Kavango Biofuels

EIA on Kavango Biofuels project

Prime Investments (Pty) Ltd is initiating a major project in Kavango Region to produce biodiesel from Jatropha plants. The activities to implement the project are:

	Development of Kyoto Protocol Government structures
	Planting and growing Jatropha curcas on sites that were already used for crop farming in 1990. These are mostly 5 to 10 km from the Okavango River
	Establish Jatropha nurseries
	Plant and grow seedlings on farms
	Harvest seed
	Establish a transport company to transport seed from the farmers to silos for storage
	Establish storage silos every 30 km along the length of the region in which Jatropha crops will be grown
	Set up a processing plant in the vicinity of Rundu, to remove oil from the seeds and process the remaining ‘Jatropha cake’ further

The EIA will consider bio-physical as well as socio-economic consequences of the project that proposes great changes in the Kavango agricultural scene and socio-economic set-up, both in rural Kavango and more widely afield as the project expands and the economic opportunities arising from bio-fuels become apparent. The EEAN contribution to the EIA is background research around issues that arise in the assessment, such as toxicity of Jatropha and its potential to become invasive, and for internal editing and review of the reports.