Bangladesh faces Global Climate Change issue at The International Symposium on Climate Change and Food Security in South Asia

It is time to move into action to prevent the worst from happening, not just sit around wringing our hands as we realize what the effects of global warming might be in Bangladesh and Southeast Asia. Perhaps sitting with International Experts and heeding their suggestions might help us.
The struggle the government has after any conference like this, is that it all makes sense, but as NGOs and other organizations line up with their varied project-style solutions the government sits and analyzes, reviews each one, sets up unending TORs, sends them around from one ministry to another for more review and approvals and by the time they finally come to a conclusion Bangladesh is in an even more dire situation at which point none of the projects will be effective enough to overcome the threat facing Bangladesh.
Isn’t that what happened with the electricity problem we are currently facing and suffering from? So take the proposals and take action. As Julius Caesar said, “Seize the Day!”

Himalayan council proposed to address Asian climate issues (an excerpt from New Age Newspaper)

The visiting Iceland president Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson proposed formation of a Himalayan council with nations across the Himalayan region to address the regional concerns over climate changes.
‘It could initially serve as a forum for promotion of the necessary researches and play a role in developing a constructive dialogue on how to address the challenges,’ Grímsson said as he addressed the concluding ceremony of a week-long international symposium on climate change and food security in South Asia at the Sonargaon Hotel on Saturday.
His proposal came in replication to the Arctic Council formed after the end of the cold war era in early 1990s by eight countries, including the United States and Russia, to address climate issues.
The economic and food security of more than a billion people around the Himalayas will be affected with the melting of the Himalayan glaciers, he pointed out, urging politicians, scientists, businessmen and civic organisations to face the future challenges together.
Grímsson, who visited Bangladesh for the first time, was re-elected president of Iceland for the fourth time in 2008.
Bangladesh is bound to be affected by the melting of the ice in the Himalayas, often called the water tower of Asia, through its effects on the major rivers that run through the Ganges delta, he said.
An academic-turned-politician who studied economics and political science, Grímsson advocated a unified global strategy to prevent the impending disaster from climate change and global warming.
Food and energy production for about 800 million people in South Asia depends on the Himalayan water resources which could beget conflicts across the already sensitive borders, said Grímsson.
The chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, who addressed the programme as chief guest, stressed the need for working jointly by South Asian nations to face the challenge and properly address the issue in international negotiations.
The chief adviser listed the Bangladesh government’s measures to address climate change issues.
After discussions on a number of aspects of climate by scientists, academics, officials and civil society actors from home and abroad, the organisers came up with six broader suggestions that included formation of a regional network for climate change and food security, and multi-disciplinary researches on the matter.
Fakhruddin said Bangladesh had just completed the preparation for a national climate change management strategy and action plan taking into consideration all the sectors.
He informed the audience of the formation of a $45m climate change endowment fund and the setting up of five working groups on adaptation, mitigation, technology transfer, financial flows and creating awareness.
Fakhruddin observed the world was now united to face the threats of the climate change.
‘We must take integrated steps to combat adverse effects of global warming on food security,’ Fakhruddin said, hoping for a global response from greenhouse gas emitters to address the concerns. He put out a call, saying, ‘This is time for action without delay.’
Presided over by the Dhaka University vice-chancellor, SMA Faiz, the concluding session was addressed, among others, by the education and commerce adviser, Hossain Zillur Rahman, the chief adviser’s special assistant in charge of environment and forest, Devashish Roy, the director of the Carbon Management and Sequestration Centre at Ohio University, Rattan Lal, FAO regional representative for Asia and the Pacific Changchui He and World Meteorological Organisation representative MVK Sivakumar.
The University of Dhaka, Ohio State University, World Meteorological Organisation, and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific organised the symposium, inaugurated by the president, Iajuddin Ahmed, on August 25 in Dhaka.

