Article: What are “marginal lands” (MagL)?

Figure 1. Classification scheme for marginal land in the SEEMLA approach context (developed by BTU-CS) modified after and adapted from Dauber et al. (2012).

By The Institute of Bioenergy Crops and Sugar Beet (IBC&SB)

‘Marginal’ in its most common sense may be defined as not suitable for a non-profitable agricultural [food] production, or according to the FAO (2000) “land having limitations which in aggregate are severe for sustained application of a given use; […] with inappropriate management, risks of irreversible degradation”. Many agro-economists and bioenergy researcher have proposed the use of ‘degraded’, ‘abandoned agricultural lands’, and ‘marginal’, i.e. Wiegmann et al. (2008), Dauber et al. (2012), Kang et al. (2013), Shortall (2013), or Miyake et al. (2015). Dale et al. (2010) identified term ‘marginal’ as most commonly followed by ‘degraded’ lands, though in parallel with it widely used such terms as ‘abandoned’, ‘idle’, ‘pasture’, ‘surplus agricultural land’
Thus, the majority of the scientific community identifies land as marginal linking them with a selective land use, and then may or may not relate them to soil quality. Among land categories defined as marginal are noted degraded, abandoned, reclaimed, natural wastelands. Categorizing and quantifying marginal lands for biomass cultivation is still underlying great uncertainties and requiring further studies.
In the SEEMLA approach the definition of MagL as based on the theory of Dauber et al. (2012) is used and has been modified (Figure 1).

Marginal land according to the definition of SEEMLA mainly includes sites which are affected by degradation processes, e.g. erosion, salinization, low organic carbon contents, in most cases triggered by anthropogenic impact. These sites exhibit clear economic inefficiencies with regard to agricultural usability and poor ecological site conditions, as indicated by obviously reduced low soil fertility. Marginal land in terms of SEEMLA does not included sites with potentially high productivity which were set aside or were temporarily abandoned due to certain socio-economic reasons. In addition, badlands with naturally extreme low soil fertility as well as most parts of non-recultivated lignite mines or anthropogenic wastelands are not within the focus of SEEMLA. The infertility of the latter sites is regarded as a clear obstacle for a profitable biomass production. Using this definition of marginal land, conflicts with other land use options, as well as with recent legislation regarding soil-water-atmosphere, nature and biodiversity, forestry or agriculture, should be minimized when marginal land is selected for sustainable biomass production for bioenergy in the future.