Understanding marginal changes in ecosystem services from biodiesel feedstock production: A study of Hassan Bio-Fuel Park, India Biomass and Bioenergy

Small-scale biodiesel production with a high level of community involvement has been associated with a number of bene ﬁ ts. These include relatively low environmental impacts, lack of competition with food production, strong poverty alleviation effects and enhanced access to energy. This Short Communication provides a qualitative analysis of the effects of the cultivation of biodiesel oilseed tree crops (mostly Millettia pinnata , along with Simarouba glauca , Azadirachta indica , Madhuca lungifolia and Jatropha curcas ) in such a small-scale project, the Hassan Bio-Fuel Park in Karnataka, India. This extensive ethnographic research and using the ecosystem services approach to synthesize the ﬁ ndings suggests that the changes in both the ﬂ ows of ecosystem services and different constituents of human wellbeing are marginal. While the ecosystem services approach can be useful to synthesize various forms of knowledge on biofuels to inform policy, this particular case study highlights the importance of being open about the different, often implicit, priorities and values of research projects and the various kinds of actors involved in biofuel production. Finally, it is crucial to understand not just which impacts are generated but especially how those impacts are generated. Author. access CC


Introduction
India's biofuel policy came out in 2009, 6 years after India's Planning Commission presented the National Mission on Bio-Diesel. The Mission kick-started national interest in biodiesel production, while arguing that biodiesel and ethanol will "contribut[e] to energy security, climate change mitigation, apart from creating new employment opportunities and leading to environmentally sustainable development" [1]. The extent to which these claims can be materialized in the case of biodiesel production arguably depends on the organizational model that is deployed.
Firstly, there are large-scale block plantations that sell feedstock on national or international markets. However, this model has been associated with low environmental sustainability, employment opportunities for a limited number of people, and even landgrabbing [2e4]. Outgrower schemes, on the other hand, may face difficulties gaining farmers' acceptance and could impoverish those farmers that do not have good access to resources such as water, pesticides and fertilizers [2e7]. A third model are small-scale schemes with high community involvement in growing/processing the feedstock and using the biofuel. In such schemes, biodiesel feedstock may be grown as hedges around the main cropland or other locations designated as suitable by the community [6e12]. It has been argued, particularly by the FAO and Energia, that such schemes have the potential to contribute towards rural development (especially for women), as well as improve local energy access [8,9]. In India, these projects include, among others, the Ranihedra rural village electrification initiative of Winrock international India and the biodiesel project in Mohuda, Ganjam district, Orissa, initiated by CTxGreEn and Gram Vikas. However, it is unclear whether this potential can be realized in practice.
This Short Communication presents and discusses the impacts of a small-scale biofuel scheme with high community involvement in the state of Karnataka, called Hassan-Biofuel Park. Besides being an illustrative example of a small-scale scheme with high community involvement, it also informs and legitimizes the Karnataka State Biofuel Policy [13]. This study adopts the ecosystem services approach as adapted for biofuels by Gasparatos et al. [13,14] and Stromberg et al. [15] from the ecosystem services conceptual framework of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment [16]. This conceptual framework has been selected because it aims to generate a cohesive body of knowledge for policy-makers that links environmental change to human wellbeing [17].