Dhaka Declaration of Symposium S Asian climate change network a must to combat challenges (an excerpt from The Daily Star)

The International Symposium on Climate Change and Food Security in South Asia in its Dhaka Declaration has recommended creating South Asian Network on Climate Change and Food Security and establishing South Asia Climate Outlook Forum to combat challenges of climatic changes in the region collectively.
The five-day symposium that concluded at Hotel Sonargaon in the capital yesterday also emphasised the need for stimulating multi-disciplinary research on the burning issue and identifying effective mitigation and adaptation options, including carbon sequestration in different ecosystems.
The programme was jointly sponsored by Ohio State University, World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), Food and Agriculture Organisation, UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, Dhaka University and the Bangladesh government. Around 250 participants from 17 countries attended the event.
Prof Rattan Lal, director of Carbon Management and Sequestration Centre of Ohio State University, presented the Dhaka Declaration.
Experts at the programme observed that climate change will increase temperature, decrease availability of fresh water, contribute to the rise in sea level, glacial melting in the Himalayas, increased frequency and intensity of extreme events, and shifting of cropping zones in South Asia affecting agriculture and food sector, economy, societies and environment.
Prof Lal said, “The serious problems of soil degradation and desertification are likely to be exacerbated by climate change through accelerated erosion, fertility depletion, salinisation and acidification and that subsistence agriculture, characterised by low productivity and extractive farming, is extremely vulnerable to such climatic change.”
In the wake of such threats, the symposium urged the development partners and the private sector to fund implementation of programmes that reflect the recommendations.
The other recommendations include initiating and strengthening cooperation among academic and research institutions, international organisations, and NGOs to provide opportunities for strengthening institutions, human resource development and capacity building.
The symposium also suggested developing innovative financial mechanisms to scale up technical and financial support for the adaptation efforts of the South Asian countries and strengthening regional institutional and policy mechanisms to promote and facilitate implementation of location-specific adaptation and mitigation practices.
The Declaration says, “Climate Change and Food Security in South Asia Network and South Asia Climate Outlook Forum both to be maintained by the WMO will share information on management of climate change and related science, data, tools and methodologies in South Asia.”
They will also generate data on solar heating as it relates to the effects of soot, aerosols and particulate material emissions on radiation balance, rainfall patterns and regional climate change.
The proposed network and the forum will develop seasonal climate predictions to assist farmers to optimally adjust their planting dates, crop varieties and management practices to reduce agricultural vulnerability to hydro-meteorological hazards, it notes.
These will promote adoption of proven sustainable technologies related to better soil, crop, livestock and fishery and water management in order to increase food productivity by enhancing efficiency of inputs such as fertiliser, water, energy and labour, it adds.
They will create mechanisms to pay farmers for ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration in soils and reductions of gaseous emissions related to deforestation, degradation of agricultural soils, grasslands and water quality improvement, and reduced emissions of methane and nitrous oxide from agricultural and forestry land uses.
The experts at the symposium said these two bodies would also establish regional early warning system of climatic risks and improve collection and dissemination of weather-related information by improving weather station networks to strengthen monitoring of extreme events and their impacts on food production and availability.

Talking Points on Nation Branding

What is Nation Branding and what are the benefits?

The concept of nation branding was elaborated by Simon Anholt in 1998 through his article “Nation Brands of the 21st Century” in the Journal of Brand Management where he pointed out that “brands create a value that is invisible”. Anholt, a market researcher from the corporate sector, reckons that brand is a “multiplier of value and as such represents a substantial advantage for its owner; it is as good as money in the bank.”

Recently I have come across many articles, blog posts and other documentation that suggest that Branding or Re-Branding Bangladesh would have a positive economic effect in Bangladesh. I have asked the public for the opinion and it’s astounding to me that no one commented or gave an opinion.

The article (yet another) below elaborates a bit on Nation Branding and appeared in the Daily Star Newspaper in Bangladesh in July:

Rebranding Bangladesh

Mamun Rashid

My friend and teacher, Professor Ferhat Anwar, may be angry with me, for it is premature to ‘re-brand’ Bangladesh, when we are only at the primary stages of ‘branding Bangladesh’. But my humble arguments for him would be– take it or leave it.
Bangladesh has already been branded as a corrupt, natural calamity prone, weak-governance plagued poor country, therefore, we need to share the story of a new Bangladesh, a forward-looking Bangladesh, identified and doing its home work specific for a middle income country, where its entrepreneurship will be highlighted, resilience talked about, success in poverty alleviation, religious and political harmony discussed and cultural homogeneity respected.

