New Marginup! Paper: What It Takes to Deploy Biomass Value Chains on Marginal Land

A new scientific paper from MarginUp! partners examines the conditions that shape whether biomass value chains on marginal lands can actually be implemented. Drawing on survey responses from 133 stakeholders across seven value-chain cases — primarily in Europe, with additional evidence from Argentina and South Africa — the study analyses perceived risks, sustainability priorities, implementation challenges and enabling measures.

The central finding is that deployment does not follow a single generic pattern: fibre- and material-oriented pathways were associated with product standards, certification and market development; wetland biomass with ecological compatibility, land-use clarity and regional logistics; biofuels with policy stability, quality assurance and secure demand; biogas and substrate pathways with supply coordination, infrastructure and predictable incentives; and restoration-linked woody biomass with institutional coordination, land-tenure clarity and local value creation.

The authors conclude that deploying biomass for bioenergy and bio-based products depends not only on feedstock availability or technological potential, but on how environmental safeguards, regulatory conditions, market structures and coordination arrangements align in practice — which is why value-chain-specific support conditions matter for implementation.

The paper, Deployment conditions for biomass value chains on marginal lands: Evidence from a multi-case stakeholder survey, was published in the international journal Biomass & Bioenergy. It was authored by Thi Huyen Trang Dam, Philipp Grundmann, Ewunetu Tazebew Gonete and Shahsharif Mohammadshafi Shaikh, from the Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering and Bioeconomy (ATB), Injibara University and Stellenbosch University.