Impacts of Biofuel on Ecosystem Services: A Synthesis

This policy brief summarizes a three-year study using an ecosystem services framework to assess the environmental and socioeconomic trade-offs of biofuel production and household use in Malawi, Mozambique, and Swaziland.

• Bioethanol production requires less landscape modification than household biomass fuels. While biofuel crop landscapes provide essential services like feedstock production, land-use change can negatively impact woodland products and food crop production, with effects varying by feedstock crop.
• Sugarcane production showed positive socioeconomic impacts for farm workers and farmers and provided significant carbon-sequestration benefits, potentially making it a useful tool for climate mitigation strategies. However, biofuel-producing areas did not show significantly better access to modern energy services compared to non-producing areas.
• Jatropha production resulted in ecosystem services losses that were not offset by benefits for local communities, primarily due to low smallholder crop yields and a market collapse. In Maputo, household ethanol stoves had limited success due to the high cost of ethanol and the stoves themselves.

APA

Stockholm Environment Institute (2018). Impacts of Biofuel on Ecosystem Services: A Synthesis. https://www.sei.org/publications/impacts-biofuel-ecosystem-services-synthesis

Chicago

Stockholm Environment Institute. Impacts of Biofuel on Ecosystem Services: A Synthesis. 2018. https://www.sei.org/publications/impacts-biofuel-ecosystem-services-synthesis.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Stockholm Environment Institute |title=Impacts of Biofuel on Ecosystem Services: A Synthesis |date=1 September 2018 |url=https://www.sei.org/publications/impacts-biofuel-ecosystem-services-synthesis |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{stockholmenvironmentinstitute2018impacts, author = {{Stockholm Environment Institute}}, title = {{Impacts of Biofuel on Ecosystem Services: A Synthesis}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2018}, month = sep, url = {https://www.sei.org/publications/impacts-biofuel-ecosystem-services-synthesis}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }