Priorities and relevance of bioenergy sustainability indicators: A participatory selection framework applied to community-based forestry in Mexico

• Published in: Energy research & social science 2024-03, Vol.109, p.103425, Article 103425
• Main Authors: Martinez-Hernandez, Elias, Castillo-Landero, Arick, Dominguillo-Ramírez, Diana, Amezcua-Allieri, Myriam A., Morse, Stephen, Murphy, Richard, Aburto, Jorge, Sadhukhan, Jhuma
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Bioenergy; Biomass; Forest residues; Socioeconomic impact; Sustainability assessment
• ISSN: 2214-6296; 2214-6326
• DOI: 10.1016/j.erss.2024.103425

Assessing how bioenergy projects translate into socioeconomic benefits is needed to demonstrate its value in industrial decarbonisation and sustainability strategies. This work presents a framework for bioenergy sustainability assessment wherein a set of indicators are selected, co-developed and weighted using a participatory approach. The framework integrates stakeholder identification, literature review and overlap analysis to derive an initial set of indicators used for participatory selection. The framework applied to bioenergy in community-based forestry in Mexico with participation of community and local stakeholders revealed sustainability indicator priorities and relevance in regards to occupational injury, illness and fatalities, training and/or education, use of renewable energy and household income (economic pillar); access to household electricity service, to municipal water supply, to sewerage service and to fuel, and female participation (social pillar); the loss of natural resources and grazing land, waste reduction for energy and sewage water treatment (environmental pillar). Indicators related to streetlighting were downplayed by the participants while forest fires, soil erosion, reduction of waste burning, and reduction of water use were indicators derived from the concerns expressed by the participants. The framework was useful for capturing stakeholders' relevance and priorities to make indicator selection more realistic in measuring the bioenergy impacts and co-benefits for local community. The framework using a participatory approach allows for validation with stakeholders across the scales (local, regional, and national) which can be applied to other bioenergy case studies. The framework is also a step towards an approach integrating bottom-up and top-down perspectives.