摘要：Preoccupation with global energy supplies and climate change in the global North, and adesire to improve the balance of trade and capture value in the emerging carbon market by developingcountries, together place biofuels firmly on the map of global land use change. Much of this recent landuse change is occurring in developing countries where large agro-ecologically suitable tracts of land maybe accessed at lower economic and opportunity cost. This is leading to the gradual penetration of commercialcrops that provide suitable biofuel feedstocks (e.g., sugarcane, soybean, oil palm, jatropha) into ruralcommunities and forested landscapes throughout many areas of the global South. Expansion of biofuelfeedstock cultivation in developing countries is widely embraced by producer country governments as ameans to achieve energy security and stimulate rural economic development through employment andsmallholder market integration. It is also expected that foreign and domestic investments in biofuel feedstockcultivation will lead to positive economic spillovers from knowledge transfer and investor contributionsto social and physical infrastructure. While biofuel feedstocks are expanding through large industrial-scaleplantations and smallholder production alike, the expansion of industrial-scale production systems has beencountered by a critical response by civil society actors concerned about the implications for rural livelihoods,customary land rights, and the environmental effects of biofuel feedstock cultivation. To date, however,limited data exist to demonstrate the conditions under which widely anticipated economic and climatechange mitigation benefits accrue in practice, and the implications of these developments for forests, locallivelihoods, and the climate change mitigation potential of biofuels. In such a situation, debates are easilypolarized into those for and against biofuels. This special issue seeks to nuance this debate by sheddinglight on the local social and environmental impacts accruing to date from the expansion of biofuel feedstockcultivation through in-depth case studies in 6 countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Findings providea more nuanced picture of costs and benefits, and point to a host of risks that need to be proactively managedto leverage the potential of the industry as an engine of national social and economic development
关键词：Africa; biofuels; environmental impacts; forest frontier; Latin America; social impacts;Southeast Asia
