iLUC and Biofuels
iLUC overview
Indirect Land Use Change (iLUC) is a central issue to the sustainability of industrial scale biofuels. IUCN is addressing iLUC because of its implications for natural systems and species as well as for people and livelihoods, in addition to the implications for associated greenhouse gas emissions.
Indirect Land Use Change (ILUC) refers to changes in land use regionally, nationally or globally which arise from the displacement of an existing land use practice as a result of a new land use practice coming into place. ILUC has emerged as a key issue in the biofuels agenda. As biofuels emerge as a driving force for increased agricultural production in a landscape, pre-existing uses (cropping, grazing, or other) will be displaced to other lands which, in many cases may be forested lands, peatlands (particularly in the case of palm oil production), or grasslands. Such lands retain significant amounts of carbon which, when transformed to provide for cropping or grazing uses, will be released into the atmosphere. Depending on the land use change in question, such releases may outweigh potential gains in greenhouse gas emission reductions that could be attributed to the biofuel in the first place.
More information about iLUC and how IUCN is approaching the issue is available on this page.
