Assessing land use and biodiversity impacts of industrial biotechnology

Abstract

One of the many promises of biotechnology is that it allows societies to move away from a fossil-based industry toward a bio-based industry, with positive implications for anthropogenic climate change and resource dependency. The provision of biomass from agriculture or forestry is, however, linked to specific environmental implications that cannot be disregarded in an informed discussion about the role of biotechnology in the twenty-first century. In this chapter, we discuss landuse-related effects of biomass provision such as landscape homogenization, eutrophication, erosion, biodiversity, and others. We also discuss how these effects are represented in Life Cycle Assessment, which is a powerful tool for product sustainability evaluation.