How sustainable is bioenergy production in the Philippines? A conjoint analysis of knowledge and opinions of people with different typologies

We elicited people’s preferences on policy issues related to bioenergy through survey and investigated the cluster typologies that influence these preferences using cluster and conjoint analysis. Three typologies (i.e. idealist, ambivalent, realist) were identified from clustering the respondents’ familiarity on bioenergy and opinion on its effects on food security and economy in the Philippines. The “idealist” has optimistic opinions on bioenergy production, “realist” recognises the existing land use competition between bioenergy and food production, and “ambivalent” does not have clear opinion on the effects of bioenergy on food security and economy. Majority of realists are located in Mindanao and idealists in Luzon. The segmentation of the respondents aimed to identify the characteristics of people belonging to different typologies and to understand how the typologies influence the policy preferences for the different sustainability determinants of bioenergy. These determinants were based on the STRAP (sustainability trade-offs and pathways) framework for the integrated assessment of bioenergy sustainability. The results reveal that respondents with ambivalent typology, which are mostly farmers and farm workers, lack the necessary awareness to be able to play an active role in the bioenergy production chain. As main actors in the production of biomass feedstock for bioenergy, it is important that they gain not only general awareness but also practical knowledge on bioenergy production and its impacts on agricultural development. The respondents with realist typology in Mindanao give high importance to social justice due to unrests caused by religious conflicts and widespread poverty. Hence, unless these issues are resolved, it is hardly possible to make use of the huge bioenergy potential in this region. In general, respondents in all cluster typologies give more importance to sustainability determinants that are directly associated to their daily living. However, determinants relating to energy security and technology progress, which are not location-specific, are necessary to sustain domestic bioenergy production.