Fuel, Food, Fibre and Feed Land Competition

There are growing fears over the competition between different land use functions for food, fibre, feed and fuel. Expanding agriculture to assure food security might lead to conflicts in areas rich in biodiversity. In other regions, tensions are rising between agriculture and the expanding cities.

Bio-renewable resources displace the use of fossil fuels in the production of chemicals, materials, liquid fuel and energy by using biomass as their feedstock. The median estimate for sustainable, global biomass potential is approximately seven times current levels. The potential for improved efficiency in the production of bio-renewables is in excess of four-fold. PSI will address the major challenges of understanding the opportunities and developing the decision-support capabilities to manage the many tradeoffs involved in global integrated land use.

Integrated and balanced approaches are required to address trade-offs between societal needs and policies such as developing bio-based economies to reduce dependency on fossil fuels; between restoration of degraded soils and the responsible use of marginal land. Land management decisions that modify water, soil, biogeochemical and energy balances, ecosystem services, food and fibre supplies and other land-surface properties such as albedo and soil structure can only be addressed with an appropriately balanced and integrated approach. This requires a holistic framework for cross-sectoral, cross-disciplinary collaborative decision support to understand and manage the trade-offs.