From Biofuel Standards to an International Standard-setting Scheme for the Sustainable Use of Natural Resources

As part of a series of European conferences on human dimensions research, the Berlin conference this year focused on governance of social-ecological change. Timo Kaphengst showed in his presentation, how the current debate on sustainable standards for biofuels could be used to create an international standard-setting scheme for the sustainable use of all natural resources.

Since current critics on globally grown bioenergy feedstocks also apply to a wide range of products from agriculture, forestry and others, the discussion on standards for these products bears potentials for an even broader approach which would integrate a wide range of products derived from natural resources into one system. The presentation highlights different options how to create, design and implement such an international standard-setting scheme for natural resources.

The submitted paper [pdf, 102 KB, English], the presentation is based on, can be downloaded.