Methodology
Hassan Bio-Fuel Park started in 2006 and promotes the smallscale production and use of biodiesel in Hassan district, Karnataka State, India (Fig. 1). It aims to encourage farmers to grow oilseed trees. Seedlings of various species, mostly Millettia pinnata (Pongamia pinnata, locally referred to as honge), Simarouba glauca, Azadirachta indica (neem), Madhuca lungifolia and Jatropha curcas, are offered to interested farmers free of cost.
By planting the seedlings around (rather than on) the main cropland, the researchers who run the project argue to avoid the food-fuel conflict and the diversion of agricultural inputs such as water, fertilizers and pesticides. So far, the project has reached out to half of Hassan district's 2593 villages and has interacted with approximately 100,000 farmers [18,19]. The project has its own oil expelling and transesterification facilities and supplies biodiesel to the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation at a maximum rate of 3 m 3 per month (3000 L per month). Existing literature describes the project as potentially beneficial, particularly for women and rural poor [10,11].
Hassan Bio-Fuel Park's office and research station is located along a highway that connects the cities of Bangalore and Mangalore. The district headquarters are located in Hassan city, which is in the centre of the district and about 20 km west from Hassan Bio-Fuel Park office and research station. The villages participating in the Hassan Bio-Fuel Park project are located throughout the district.
This Short Communication offers a qualitative assessment of changes in ecosystem services due to the activities within the Hassan Bio-Fuel Park project, and the effect of these changes to key constituents of human wellbeing [12,14,16]. It draws primarily on ethnographic research spread across 14 villages (Table S1, Supplementary Electronic Material) carried out between September 2013eMarch 2014, and in October 2015. The actual names of the villages are not mentioned because some of the information discussed in this research is confidential and sensitive.
This ethnographic research consisted of informal, open-ended conversations with farmers (more than 200 in total) and participant observation while doing farm work or collecting and decorticating honge seeds. This fieldwork was documented on a daily basis, creating extensive ethnographic field notes [20]. In addition, the results presented in this Short Communication draw on over 1000 photos and about 100 short videos of farmers, fields and farming activities. The author also participated in a conference organized by the Karnataka State Biofuel Development Board (KSBDB) and carried out 10 expert interviews with policy-makers, scientists and activists (Table S2, Supplementary Electronic Material). Lastly, unstructured interviews were held with 13 traders of biodiesel oilseeds to understand the overall value chain as well as the current/past availability of these seeds.
Content analysis of this material was done manually and consisted of three rounds. During the first round, research data on specific ecosystem services and aspects of human wellbeing were identified and categorized following the categories proposed by Gasparatos et al. [12,14]. In addition, data on the impact of Hassan Bio-Fuel Park project that could not be categorized in the proposed categories, were collected in a separate file. The second round of analysis consisted of an iterative process during which factors that contributed to each of the impacts were identified in the field data. The third round consisted of analysing the interaction between all of the identified factors.

Impact on ecosystem services and biodiversity
Tables 1 and 2 show that the Hassan Bio-Fuel Park project has very little impact on all the identified ecosystem services and constituents of human wellbeing. A marginal increase was found for cultural ecosystem services and biodiversity. With respect to human wellbeing, only rural development increased slightly due to increased knowledge among farmers. This was mostly related to the uses and marketing options of oilseed species that were already present in the area, particularly Millettia pinnata (Pongamia pinnata, or honge), and about the agronomic properties of some new tree species such as Simarouba glauca and Madhuca lungifolia. However, it should be noted that farmers considered collecting honge seeds, instead of doing more remunerative work, as a lack of rural development.
In addition to the changes documented in Tables 1 and 2, it should be noted that some farmers played a particularly active role, mediating relationships between the Hassan Bio-Fuel Park project field staff and their village. These farmers claimed that they benefitted from the Hassan Bio-Fuel Park project because it allowed them to widen their network, which they felt could be helpful in the future to access government support schemes or to join interesting agricultural programmes offered by companies in the area. This particularly applies for the villages that were identified as the most keenly participating by Hassan Bio-Fuel Park field staff (villages nr. 1 and 2, Table S1 of the Supplementary Electronic Material). Yet farmers in these villages were not particularly active collecting honge seeds in practice.
As argued in Section 3.2, the lack of impacts from the project (whether positive or negative) stems from the fact that there was barely any increase in the availability of oilseeds suitable for the production of biodiesel. Throughout the period of fieldwork, only 4 farmers (out of the more than 200 farmers who were interviewed) indicated that they had seedlings which survived the first year after planting. Some of these farmers could only be identified after specifically asking other farmers whether they knew anyone in the village whose biodiesel seedlings had survived. Furthermore, none of the farmers who were interviewed had started collecting more oilseeds as a result of their involvement in the Hassan Bio-Fuel Park project, though some sold their oilseeds directly to the project's field staff rather than to traders.
Traders and Hassan Bio-Fuel Park field staff offered farmers the same price per kg of oilseeds, which fluctuated between 0.17 and 0.21 V (Rs. 13e16 at a conversion rate of 1 V ¼ Rs. 77) kg À1 at the time of the research. To obtain oilseeds for the production of biodiesel, Hassan Bio-Fuel Park's field staff bought oilseeds from traders. However, all interviewed traders testified they would have sold the bulk of their seeds to soap producers if they had not sold them to the Hassan Bio-Fuel Park field staff.