The international community is noticeably hesitant to acknowledge several of our achievements in the last few decades even though these achievements are considerably better than many other countries which the world views favorably. However, it would be self-defeating for us to act like a cry-baby and blame the international community for this unfair treatment. We have to admit that we have a problem in projecting the country and the true spirit of its people. This incapability of ours creates the necessity to focus on `re-branding’ Bangladesh.
In developing a brand identity for Bangladesh, we must understand what we really understand by the term ‘branding’. Commercial brand management is basically a process of marketing management by the seller of a product to enhance the value of the product or to create differentiation with the competitors. Marketing guru Philip Kotler explained that a brand is basically a seller’s promise to deliver a specific set of features, benefits, and services consistently to the buyers. It can convey up to six levels of meanings: attributes, benefits, values, culture, personality, and user. The branding challenge is to develop a deep set of positive associations for the brand. A marketer must decide at which level or levels of meaning to anchor the brand identity.
Nation branding is basically a derivative from the commercial brand management process, which aims to measure, build, and manage the reputation of countries. It applies some approaches from commercial brand management practice to countries, in an effort to build, change, or protect their international reputations or external perception at the minimum. It is based on the observation that the ‘brand images’ of countries are just as important to their success in the global market place as those of products and services. Simon Anholt is normally credited as a pioneer in this field. Nation branding appears to be practiced by many states, including US and UK (where it is officially referred to as Public Diplomacy) and most West European countries. There is increasing an interest in the concept from less developed countries to create more favorable conditions for foreign direct investment, tourism, trade, and even political relations with other countries.

We should focus on developing our own brand. What factors should drive the case of our branding? How should it be driven?
The key to attaining an effective brand identity is to activate adequate positive associations with all these experiences, good or bad. For an example, we are known all over the world for the sufferings and destruction we face due to natural calamities year after year. However the same incident could have been transformed into a major brand identity if we could have positively associated the courage, commitment, and resilience of our people who even after all these natural disasters have continued to develop the country with some remarkable achievements.

We have invented micro-credit to fight our own poverty and are willing enough to share it with the rest of the world. We are competing with the giants of the world in the ready-made garments market and successfully growing each year. We have continuously faced obstacles, but we have not removed ourselves from the path to our destination. Thousand years of culture and civilisation has given our people the ability to dream with which we fight against all adversities.
Driving the process of building brand for a country is a much bigger effort than any other commercial product. It requires a true common representation of the aspiration of the people of the country. People of the country must be able to believe in the image projected by the brand proposition.

That is why re-branding Bangladesh will have to be driven from various forums — the government, political parties, civil society, media, professionals, private sector, workers and farmers, urban and rural people, etc. When all of us can share the common minimum identity, we shall be able to establish Bangladesh as rejuvenated brand equity. We need to send a message to the international community that we mean business, we encourage entrepreneurship and wealth creation, we are committed to create enough economic activities to eradicate poverty, there is policy continuity despite change of the government and democracy means the same thing here as elsewhere.
I would conclude again with a quote from my teacher and `Guru’ of the marketing world Philip Kotler- “Bangladesh is at the stage where its business and government personnel need to develop a dynamic marketing mindset regarding problems and opportunities that they face. Marketing is a mindset. Bangladesh must also move to this mindset whose mantra is ‘Create Superior Value for Chosen Groups of Customers’. You need to turn your mind to think about consumer and business needs and find ways to offer more value than your competitors. I hope that you will succeed.”

The writer is an economic analyst.

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Again, I refer to the article written by Ifty Islam that lays out the numerous reasons why this is so important. His article also appeared the Daily Star this August

The importance of defining Brand Bangladesh

Ifty Islam

 

The Incredible India campaign has been a huge success. Bangladesh is still searching to determine its brand, a good tool in raising positive awareness about the country.

