D11.3 Stakeholder Participatory Process Report
Creators: name: Monteiro Souza, Alexandre
name: Pechsiri, Joseph
name: Shigwedha, Paulus
name: Sundberg, Cecilia
name: Ericsson, Niclas
Publisher: name: SteamBioAfrica
Year: 2024
Subjects: subject: Sustainability sciences

description: This document describes the participatory process in the life cycle studies in the SteamBioAfrica ,(SBA) project and the work done within WP11 up to and including M30. It shows the stakeholder groups engaged, the participatory methods applied, the main results and how they contributed to refining the goal and scope phase, the system model and increasing the relevance of the life cycle studies with regards to the stakeholders involved.

In these first two and a half years, a broad spectrum of stakeholders, that represent various sectors across society, has been engaged. Key stakeholder groups have included commercial farmers, emerging commercial farmers, smallholders living on communal land, farmers and worker union representatives, associations within the biomass economic sector, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), governmental agencies, and potential large- and small-scale commercial end users. Severalparticipatory methods were applied, including participant observation, brainstorming, participatory ranking, individual and focus-group semi-structured interviews, and formal questionnaires. The field visits and engagements were supported by SBA project partners in Namibia, Botswana, and South Africa.

The critical social concerns identified across various stakeholder groups included unemployment, low income, and water scarcity. The environmental concerns, water scarcity and the risk of desertification emerged as pressing issues, alongside the positive and negative impacts of bush harvesting on the rangeland and the fauna, especially game and livestock carrying capacity. Further, the issue of energy independence was raised as a great concern of the stakeholders. These issues that have been raised have guided the selection of impact categories and subcategories for the life cycle studies.

Findings from the field visits and stakeholder engagements have been integrated into the modelling. The participatory processes have contributed to the modelling of processes with information on various elements, including harvesting teams, year-round harvesting seasons, operation of excavators with shear in mechanised harvest scenarios, and off-grid electricity use for the Superheated Steam (SHS) process plants. By incorporating such inputs, the modelling process is more able to capture the nuanced realities and requirements of the systems under study.

The participatory processes in the SBA’s life cycle studies have faced challenges. The three countries' biomass economic sectors are at different development stages, influencing their social and economic dynamics as well as the composition of the stakeholder groups involved. These factors have influenced the engagements and field visits conducted in each country. Language barriers have often presented additional challenges. In some communal areas in Namibia and Botswana, the local community typically only use their local native languages for speech or in writing, with very little English usage.

The social and environmental LCA results will be presented to the stakeholders in feedback engagements. These will be discussed, and the assessment may be modified if necessary. Additionally, the meetings will be used to get the stakeholders' perceptions, supporting the interpretation of the life cycle results.