2018 Fiscal Year Annual Research Report
Monitoring the bio-economy in Asia: Impacts, synergies and trade-offs on land-use and carbon stock change
| Project/Area Number |
17F17776
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| Research Institution | National Institute for Environmental Studies |
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Principal Investigator |
山形 与志樹 国立研究開発法人国立環境研究所, 地球環境研究センター, 主席研究員 (90239864)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
GOH CHUN SHENG 国立研究開発法人国立環境研究所, 地球環境研究センター, 外国人特別研究員
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| Project Period (FY) |
2017-10-13 – 2020-03-31
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| Keywords | Bio-economy / Bio-energy / Sustainability / Forest / Palm oil / Land-use / Japan / Borneo |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
Bioenergy in Japan: On 28 June 2018, a workshop was organised at UNU-IAS in Tokyo. The workshop was attended by 35 experts from governments, academia, industries and NGOs from Japan, Malaysia and Sweden. It explored two lines of inquiry: utilising domestic biomass resources alongside forestry revitalisation and developing decentralised bioenergy systems for both heat and power. A follow-up workshop was organized the next day in Kofu, Yamanashi prefecture, attended by >100 representatives from local governments, companies and communities. It aimed to disseminate scientific knowledge about sustainability to a wider audience. The event was covered by NHK. Then, an international workshop was co-organized by IEA Bioenergy and NEDO on 5 September 2018, which received about 100 international participants. A Special Feature was set up at ‘Sustainability Science’ by Springer (IF 3.9). It is expected that 7-10 papers would be collected and published by mid-2020.
Bio-economy in Borneo: Extensive field trips were made in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore between 30 Sept to 2 Nov 2018, with over 20 Interviews and meetings were made with a large number of stakeholders from various background and sectors to investigate the latest development of bio-economy in the region. A paper co-authored with Indonesian researchers on bioenergy development in Indonesia was published in Dec 2018 (see section 8.). A special issue at the ‘Sustainability’ by MDPI (IF 2.0) was also organized.
(https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability/special_issues/agrodiversity_sustainable_land_management).
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
1: Research has progressed more than it was originally planned.
Reason
The study case of Japan has evolved in a surprising way - a lot of progress in collaboration with both well-established and young scholars in Japan. This has led to a proposal of Special Feature (SF) on the academic journal ‘Sustainability Science’ by Springer (IF: 3.9), of which the fellow is the lead SF Editor. Furthermore, the fellow is also involved in two of the papers in this SF. In addition to academic output, the fellow was also involved in various discussion with policymakers and their advisor. For example, the fellow has provided direct inputs to Dr. Hiromitsu Samejima (IGES) to help him in contributing to resolving the doubts of the organizing committee on the sustainability of the use of palm oil and its biomass for the upcoming Olympics.
For the case of Borneo, the progress is better than expected, but some concerns also emerged due to too many tasks pending on the list. The fellow has agreed to write a book chapter for Springer, co-authoring with researchers from Singapore. In addition, the fellow also kickstarted three papers on Borneo. With four writing tasks ahead, the fellow has to use his time effectively to complete them on time. So far, two papers have been submitted in early spring (one to ‘Land Use Policy’, one to ‘Environmental Development’, both by Elsevier), and one is currently under consideration with additional co-authors at Harvard University (US) and Tsinghua University (China). The book chapter is also reaching the final stage, pending final inputs from Prof. Janice Lee from NTU (Singapore).
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
All the planned works have been completed on both Japan and Borneo, including an overarching essay that links all the issues to illustrate the big picture. This essay considers the additional component - extensive trade relations between the three countries as well as Japan-ASEAN collaborations. The future works include (i) completing all existing writings, and (ii) synthesizing all works.
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