Bioenergy has been promoted in Japan with ambitious targets. However, the incentive schemes excluded renewable heat and overlooked synergies with local forest management, leading to the development of large-scale biomass plants that heavily rely on overseas biomass supplies. This case report discussed an alternative scenario of decentralised bioenergy systems supported with local biomass through five important questions. The currently available knowledge indicates that such a scenario is feasible with integrative forest management that considers both ecosystem services and multiple uses of wood. In addition to various environmental benefits, replacing imported fossil fuels with local biomass can also enhance energy security. Realising this scenario requires careful consideration of local context, empowerment of local governments and encouragement of both public and private initiatives.

The use and trade of solid biomass for modern bioenergy have grown rapidly in Asia. In September 2018, IEA Bioenergy organized a workshop in Tokyo to address these ongoing developments. The policies in Japan and South Korea have triggered a more import-oriented development, while bioenergy in Malaysia, Indonesia and China is closely linked to agriculture and rural policies. Four major points were raised and discussed: balancing local supplies and international trade, switching from fossil to renewable infrastructure, addressing sustainability concerns and tackling regulatory uncertainty. This workshop showed a clear need for more information exchange between countries through platforms like IEA Bioenergy.

Mobilising under-utilised low carbon (ULC) land for future agricultural expansion helps minimising further carbon stock loss. This study examined the regency cases in Kalimantan, a carbon loss hotspot, to understand the key factors for mobilising ULC land via narrative interviews with a range of land-use actors and complementary desktop analyses. The factors were broadly categorised into economic, agro-ecological, institutional and cultural factors, which were perceived as opportunities and/or barriers by different land-uses and stakeholders (with different business models), and can vary across regencies. Generally, oil palm was regarded by most interviewees as an economic opportunity, reflecting that there were no other more attractive options. However, oil palm may also be limited by various factors. For example, labour availability may greatly limit the actual amount of land that can be mobilised in many regencies due to low population density. These economic factors were interlinked with the agro-ecological factors, such as soil quality, which was often regarded as the reason of low economic attractiveness. The other two categories, institutional and cultural factors, are more subtle and complex, involving socio-political elements across the hierarchy of authorities. Understanding these factors requires understanding the relationships between different stakeholders and their histories. Past analyses on ULC land largely focus on a single crop or end-use. This study shows that mobilisation of ULC land has to depart from analysing the specific conditions within individual regencies, especially considering the views of multiple land-use actors on different land-use options and business models. Future research is recommended to assess available land-use options and business models by investigating how they are affected by each of the factors identified here and accounting for the policy targets set by individual regencies (e.g. economic development or food security) and the preference and capability of local actors.

This study spatially estimated degraded lands in Indonesia that have limited functions for food production, carbon storage, and conservation of biodiversity and native vegetation and examined their suitability to grow biodiesel species (Calophyllum inophyllum, Pongamia pinnata, and Reutealis trisperma) and biomass species (Calliandra calothyrsus and Gliricidia sepium). Results showed ~3.5 million ha of degraded lands potentially suitable for these species in Indonesia. With the all-five-species scenario, these lands had the potential to produce 1105 PJ year⁻¹ of biomass and 3 PJ year⁻¹ of biodiesel. With the biodiesel-only-species scenario, these lands showed the potential to produce 10 PJ year⁻¹ of biodiesel. Despite this energy potential, however, the land sizes were too small to support economies of scale for biofuel production. The study findings contribute to identifying lands with limited functions, modeling the growth of biofuel species on regional lands, and estimating carbon stocks of restored degraded lands in Indonesia.

Mobilising under-utilised low carbon (ULC) land resources for future agricultural production can help reducing pressure on high carbon stock land from agricultural expansion, particularly for deforestation hotspots like Kalimantan. However, the potential of ULC land is not yet well understood, especially at regency level which is the key authority for land-use planning in Indonesia. Therefore, this study explored ULC land resources for all regencies in Kalimantan. By analysing information from six monitoring domains, a range of indicators were derived to provide insights into the physical area of ULC land from various perspectives. It was found that these indicators show largely different values at regency level. For example, regency Pulang Pisau has a substantial area of ‘temporarily unused agricultural land’ but a very limited area of ‘low carbon land’ – this implies that not all ‘temporarily unused agricultural land’ is ready for future exploitation when assessing from different aspects. As a result of such diverging indicators, using a single indicator to quantify available ULC land resources is risky as it can either be an over- or under-estimation. Thus, ULC land resources were further explored in the present paper by taking four regencies as case studies and comparing all the indicators, supported with relevant literature and evidence collected from narrative interviews. This information was used to estimate ULC land area by possible land-use strategies. For example, Gunung Mas was found to have a large area of low carbon land which is not occupied and might be suitable for oil palm deployment. However, the major limitation is that physical estimates cannot provide a complete picture of ‘real’ land availability without considering a broader range of socio-economic factors (e.g. labour availability). Therefore, physical land area indicators from different domains must be combined with other qualitative and quantitative information especially the socio-economic factors underlying land under-utilisation to obtain better estimates.