Understanding the lack of significant impact on ecosystem services
To understand the reason behind the lack of significant impact on ecosystem services and human wellbeing (whether positive or negative), this section follows the process of biodiesel production. This includes all the different stages from the moment field staff from the Hassan Bio-Fuel Park project enter a village, until seeds reach the Hassan Bio-Fuel Park's biodiesel production facilities at the office and research station where they are processed into biodiesel. Doing so will particularly highlight the decisions farmers (including elderly and children) have to make at each stage and the considerations that they may entail. These findings are summarized in Figs. 2e3. The Supplementary Electronic Material contains photographs (Figs. S1eS6), which visually represent some of the issues discussed in this section.
With the exception of one out of the 14 villages studied (village nr. 10, Table S1, Supplementary Electronic Material), farmers were enthusiastic when field staff from Hassan Bio-Fuel Park visited their villages to explain the project and how farmers could participate. In the village where farmers were not so enthusiastic, this was mainly due to negative prior experiences with a company that supplied jatropha bushes and promised to return to buy the seeds, but never showed up afterwards. In all other study villages, the seedlings supplied by the field staff were generally well received. Most farmers planted 5e15 seedlings around their lands, sharing this space with mature honge trees, timber species such as teak and silver oak (Grevillia robusta), fruit trees (e.g. mango and jack fruit) or sometimes neem trees. Except honge and neem, the distributed seedlings were largely new to the area.
Honge was the most popular species among farmers, while simarouba also gained popularity throughout the course of the project as it was promoted by scientists unrelated to Hassan Bio-Fuel Park that were interested in its medicinal value. In all, farmers usually planted one or two seedlings of the new species and neem, and 3e5 honge seedlings, though the exact composition of the set of seedlings planted by individual farmers varied a lot. Neem trees are also traditionally present in parts of Hassan district, for example around Arsikere in the north-west of the district. However, they were not popular in the study villages with trade flows in neem seeds being at least an order of magnitude lower than trade flows in honge seeds. Many farmers said that they planted the new kinds of trees simply for the sake of experimenting and being able to witness how the tree would develop. They usually had some space available where such experimentation could be done.
Giving those seedlings the amount of care that they required during the first dry seasons was difficult. Farmers rarely planted the seedlings around irrigated land, where they used the edges of the land to plant rows of profitable trees such as coconut. Carrying water during dry spells, from scarce water sources to the seedlings planted around dryland areas, was something most farmers were unwilling to do. They often asked "how can we water our plants, if we do not even have drinking water for ourselves?" They also added that they would have made more effort if the trees had large longterm cash benefits (e.g. timber) or very clear direct use-and cash value (e.g. fruit). Several farmers suggested that if they had been given fruit or timber seedlings, they would have planted those rather than the seedlings supplied by the Hassan Bio-Fuel Park project.
As discussed in Section 2, the Hassan Bio-Fuel Park office and research station produces biodiesel from honge seeds collected from mature trees. Collecting such seeds was a long-standing practice in the area and there was an existing market as these seeds are often used for soap production. However, the number of honge trees in the area declined sharply over the past decade according to both farmers and seed traders. While many farmers said they had 3-15 of these trees in the past in their family farms, most only had one or even none by the time of fieldwork (Figs. S1eS2, Supplementary Electronic Material). Farmers and traders identified brick makers as the main reason for the decline of honge trees because they regularly visited the study villages to buy fuelwood from these species, which they then used as fuel in bricks kilns. While the seeds of honge trees are freely available for anyone to collect (i.e. the benefits of the a honge tree seeds accrue to the seed-collector), the benefits of cutting the honge tree accrue entirely to the tree's owner. Furthermore, farmers complained that honge trees' large canopies and root structures create shade and obstruct the growth of their main crops. According to farmers' accounts, this characteristic of the honge tree was acceptable to their parents and grandparents, as the tree was traditionally valued for its leaves, which were mixed with the soil for extra fertility. However, this practice had declined in the past decades with the increased promotion, availability and use of synthetic fertilizers.
As a result, apart from enjoying the shade of the honge tree, its seeds are now the only benefit to farmers. Yet, collecting honge seeds is a labour-intensive task that not every farmer is willing to engage with. When men collect honge seeds, they climb the tree and, using a stick, force all seeds to fall down to collect them at once (Fig. S3, Supplementary Electronic Material). However, women collect most honge seeds, but they can only collect whatever they find lying on the ground or reaching from the branches. Therefore, women can only collect a few seeds from a single tree at once. The surface under honge trees is often uneven and may in many cases be overgrown with thorny bushes, increasing the difficulty and time required to collect the seeds (Figs. S4eS5, Supplementary Electronic Material).
After collecting the seeds, they need to be dried and Very few of the trees that were planted reach maturity, and those that did reach maturity were in locations where erosion was not, or hardly, a problem (land with vegetation and little water shortage). Cultural Appreciation of the landscape