In 2007 Vietnam attracted Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) flows of $ 20bn and if Bangladesh is to benefit from the surge in global investor interest in Asia, we need to address the key questions of “Why Bangladesh? Why Now?”. A new and effective strategy for developing Brand Bangladesh will be a critical part in credibly answering these questions.
One report from leading brand consultants Interbrand, defined Nation Branding as “the ability to act and speak in a coordinated and repetitive way about the themes that are the most motivating and differentiating a country can make.” There is actually a ranking, the Anholt Nation Brand Index, which has the UK, Germany and France leading a list of 38 countries. The 2007 Report noted “Globalisation means that countries compete with each other for the attention, respect and trust of potential customers, investors, tourists…a strong and positive nation brand provides a crucial competitive image.”
I recently had the pleasure of being interviewed by a number of final year IBA students who were completing a thesis on national branding. I suggested that we start by playing a word association game to decide what “Brand Bangladesh” is, which is clearly a necessary pre-requisite to deciding what we want it to become.
We collectively tried to summarize what the rest of the world thinks when they hear the word “Bangladesh”. The five leading candidates were 1) Natural Disasters; 2)Poverty ; 3)Political Instability ; 4)Corruption; and 5) Grameen/Professor Yunus. Clearly 4 negative connotations offset by an example of Bangladesh’s considerable contribution to the world.
The next question I had for the students was what words would we like the rest of the world to think when they heard “Brand Bangladesh”. We concluded with five new themes: 1) Adjacency to India and China; 2) A young, dynamic and entrepreneurial population of 150mn people; 3) A land of innovation in micro finance with the Grameen revolution and Professor Yunus; 4) Untapped opportunities for global investors looking for a new economic platform in the heart of Asia; 5) Substantial and largely untapped intellectual/commercial capital from Non-Resident Bangladeshi (NRB) platform. At least these offer some food for thought as to what Bangladesh should be and I’m sure a number of you have more suggestions.
We can agree “Brand Bangladesh” is important and we have begun to think about what we do and don’t want it to be. But how do we go about marketing? There is a lot more resources available than is commonly assumed. Yes the Board of Investment and Parjatan and other Government agencies are stretched. But we have in reality hundreds of thousands and perhaps millions of “Brand Ambassadors” at our disposal – the large NRB community. We just need to find an effective strategy to leverage it. This might involve creating an NRB database and greater support and encouragement for events like the Asia Society seminar held in New York last month that was, in fact, co-organized by NYBAP, an NRB professional’s organisation. Government, possibly, with some support from multilateral agencies, should fund a professional marketing campaign. It will be money well spent.
So what should our slogan be in the light of “Malaysia, Truly Asia” and “Incredible India”? While I am as much a fan of alliteration as the next man, I came up with the following three possibilities:
1) “Bangladesh, the Next Asian Tiger”
2) “Bangladesh, the Emerging Asian Tiger”
3) “Bangladesh, at the Heart of Asia”
I have a slight preference for the first I must confess combining the themes of Bengal Tiger, Asia (very popular with investors) and a sense of forward thinking.
In the interests of democracy and for a little fun, might I suggest we vote on it. Please send your preferences among the three alternatives above, and indeed any other catchphrases you think are better, to info@at-capital.com and I will reveal the results in my next column in two weeks time.
If Bangladesh is to emulate the fastest growing neighbours in the rest of Asia, we need to take the challenge of defining and marketing “Brand Bangladesh” seriously. There are likely to be differences between the brand strategy for attracting investment versus tourism but we need as a country to agree what the broad themes.
I look forward to hearing and sharing the responses from my fellow “Brand Ambassadors”.

Ifty Islam is the Managing partner of Asian tiger capital partners and formerly Managing Director and head of global macro strategy at citigroup, London.

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Many people may wonder what the big deal is and why I (and countless others) are stressing about this topic. Branding can build a nation, the right branding that is. Right now Bangladesh is stagnating under a bad label (brand).

What do people envision when they hear the mere word “Bangladesh”?

Third World Country, Poor people, devastation by floods, and maybe they remember Dr. Yunus is from Bangladesh and won the Nobel Prize for microcredit (giving loans to poor villagers struggling to run businesses).

What is positive about that picture? Nothing.

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I suggest reading the following article written by Ehsan Imdad, Ph.D. who was a presenter at last year’s NRB conference and the Author of “The Art of Marketing Communication and Corporate Culture”.

Branding Bangladesh Article by Ehsan Imdad – Upload a Document to Scribd

Read this document on Scribd: Branding Bangladesh Article by Ehsan Imdad

Let’s build a better Bangladesh together, a good brand is the first step towards a brighter tomorrow. Please leave a comment, suggestion or anything you’d like to say.

 

Technorati Tags: Bangladesh,Nation Branding,Branding Bangladesh,Asia,Culture,South Asia,South East Asia,Ehsan Imdad,Ifty Islam,Mamun Rashid,Bangladesh 2020,Bangladesh 20/20,Bangladesh Tourism,Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation,Government of Bangladesh

Re-Branding Bangladesh Contest – What’s Your Choice?

So, my question is for how long will we allow Bangladesh to be known by Micro Credit, Flood, Famine and Professor Yunus? If you love Bangladesh, as I do, then you know it has many great things going for it, but it could be so much more.

