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Africans wary of biofuel developers
A tree seed, which Africa Biofuel plans to use to make biodiesel
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Kai Ryssdal: Biofuels are the hot topic in Brussels, Belgium today. Politicians, business leaders and activists are talking about sustainability, and whether producing biofuels displaces food production and so bumps up prices. There were riots in some poorer countries last year over exactly that. But given the worries over climate change, demand for biofuels is still pretty healthy. And investors from the U.S. and Europe are looking at Africa as a place to grow them. Marketplace's Gretchen Wilson reports now from Tanzania.
GRETCHEN WILSON: In the rural Kisarawe district, the woodland is dry, the soil sandy, and there's no water for miles.
PETER AUGE: Nobody really lives on the land. There's a few cashew trees, a few old mango trees.
Peter Auge is with a British company, Sun Biofuels. The firm wants to lease 30 square miles of this tough terrain to grow a drought-resistant plant called jatropha. It'll turn the oil-rich jatropha seeds into biodiesel.
The company will get this land for 99 years. In return, local people will get schools, clinics and roads. Farmers here have OK'd the scheme. But doubts remain. Bureaucracy often means a long delay between the agreement and the promised benefits. Hamiz Balati is the head of the village of Mtamba.
HAMIZ BALATI: We're giving away our land, but we still don't know whether we'll benefit from the project. We're waiting for jobs.
Tanzania's at the heart of a new "bio-fueled" land rush in Africa. Foreign investors have already applied for four percent of the country's land. That'd be like the U.S. leasing out all of Nebraska and Kansas to overseas companies. Some Tanzanian officials are raising concerns. Ngosi Mwihava is with the Ministry of Energy and Minerals.
NGOSI MWIHAVA: There is a worry that some companies or some investors may grab the land, and even displace people.
Some critics go further. They say these deals are like colonialism, with wealthy outsiders using Africa's land and cheap labor force to grow cash crops. Then, when global markets for those crops tank, so do local economies. Emmanuel Mvula is with the Land Rights Research and Resources Institute.
EMMANUEL MVULA: Like colonialism which came as a solution for a crisis elsewhere, biofuels comes to us as a solution for a crisis which is not ours. It's not for us, it's for someone else. And when it collapses, we'll be back to square one.
But Western companies say local people can benefit from these deals. The U.S. firm Africa Biofuel plans to make biodiesel from the seeds of trees. It says the fuel will run generators and power cars right here in Tanzania. Christine Adamow is CEO.
CHRISTINE ADAMOW: We believe that the first part of creating a sustainable economy is to actually provide some source of affordable energy. And why not look to the agricultural base, which is so rich in Africa?
Like many biofuel investors, she says she can create good local jobs and a meaningful profit.
ADAMOW: There's opportunity in Africa. There's opportunity to do good, as well as to make money. And as an entrepreneur, that's good enough for me.
That's good enough for many African nations, too -- countries from Ghana to Mozambique are signing away vast tracts of land for biofuel development. But Tanzania's creating guidelines to make sure this isn't colonialism revisited. And right now all new land deals are on hold.
In Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, I'm Gretchen Wilson for Marketplace.
Africa has a unique opportunity to bring job development and economic stability to itself with bio-fuels technology. Yes, it needs to be regulated with the help of the governments, the local people and ethical companies that can help these areas leverage local economic development, but Biofuel technology is not going away and those countries that can leverage themselves quickly and with regulation, are going to be able to take advantage of the technology to the benefit of their economies. Each project needs to be evaluated properly, but look to those projects that bring long term local results, using African crops. Don't be afraid of new technologies, just because they are new. The science used for biofuels crops can be used for food crops as well. With careful evaluation and support, Africa can see positive results with biofuels.
I believe that the comments made by Nyanga T make a lot of sense. However, I would like to shift the focus away from African supply of biofuel feedstock to the rich countries, and instead look at new ways of reducing African fuel imports.
Huge volumes of organic waste are available in all countries. Part of these waste streams generate hygienic problems, contaminate inland waters, and contribute to the spreading of diseases.
A large part of these waste stream could be efficiently treated in biogas plants providing two valuable products -fertilizer for the agricultural sector, and also large volumes of pure biomethane. Feeding the biomethane into local low pressure gas grids, the gas could be used for several different purposes - as an environmentally particularly benign automotive fuel for all kinds of motor vehicles, for cooking and heating purposes, and for generation of electric power.
In contrast to liquid biofuels you do not need very large biorefineries, but can instead very efficiently produce biomethane at the local level. Considering the still low total energy consumption in the African countries, a major share of the total energy needs could, in fact, be covered via locally produced biomethane. This would cut the expenditure for oil imports, and also dramatically reduce the need for artificial fertilizers.
The waste becomes a valuable resource, the waste handling generates new jobs, various environmental problems are reduced, and the profits stay in each respective African country.
Let me see if I understand. Back when Africa was drough- and poverty-stricken, it was too expensive to help grow crops to feed people. But now that Americans/Europeans need alternative fuels for their hybrid cars, it's not too expensive to grow large tracks of non-edible biofuel crops. Interesting.
I think these African countries need to be dragged kicking and screaming into the prosperity of Jatropha Biodiesel. I really think this could help poor countries finally beat poverty. I think this could help poppy growing countries beat back the drup trade. Ethanol and Biodiesel are the Fuel of the Future.
As an African I am outraged at African governments that blindly accept the promise of green-tech salvation! The last thing Africa needs is the plantation of another invasive crop!
These investors are too passionate and don't do an integrated analysis of their options. Or maybe they just put their business models together and shove them up against less savvy African leader. I hope that African governments and unbiased NGOs can assess what clean technologies make financial, social, and ENVIRONMENTAL sense in Africa over long periods of time. Biofuels may not be the best energy option for Africa. Yes it will create some jobs BUT at the expense of water use that is already constrained; at the expense of our soils; at the expense of biodiversity, and thus a the expense of the financial stability of a rural population that is already dirt poor and uneducated. These types of investments won't add much value unless we're talking about the serious formation of Bio refinery Industry. and that, at the moment seems too costly for Africa. Maybe I'm wrong, but for now I say: NO TO BIOFUELS WITHOUT PROPER ASSESSMENT
Here's an elucidating article (free) on the environmental implications of planting Jatropha :
http://www.lifeofthelandhawaii.org/Bio_Documents/2007.0346/LOL_EXH_7_Wee...