Slight increase
There are cultural associations with the honge tree, namely the belief that the 'best breeze' can be found under this tree. Hassan Bio-Fuel Park also re-popularizes the use of honge oil for sacred lamps used for religious ceremonies, as a substitute to other oils that are available on the market. Biodiversity NA Slight increase Hassan Bio-Fuel Park projects introduces new tree species, some of which survive. They do not seem to compete with any rare indigenous species in the location where they are planted, and can therefore be considered an enrichment of the area's biodiversity. Also, they can possibly act as habitat or provide food for some bird and insect species, although this possibility would have to be studied in depth to make any statements on this.

Table 2
Human well-being outcomes of changes in ecosystem services flows from activities in Hassan Bio-Fuel Park: following Gasparatos et al. [12,14].

Land tenure No observed change
Hassan Bio-Fuel Park encouraged farmers to plant seedlings on the edges of their own land, so land tenure rights were not affected. One case was observed in which a farmer asked Hassan Bio-Fuel Park to supply seedlings to be planted on a small part of the village's common lands. In this case, nobody objected to this initiative. However, if common lands on which some inhabitants depended for fodder, firewood and other products had been used to plant biodiesel seedlings, alterations to customary rights of access would have to be made.

Gender issues No observed change
People did not change their oilseed collection practices in response to the Hassan Bio-Fuel Park project. Currently, collecting seeds is mostly considered to be a women's task. This means that making collecting seeds more remunerative is likely e though not necessarily e to increase women's workload and perhaps their access to cash. decorticated. Seeds weigh only a couple of grams, and have to be hit with a stick or stone to break the coat, and then to separate the seed from the coat (Fig. S6, Supplementary Electronic Material). All farmers testified that a day of work as daily wage labourer was a few times more remunerative than collecting and selling honge seeds. During the honge harvest season (MarcheApril), which partly overlapped with the harvest of other important crops such as finger millet (Eleusine coracana), adults, except elderly, could easily earn 2.6 V d À1 (Rs. 200 at a conversion rate of 1 V ¼ Rs. 77) per day as daily wage labourer for large farms doing other agricultural work. On the other hand, spending half a day collecting honge seeds may result in approximately 10 kg of seeds. Drying and decorticating takes another half a day and reduces the harvest to around roughly 3 kg according to the farmers, which is worth 0.51e0.63 V (Rs. 39e48 at a conversion rate of 1 V ¼ Rs. 77). These observations are strikingly different from calculated expected yield and labour opportunities presented in the 2003 National Mission on Bio-Diesel [21]. The yields assumed in the Mission document were made at a time when peer-reviewed literature on non-edible oilseeds suitable for biodiesel production was scarce. These estimates are very different not only from the results of the present study from Hassan Bio-Fuel Park, but from studies throughout India [5,22,23]. Furthermore, the Mission document assumes the need to create employment opportunities and overlooks the cumbersome process of harvesting seeds, as it largely focuses on the work involved in setting up plantations.
As a consequence of low yields and the labour-intensive process of seed collection, the quantity of seeds sold is not very large. Actually, most villages had a hard time getting at least 200 kg together, which is the minimum amount for Hassan Bio-Fuel Park field staff to be willing to buy directly from a village. For most farmers, selling a few kilograms of seeds at a time at weekly farmers' markets at the same price, was more attractive because it provided a little bit of cash to pay for basic items such as soap. In one village, mature honge trees grow along the riverbank, so almost every household was able to collect roughly 200 kg or more per year (village nr. 7, Table S1, Supplementary Electronic Material). During the harvest season, the village inhabitants brought together the harvested seeds from all households and called Hassan Bio-Fuel Park's field staff to buy the seeds. This saved the farmers the difficulty of transporting the seeds to the market.
Despite the low seed output (and eventually sales), the Hassan Bio-Fuel Park project did distribute a large number of seedlings and is able to produce biodiesel from seeds purchased at existing seed markets. Hence it was able to present this at conferences such as the National Conference on Accelerating Biofuel Programmes in India, in Bangalore (22 February 2014). From interviews with politicians and other stakeholders during and before this event, it appears that these actors continue to be attracted by the project claims of producing biodiesel that can address climate change and rural poverty without affecting food production.