Is this really what we want for Bangladesh, to create a Poverty Museum that will continue to instill in the minds of the world our depressing history of taking money (micro credit):

Dr. Muhammad Yunus: The Poster boy of Brand Bangladesh

A bare utterance is being transformed into a reality. The famous saying of Dr. Muhammad Yunus (Nobel Prize-winning founder of Bangladesh’s Grameen Bank) that “We will create a poverty museum by 2030…We will start with Bangladesh” finally goes global with his pioneering micro-credit scheme to poor people with no bank account or credit history. A bank from a “third world country” is making inroads into the world’s richest country: the United States. Grameen America which launched in January 2008, has already lent a modest $145,000 to immigrant women in New York City.

Since at least 2005 the blogging world has been writing and suggesting a new brand for Bangladesh an example is 3rd World View’s 2005 Blogspot Post. Also, if you Google search Branding Bangladesh in any search engine, you will find a lot of great information.

Google Search provides this result: Google Branding Bangladesh

Yahoo provides this: Yahoo Search

And there are many more.

So, how long to we want to be the orphan child with the depressing outlook. Don’t we want to be like India, Thailand, Malaysia and the many others who have changed their destiny and economic outlook simply by re-branding themselves?

The importance of defining Brand Bangladesh – This article really hits the reasons that Bangladesh needs to act now to change its Brand. Important, economic reasons that the Government should take very seriously.

Here is another opinion in his write up called simply Branding Bangladesh, though I think he has over simplified the way and the reasons.

I came across this report that would like to share the following report with you:

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In Search of Another “Brand” for Bangladesh
Debapriya Bhattacharya
Executive Director
Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD)
Addressing Perceptions and Realities

Novelist Arnold Bennett (1861-1931) once made the point that “it is difficult to make a reputation, but it is even more difficult to mar a reputation once properly made – so faithful is the public.” Bangladesh, regrettably, faces a reputation challenge which is popularly known as its “image problem”. Thus we observe that the country is being regularly ranked at the low end by organisations as diverse as the World Economic Forum, UNDP, UNCTAD, Transparency International, Freedom House, and Goldman & Sachs. These rankings are usually based on a mix of objective measures and stakeholder perceptions.

The fundamental prerequisite for changing perceptions about Bangladesh would be to change the unfavorable realities prevailing in the country. However, improvement of the reality needs to be supplemented by an effective communication strategy which will adequately transmit the primary strength of the country to the world at large. Indeed, the concept of “branding” may be effectively utilised to address both the reality and perception challenges which Bangladesh is currently confronting.

The Concept of Nation Branding

The concept of nation branding was elaborated by Simon Anholt in 1998 through his article “Nation Brands of the 21st Century” in the Journal of Brand Management where he pointed out that “brands create a value that is invisible”. Anholt, a market researcher from the corporate sector, reckons that brand is a “multiplier of value and as such represents a substantial advantage for its owner; it is as good as money in the bank.”

It is said that a country cannot be sold like a toothpaste. Thus, nation branding is not about pretending that everything is fine in a country, nor is it about discouraging investors and tourists from coming into the country. It is about letting others know about the talents and the opportunities that a country is endowed with. Accordingly, nation branding requires a broader definition of the term “branding” that includes a plan for earning reputation. Indeed, one needs to inspire and induce majority of the citizens to act in a way that helps the country to earn a reputation and make sure that the world knows about it and believes in it.

Anholt introduced in 2005 the Anholt-GMI Nation Brand Index along with GMI, an e-business solution provider. Based on responses from about 25,900 consumers drawn from 35 countries, the index provided a score addressing six core areas of a country depicted through a hexagon:

Tourism, Culture, Governance, Exports, People and Investment. The top 10 countries (in descending order) were: UK, Switzerland, Canada, Italy, Sweden, Germany, Japan, France, Australia and USA.

Branding Bangladesh

Nation branding is not yet given much attention in the middle and low income countries. But if a country opts not to have a branding strategy, it does not mean that others will leave it alone. Rather, disadvantaged countries like Bangladesh will be left to the discretion of others and get “branded” based on limited and partial or biased information. Remaining cognisant of this, emerging economies are increasingly addressing the issue of nation branding in a pro-active manner. For instance, in the region, India is recreating its image as the hub of IT based industries and services as well as a major source of skilled manpower. Even small countries, like Bhutan,may use their image of being small, unique, unspoiled and fragile that is envied by the developed world.

