Land use for integrated systems: A bioenergy perspective

Land and the use of land provide a key link between human activity and the natural environment. Traditionally, land has been a finite environmental resource. Land has been devoted to a variety of uses, such as food, for housing, as fibre and fodder. More recently, though, the discussion over the production of bioenergy crops for biofuels or for energy generation has put forward a new paradigm of land use. This paper reviews land use from the perspective of integrated systems, the new paradigm, and how it has evolved to make a contribution towards the reduction of greenhouse gases. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.