Discussion and conclusions
Using the ecosystem services approach for the Hassan Bio-Fuel Park project, this Short Communication shows that despite the extensive effort to promote tree oilseed crops, there is practically no change in the flow of provisioning ecosystem services (whether positive or negative) (Table 1). Furthermore, there are only marginal changes in cultural ecosystem services and biodiversity. These translate into marginal change in only one constituent of human wellbeing, namely rural development (Tables 1 and 2).
Understanding how these effects/impacts manifest (i.e. mechanisms of change), or not, is very important for appreciating the

Decision:
Shall I plant seedlings of various oilseed species, which were distributed free of charge, on the edges of the family's agricultural land?
NO -I am not interested in collec ng oilseeds, so why should I plant these trees? -I know that I will not make the effort to take care of these seedlings -My land has good access to irriga on, so there are more remunera ve trees to grow, such as coconut.
-I know that there will be a market for honge seeds, but I am not so sure whether I will be able to sell the seeds of other oilseed varie es. What if Hassan Bio-Fuel Park's field staff never comes back? This has already happened to me in the past.

YES
-I am curious how these species (which are new to me) will perform. -The seedlings are free of charge.
-I have nothing else available to plant on the edge of my family's land.

Decision:
Shall I take care of the seedlings by protec ng them against external harm and providing water in mes of drought?
Consequence: -Seedlings are unlikely to survive. --During fieldwork, only 4 farmers were iden fied (out of 200) whose seedlings had survived the first year a er plan ng.

YES
-The seedlings grow on the edge of irrigated land, so they automa cally receive some water.

NO
-There is no water available.
-It is not worth the effort because collec ng seeds is not a barely remunera ve ac vity. performance of biofuel projects. This is especially true in developing contexts where local communities are highly reliant on ecosystem services for their livelihoods [24]. Figs. 2e3 and the results in Section 3.2 constitute a first attempt towards this. They show that there are a number of important factors, which act synergistically to create the low impact of the Hassan Bio-Fuel Park project.
Currently, policy-makers dismiss the underperformance of Hassan Bio-Fuel Park project in terms of generating feedstock (a provisioning ecosystem service), and creating a positive on human wellbeing. The main relevant argument is that 'farmers need to be better informed', and that 'high-yielding varieties will solve the present-day problems'. According to the prevailing mindset, such issues can be solved, and therefore the interest in Hassan Bio-Fuel Park remains high.
However, the factors responsible for this lack of impact according to this study are very different, and include (a) environmental factors (e.g. water scarcity), (b) preferential use of other ecosystem services (e.g. fruit and timber from trees that could be planted instead of honge and other biodiesel trees), (c) the plant characteristics of honge trees (e.g. their wide canopy and extensive root systems that obstructs the growth of other crops, thorny bush undergrowth), (d) wider landscape modification (e.g. road widening), and (e) market issues (e.g. low market prices for honge seeds, brick-makers buying honge trees for fuel). Some of these factors will be very difficult to address, particularly farmers' unwillingness to nurture their honge trees and collect their seeds in the face of far more remunerative farm activities and employment opportunities. These findings were identified through long-term engagement with the project, and would not have been identified in similar detail using a quantitative survey-style approach. The findings also raise serious concerns for the viability of similar smallscale projects as documented for example by Energia and FAO [8e9.].
Furthermore, focusing on how impacts are created also allows for a brief evaluation of 'what could have been' if the Hassan Bio-Fuel Park project did manage to enhance feedstock production. It is highly possible that food and timber provisioning ecosystem services could have declined, because there is competition for land between fruit/timber tree species and oilseed tree species on the edge of agricultural fields. Water availability could have decreased if young seedlings were irrigated during dry spells. On the other hand, fuel provisioning and local energy security as an aspect of human wellbeing may have increased, although that would have depended on whether the produced biodiesel in Hassan Bio-Fuel Park would have been used locally. The climatic effects of using biodiesel instead of fossil diesel would have depended on the specific growing methods used. Thus, a full life cycle assessment considering the potential land use change effects of oilseed tree expansion would have been required to fully quantify the possible climatic effects [25]. When it comes to human wellbeing, rural development may have decreased if farmers decided to forego more remunerative employment opportunities in order to collect larger amounts of biodiesel oilseeds. Food security could have been reduced, if biodiesel trees instead of fruit trees or if the canopy and roots of honge indeed reduced the growth (and thus the yields) of food crops. Lastly, if the additional honge seed collection was done by women (who collect most honge seeds at the moment), it may not only have increased their income but also their workload, which is already very heavy. In any case, significant empirical YES -This provides instant cash for a family emergency -I get more cash, as the collec on of honge seeds is less remunera ve than other types of waged work in the area.
-I am no longer using the honge leaves as a fer lizer because it is easier to apply ar ficial fer lizers and cowdung .
-By custom, anyone can collect seeds and make a profit, while the profit of cu ng the trees accrues solely to tree owners.
-Honge tree's roots and canopy obstruct the growth of my main crops.

