Why Africa Biofuel?

• Allows for the utilization of an indigenous product that to-date has not had economic value.
• The project will assist Tanzania in meeting its Millennium Development Goals; specifically, it will:
  • reduce poverty through providing fair wages to plantation workers and a fair price to out-growers, providing a sustainable (45+-year) livelihood to at least nine hundred households;
  • reduce hunger via a long-term cash flow to households in associated communities, and will include nutrition education for women, thereby improving maternal health, as well as for mother-child pairings, thus reducing child mortality;
  • promote gender equity and empower women, where female workers will be hired whenever possible;
  • help eliminate child labor, and allow children to focus on schoolwork, by providing households with a regular cash flow;
  • by providing a locally sourced diesel fuel, will afford national/regional administrations cost-savings via import substitution that can then be used for various infrastructure projects such as clinics, schools, etc.
  • improve overall health because biodiesel combusts with significantly lower emissions, and thus air pollution levels will locally decline;
  • provide a timber source (and additional income) once the Croton trees senesce, i.e., after 45 years;
  • ameliorate soil erosion and subsequent lake siltation through the planting of a protected tree cover, thus improving the Lake Victoria lacustrine environment;
  • by placing the core plantation area adjacent to Biharamulo Forest Reserve, act as a buffer zone against further encroachment activities in the Reserve.
• Since biodiesel is considered to be carbon-neutral, the project allows for the pursuit of carbon credits through the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol, thus promoting the concept that Tanzania can be a secure location for such foreign investment and thereby attracting further investment in the country.
• Associated household-level industries will include bee-keeping (Croton is pollinated by bees), organic fertilizer production through composting, and biogas production.
• The Company will closely adhere to Corporate Social Responsibility precepts, and will therefore ”tax” itself at a rate of 3% of gross profits in order to provide a regular flow of cash to a Community Development Finance Institution, which will undertake various projects including, but not limited to:
  • microlending
  • SME development & nurturing
  • school enhancements & scholarships
  • emergency medical treatment
  • community-based care for AIDS orphans
  • public-private initiatives including, e.g., infrastructure improvements.