Till date, Anholt Index does not include Bangladesh. But as Bangladesh progresses, it will definitely generate enhanced interest in the global community and the sponsors of the index will be inclined to include the country in its exercise. In this connection, a limited survey carried out by CPD among a set of young professionals ranked the six core areas of brand reputation in the following descending order of strength: People, Exports, Culture, Tourism, Investment and Governance. Incidentally, the numerical distance of the weakest area (governance) was substantial from the rest. One wonders whether the expatriate consumers will agree with this ordering.

Bangladesh will be well advised to develop a branding strategy which would expose convincingly and continuously, its natural and acquired strengths, without underplaying the need to effectively deal with the structural and policy weaknesses. A government-corporate partnership, underpinned by active involvement of the civil society, may be forged to articulate an operational plan in this regard.

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The best is always last it’s said, this article has it all and is really the best.

Branding Bangladesh Article by Ehsan Imdad – Upload a Document to Scribd

Read this document on Scribd: Branding Bangladesh Article by Ehsan Imdad

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So, now how do we Brand Bangladesh? Is she “Bangladesh – the heart of Asia” or “Bangladesh – Undiscovered Gem of Asia”? What’s your choice, your favorite?

Or do you think Bangladesh should continue to be the poster child for poverty, micro credit, floods (even though Bangladesh is not the country with the highest amount of flooding annually), and Professor Yunus ( no offense, he is a great person)? What’s your opinion?

Leave me a comment with what you think to see it posted here. Let the people speak out loud!

Technorati Tags: Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation,Bangladesh,Branding Bangladesh,Ifty Islam,Ehsan Imdad,Bangladesh Tourism,Bangladesh – the Heart of Asia,Bangladesh – Undiscovered Gem of Asia

Bangladesh – Undiscovered Gem of Asia

Please view this Video that I found on YouTube, it really shows what Bangladesh Tourism should be doing. How it should be promoting Bangladesh. Here they call it the Undiscovered Gem of Asia. I still prefer the Heart of Asia, myself, but whatever it is, Bangladesh Parjatan (Bangladesh Tourism) should be out there making videos like this:

Truly a video with a view to re-branding Bangladesh!

Kenya’s Ministry of Energy dedicates 5,000 hectares to Jatropha Biofuel Industy.

Technorati Tags: Bangladesh, Biofuel, Biodiesel, Global Warming, Food Security

Reading headlines like this makes me happy and, yet, sad that it is NOT Bangladesh. Yet, it could be. The tests have been done. The government knows that Jatropha is suited to Bangladesh and yet, it waits.  Honestly, I don’t understand why Bangladesh is sitting on the sidelines watching, when it could be playing the World Cup in the Biofuel Industry.

 

 

Kenya to produce diesel fuel from jatropha tree

Calcutta News.Net
Sunday 17th August, 2008 (Alisha Ryu – Nairobi)

Kenya is joining a long list of countries planning to produce diesel fuel from the poisonous-but-oil-rich seeds of the jatropha tree, a plant indigenous to South America.
The tree is at the heart of a five-year strategy to develop a bio-fuel industry in Kenya, which is expected to reduce the country’s dependence on imported fossil fuels without threatening food security.
The jatropha plant can grow more than three meters high and produce golf ball-sized fruit. The fruit’s poisonous seeds have been mainly used for medicinal purposes, but in recent years, researchers have discovered that the oil in the seeds can be processed into high-quality diesel fuel.
A senior official at Kenya’s Ministry of Energy, Faith Odongo, tells VOA that preliminary tests have shown that the jatropha tree can be successfully grown in Kenya.
She says about 5,000 hectares of land are being set aside for cultivation amid growing expectations that the plant could help the country reduce its fossil fuel imports by five percent in the next four years.
A hectare of jatropha can produce as much as 1,900 liters of fuel, which is several times more than can be produced from a hectare of traditional bio-fuel products such as soybeans and corn.
‘We expect it will make a big impact particularly in rural development and in the transport industry,’ said Odongo.
Odongo says the government’s objective in rural areas is to promote the replacement of kerosene and gasoline with bio-diesel. She says jatropha oil is just as effective as kerosene for lighting lamps and is ideal for fueling bio-diesel electricity generators.
Because the tree is drought-resistant and can be grown on soil that is not suitable for food crops, Odongo says jatropha would not have to compete for land and resources in food-producing areas.
Jatropha production, she adds, may even help alleviate poverty in some rural communities.
‘That is why we are trying to promote the plant, so that those who do not have a cash-crop can rely on that as their cash-crop,’ she said.
Another benefit for Kenya is that the cultivation of jatropha could significantly counter the effects of deforestation in other parts of the country.
Developed in India for assignments.neb-wire fuel oil, jatropha has been attracting international attention in recent years as a new bio-fuel source.
India, China, and Brazil have already planted millions of hectares of jatropha, and the plant is being tested in nurseries and farms in the United States and Japan.
Major car companies such as Daimler Chrysler are exploring the use of jatropha oil for automotive use and in November, Air New Zealand says it plans to test-fly a 747-Boeing jet using jatropha bio-diesel mixed with aviation fuel.

