Biomass supply chains for invasive alien trees

Clearing and restoring land invaded by alien trees in South Africa is strategic to adapt to climate change. As funding falls short of needs and alien clearing operations exhibit limited effectiveness while usually leaving or burning trees on site, there is a case for biomass-based value chains. However, financial feasibility for the main products of interest (bioenergy and biochar) is disputed due to sub-optimal supply chains. These must be improved to cope with a scattered, heterogeneous, and poorly mapped resource. To this aim, we surveyed key stakeholder categories based on an analytical framework derived from the literature and validated our results with a stakeholder workshop. This represents a first attempt to study and improve invasive trees-based supply chains with relevant results for other contexts. We find a complex governance of supply chains, without coordination with alien clearing programs, a diversity of models, and mixed reports about the fluidity of interactions with landowners. We conclude with six recommendations: (i) establishment of a biomass users association (information dissemination and connections with public actors), (ii) support to large-scale biomass users (innovation potential, sustainability certification), (iii) centralised funding (consistent planning of alien clearing), (iv) generalisation of collaborative landscape platforms (improved access to sites, targeted support to value chains), (v) enhanced law enforcement (lower transaction costs and greater bargaining power for biomass suppliers), (vi) improved coordination between stakeholders (articulation with alien clearing, higher integration).