. Different inferential statistical tests were carried out to analyze the information.ResultsThe results revealed that branches, leaves, cow dung, rice straw and stem wood were the most commonly used biomass fuels, whereas the most preferred biomass fuels were firewood (branches and stem wood) followed by cow dung, bamboo and jute stalk. Due to the short supply of firewood, the rural households opted for inferior types of biomass such as leaves, twigs, rice straw and other crop residues. Samanea saman, Albizia procera and Mangifera indica are the main preferred firewood tree species. The analysis showed that the consumption patterns of and preferences for biomass fuels significantly varied between the regions and the socio-economic groups. The economic inability of consumers to afford commercial fuels was the main reason for the widespread use of biomass fuels. Nevertheless, the majority of the rural households posed positive attitudes towards an on-farm and off-farm afforestation programme as a response to a future supply of biomass fuel.ConclusionsThe study demonstrated that firewood was the most preferred biomass fuel and, as a consequence, the current consumption was not sustainable. Therefore, extensive farming of various fast growing firewood species both in private and public lands has been solicited to bridge the gap between demand and supply.

Stakeholders’ Perceptions of Bioenergy—Global Coverage and Policy Implications

Development of bioenergy systems is gaining momentum globally and bioenergy stakeholders are numerous and their perceptions are diverse. The study explored perceptions of bioenergy stakeholders by reviewing scholarly literature and complementing and validating them against primary data. The number of publications on stakeholders’ perceptions of bioenergy is increasing while geographical focus and stakeholder analysis vary considerably. Among the stakeholders, biomass producers, public, and experts are widely studied groups while the least explored are students and private developers. The majority of the studies have been conducted in North America and Europe, which indicate the importance of bioenergy in their energy policies and the role of stakeholders to influence bioenergy development in those countries. The study found that the stakeholders’ perceptions of bioenergy were not uniform and varied considerably even within a particular stakeholder group. More support for second- and third-generation biofuels is apparent compared to corn-based ethanol production. Factors such as age, gender, education, income level, and land ownership appear to influence stakeholders’ perceptions of bioenergy. The paper recommends raising awareness of bioenergy among different stakeholders and involving them while planning future bioenergy projects to improve their perceptions of bioenergy and reduce the chances of opposition. There is also a need for enhancing collaboration between renewable energy and educational policies so that young students become aware of bioenergy and can act as agents of change in our quest for renewable energies.

Indicators and tools for assessing sustainability impacts of the forest bioeconomy

The sustainable use of renewable resources has become an important issue worldwide in the move towards a less fossil-fuel-intensive future. Mainstream method for fulfilling this aim is to increase the share of renewable energy and materials to substitute fossil fuels and to become fully independent from fossil fuels over the long-term. However, the environmental sustainability of this endeavor has been questioned. In addition, economic and social sustainability issues are also much debated topics in this particular context. Forest resources are often thought to contribute partially to achieving a so-called “carbon-neutral society”. In this review, we discuss sustainability issues of using forest biomass. We present several sustainability indicators for ecological, economic and social dimensions and discuss the issues in applying them in sustainability impact assessments (SIAs). We also present a number of tools and methods previously used in conducting SIAs. We approach our study from the perspective of the Finnish forestry; in addition, various aspects regarding the application of SIAs in a broader context are also presented. One of the key conclusions of the study is that although sufficient data are available to measure many indicators accurately, the impacts may be very difficult to assess (e.g. impact of greenhouse gases on biodiversity) for conducting a holistic SIA. Furthermore, some indicators, such as “biodiversity”, are difficult to quantify in the first place. Therefore, a mix of different methods, such as Multi-criteria Assessment, Life-cycle Assessment or Cost-Benefit Analysis, as well as different approaches (e.g. thresholds and strong/weak sustainability) are needed in aggregating the results of the impacts. SIAs are important in supporting and improving the acceptability of decision-making, but a certain degree of uncertainty will always have to be tolerated.Highlights•Forest bioeconomy involves a range of multidimensional impacts.•A variety of methods exist to assess and evaluate sustainability.•Social sustainability is the most case-specific dimension to assess.•Indicators used in SIAs need case-specific considerations.•More consistency is needed regarding the concept and terminology of sustainability.

Croatian and Serbian private forest owners’ perceptions of energy wood mobilization: survey results and relevance for future bioeconomy

ABSTRACT In recent years, new policies have emerged in Europe related to both bioenergy and bioeconomy. The study investigated perceptions of the Croatian and Serbian non-industrial private forest owners (NIPFs) concerning energy wood mobilization from forests owned by them. A total of 232 NIPFs from the two countries participated in the study. The NIPFs perceived that they did not have adequate knowledge of selling energy wood, its price, and energy wood entrepreneurship. According to the NIPFs, the most significant obstacle to mobilizing energy wood from private forests was the lack of proper forest roads in their countries. Among the economic instruments, the NIPFs favored subsidies and guaranteed market over tax reduction for mobilizing energy wood and establishing energy wood entrepreneurship. Their main motivation for energy wood production appeared to be expected income from such an activity. It also appeared that the NIPFs would prefer supplying energy biomass from new plantations and harvesting residues instead of using their existing forests. The study provided a number of recommendations for the policy makers in Croatia and Serbia on improving the preconditions for energy wood mobilization from private forests and linking it with the bioeconomy by addressing the issues related to policy, infrastructure, and market development.

An Overview of Science Teachers’ Knowledge of Bioenergy and the Need for Future Research: A Case from India

The study aimed to explore science teachers’ knowledge of bioenergy and their views regarding bioenergy education in schools. Data were collected from 28 science teachers from four schools based in New Delhi and Bengaluru in India. The results showed that although the teachers knew some of the facts of bioenergy, the majority did not appear to know that the use of bioenergy could release CO2 into the atmosphere. Moreover, not all the science teachers were aware that bioenergy was included in the science syllabus of the tenth grade, and it indicated that bioenergy was not taught with much importance by the science teachers. The study recommends improving science teachers’ knowledge of bioenergy including other renewable energy sources so that they can provide a high quality science education related to energy topics to their students.