TO TRADERS AT THE WEEKLY MARKET
-They give cash immediately.
-I can use this money to buy daily items such as salt, sugar and soap at the market.
-I have to go to the market anyway to sell other produce or to buy household items.
-Traders and project field staff offer the same rate and it is easier/faster for me to sell in the market rather than wait for the project staff.

TO HASSAN BIO-FUEL PARK PROJECT FIELD STAFF
-I collect large quan es (around 200 kg per season), and so do others in my village.
-I do not go to the market regularly. research would be needed to unravel such effects. It must be noted, however, that not all the effects of the Hassan Bio-Fuel Park project could easily be presented through an ecosystem services lens. Examples include the competition with soap production and the benefits that some farmers gained from acting as mediators between the field staff of the Hassan Bio-Fuel Park and their village. Despite the fact that the ecosystem services approach is open to methodological pluralism [17], this case study shows that pre-defining 'relevant impact categories' may limit the range of observations that can be documented. In addition, the meaning of pre-defined categories (e.g. ecosystem services, constituents of human wellbeing) can be different for different stakeholders. For example, to the researchers from Hassan Bio-Fuel Park, rural development meant being able to gain an income from collecting honge seeds (a provisioning ecosystem service). However, for most farmers, rural development actually meant moving away from that practice.
These findings give rise to a word of caution, which resonates with (and builds on) the debate between Gasparatos and Stromberg, and Lehtonen on the desirability of unified appraisal frameworks for biofuel sustainability such as the ecosystem services approach [17]. They jointly conclude that "unified synthesis frameworks can be appropriate in "structured" policy situations, when facts are relatively certain and policy priorities consensual" [17, p. 79]. However, at this point in time the priorities among biodiesel stakeholders are highly diverse in India and Karnataka, while existing knowledge is highly fragmented and debatable. For example, while India's national and Karnataka's state-level biodiesel policies set blending targets as their main priorities, the Hassan Bio-Fuel Park project is heralded by policy-makers for its intention to contribute to the eradication of rural poverty without affecting food production. Within this setting, it is unlikely that the creation and dissemination of knowledge, however well-organized, will be able to inform policy-making in a linear fashion, as has repeatedly been demonstrated by policy studies [26,27]. Therefore, biofuel studies using the ecosystem services approach should start with the identification of the priorities among the different actors involved, before documenting the impacts of biofuel production according to those priorities. This would create more openness regarding the values at stake when policy decisions are being made, and the way those values can inform the different understandings of biodiesel impacts (cf [28,29]). Indeed, to take this one step further, this Short Communication shows that the process of research is characterized by a wide range of choices (e.g. on what to measure or observe and what methodology is used to do so). For example, it would have been very difficult if not impossible to thoroughly understand why farmers cut their mature honge trees, why they barely take care of their newly planted seedlings and why they hardly collect honge seeds during the harvest season using quantitative research methods. Research outcomes are thus partly the result of these choices made by the researcher, and these choices are debatable [30,31]. As such, openness about such knowledge politics (these choices, the values that undergird them and the ways in which they form an integral part of research outcomes) would strengthen the Ecosystem Services Approach.
Finally, the lack of change created by the Hassan Bio-Fuel Park project (despite being considered to be a success-story in policy circles) raises questions regarding the extent to which other smallscale biofuel schemes that have also been documented as successstories actually live up to their claims [8,9].