International Sustainability and Carbon Certification System issues 1st low-ILUC certificate

Castor beans grown on degraded land can qualify for the ISCC EU low-ILUC certificate.

The International Sustainability and Carbon Certification System GmbH announced Feb. 18 issuance of the first ISCC EU low-ILUC certificate.

ILUC stands for indirect land-use change.

The certificate was awarded to Janari Farms, serving as the farmers’ aggregator for Italy’s energy company Eni in Kenya, for the production of castor beans to be used as feedstock in the production of hydrotreated biofuels.

Land-use change refers to the direct transformation of land from one type of use to another, such as converting a forest into agricultural land.

As outlined in the first of six ISCC principles, this process is never an option under ISCC certification.

Indirect land-use change includes changes that are more difficult to detect because they may happen in unexpected ways or places, according to ISCC.

“For example,” ISCC stated, “ILUC can occur when crops grown for bioliquids or other products displace food and feed crops on existing agricultural land. As the demand for food and feed continues, this shift can create pressure to convert nonagricultural land, including areas with high carbon stocks, into farmland.” 

At Janari Farms, farmers have cultivated castor on severely degraded land without risk of direct and indirect displacement of food and feed crops, ISCC said.

The certifying body added that the low-ILUC risk certification documents that the increasing demand for biofuel feedstock can be satisfied in two main ways:

• By improving agricultural yields through practices such as sequential cropping, better soil management, crop protection, or modernized machinery.

• Or by cultivating crops on previously unused, abandoned or severely degraded land.

Therefore, according to ISCC, low-ILUC risk feedstock production avoids displacing natural, unmanaged ecosystems like forests, wetlands or grasslands to produce biomass for food, feed or biofuels.

In Kenya, severely degraded lands are characterized by poor soil fertility, erosion and limited agricultural productivity, often being marginally suitable or economically not attractive for food crops.  

Production of energy crops through regenerative agricultural practices, according to low-ILUC standards, can increase soil organic carbon and improve the overall agricultural vocation of rural areas, paving the way for soil regeneration, which can then be reused for food production in the future, the organization stated. 

Sustainable biofuel value chains offer the opportunity for local socioeconomic development by providing additional and diversified incomes to farmers in rural areas.