Sustainability of bioenergy production from wood in the tropics is mainly endan­gered by the ‘gold-rush fever’ phenomenon on the bioenergy market, which sometimes fosters developing projects in tropical countries, without a clear concept of sustainable resource supply. This applies to both traditional and commercial bioenergy production. Tropical countries face the challenge of designing holistic concepts for a sustainable implementation of bioenergy use that is adapted to local conditions. These concepts must embrace all three aspects of sustainability and carefully balance bioenergy production with all other socio-economic and ecologic demands (Fig. 1.3).

It entails that all levels of sustainability have to be met, starting with sustained economic feasibility, long-term beneficial impact on society and the avoidance of negative impacts on the environment. This challenge is best met with an integrated land-use management system, where different land-use forms and eco-system services such as food-production, fibre production, biodiversity conservation, water provision, job creation and biomass production are balanced (Fig. 1.4). A bias of land-use towards a singular objective of biomass production does not meet the sustainability criteria. Unfortunately, decision making support tools to balance land — use portfolios are rare and still have to be developed or adapted to tropical conditions (Furst et al. 2013; Seifert et al. in press).

Frequently, basic knowledge on the implementation of sustainable systems for biomass production and conversion to energy is also not readily available in many tropical and sub-tropical countries. The vast majority of the current literature on biomass production originates from countries in the temperate and boreal zone of the Northern Hemisphere and due to differences in climate zones; it may not be directly applicable to countries in the tropics and sub-tropics.

Fig. 1.3 The three spheres of sustainability