Cabinet Says No to Jatropha Plantations for Biofuel

1 June 2011

Cabinet has banned large-scale Jatropha plantations for biofuel production in the Kavango and Caprivi regions.

Cabinet’s decision of last week is based the fact that cultivating the Jatropha plant has a negative impact on food security and land tenure, and would lead to loss of access to communal land and has low financial viability.

In 2006, the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry, through the Namibian Agronomic Board, prepared a “National Bio-Oil Energy Roadmap” and associated action plan. In terms of the roadmap, the perennial Jatropha shrub was identified as the most feasible plant for dry-land cultivation for the manufacture of biodiesel in Namibia.

The Kavango and Caprivi regions were identified as the areas most suited for the establishment of Jatropha plantations. It was estimated that approximately 63 000 hectares of Jatropha could be planted in Namibia by 2013.

Foreign and local investors have shown interest in large-scale cultivation of Jatropha for bio-diesel production in the north-eastern communal areas of Namibia.

In some instances plantations of up to 400 000 plants have been proposed by individual investors, which significantly exceeded the area envisaged in the Bio-oil Roadmap.

The interest shown by private investors has resulted in traditional authorities and line ministries being approached with applications for land use rights, environmental clearance certificates and competing land use options.

In October 2008, a committee of four ministries (Mines and Energy, Environment and Tourism, Agriculture, Water and Forestry and Lands and Resettlement), as mandated by Cabinet, met to scrutinise whether Namibia can adopt the use of crops for bio-fuel production.

The committee mandated the environment ministry to undertake a comprehensive study to determine the suitability of the Jatropha plant and other fuel plants in the two regions and agreed that “no large-scale plantation of Jatropha should take place in the country until the outcome of the above-mentioned study”.

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