Social Investment Exchanges Rounditup Jatropha Platform

GEXSI promotes pro-poor investments in the developing world. In 2005, we have started to look into Jatropha biofuel projects as a means to generate significant financial returns as well as a positive development impact: Jatropha is an oil bearing tree that can be cultivated in semi-arid regions on marginal soils; it is suited for the rehabilitation of waste lands. The Jatropha tree yields a non-edible oil which can be be used to fuel vehicles, diesel generators, lamps or cooking stoves without a transesterification into biodiesel, enhancing local economic development. The Jatropha oil is a substitute for fossil fuels and eligible for carbon offset schemes. The Jatropha seeds do not have to be processed immediately (unlike palm) which allows to integrate smallholder farmers in remote regions. Jatropha can be cultivated as a hedge around fields or on unused land and offers smallholders an opportunity to create additional revenues, beyond subsistence farming.

Since 2005, GEXSI has coached and mentored Jatropha projects in Latin America, Africa, and Asia, and has assisted several social Jatropha businesses to access finance and technical expertise.

Achievements include:

• GEXSI is a member of the Jatropha working group of the Roundtable of Sustainable Biofuels which has been set up in 2008, and consults UN organisations on pro-poor Jatropha project designs.
• GEXSI has conducted the first worldwide study on Jatropha Developments on behalf of the World Widelife Fund (WWF).
• GEXSI has signed cooperation agreements with leading research centers on Jatropha in India: The Energy and Resource Institute (TERI), and the International Center for Agronomic Research in the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT).

The Jatropha work program is implemented with support of GEXSI LLP who runs the project website
www.jatropha-platform.org.

To access the Jatropha-Platform Website, click on the picture.