Jatropha shines as non-food oil for biodiesel

Many articles state that BioDiesel Production costs may be a deterent to utilizing BioDiesel. Not all BioDiesel is expensive to produce. It all depends on the source of the Diesel. In Asia Jatropha is widely being cultivated for BioDiesel for several reasons.

1. It grows practically anywhere
2. It begins bearing fruit from the 2nd Year of cultivation
3. It continues to bear fruit for 45 years.
4. A simple cold press method is used to extract the oil

All these factors add up to much lower costs than our counterparts in North America, for instance, are facing to do the same.

Reuters Article

Mon Jan 14, 2008 11:38pm EST

By Nao Nakanishi

HONG KONG (Reuters) – Jatropha, a toxic wild plant that is gaining importance as a biodiesel crop, will make money at crude oil prices a third below their current level, according to U.K.-based D1 Oils Plc (DOO.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).

The company, a pioneer in the use of jatropha for biodiesel, has teamed up with oil giant BP Plc (BP.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) to plant the world’s first selected seeds of jatropha, which promises to raise its non-edible oil yield by nearly 60 percent when the trees mature in 5-6 years.

D1 says its latest estimate showed it would make money on jatropha if crude oil CLc1 is at $60-$65 a barrel — well below the current level of about $95.

“We expect it to be profitable at $100 a barrel,” Elliott Mannis, chief executive officer of D1, said in an interview via telephone from London ahead of the Reuters Global Agriculture and Biofuel Summit.

The figure of a $60-65 a barrel of oil breakeven is substantially higher than estimates made by Goldman Sachs early last year for a breakeven for jatropha of around $40 a barrel of oil.

Jatropha, which originated in Central America, can grow on barren, marginal land and does not need much water. It has gained popularity in countries like China that would like to fuel cars with biodiesel without threatening the country’s food supply.

D1-BP Fuel Crops is planting 50,000 hectares with seedlings from the selected seeds in southern Africa, India and Southeast Asia this year after research on a wide range of wild species collected from around the world.

“We started planting our first elite seeds in the last part of 2007,” Manniss said. “We expect the first significant harvest to be in the second half of 2008.”

Still, D1 says the plant is at the beginning of history as a commercial crop. Its yields show large swings. There are toxins within the nuts, seeds and leaves. It also requires lots of labor for harvesting fruits that ripen at different times.

However, D1 is confident the first selected seeds will yield about 2.7 tons of oil per hectare, up from 1.7 tons for wild seeds. It is less than half the 5-6 tons per hectare of oil palm yet a lot higher than half a ton for soy or 1.5 tons from rapeseed.

D1 is investing about $12 million for planting the tropical plant overseas after spending another several million for plant science. It hopes to further enhance jatropha’s yields and oil quality through breeding, though it takes time.

Mannis said the 2008 crop size was not yet clear. The company was also still deciding if it would build a plant to process the jatropha oil into biodiesel or sell it to processors.

In a sign of rising confidence in jatropha, German car maker Daimler AG (DAIGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) said last week it had teamed up with Bayer CropScience (BAYG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Archer Daniels Midland (ADM.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) to develop jatropha for biodiesel. ID:nL09321397

“It’s a good sign for the industry. Other significant companies are starting to come in to work with jatropha,” Mannis said.

The entry comes at a time when surging prices for palm oil, soyoil and rapeseed oil are forcing investors to give up or wind down biodiesel projects initiated in the past few years.

D1-BP Fuel plans to plant a further one million hectares of jatropha in the next four years in new countries like Brazil, Mozambique and Australia.

It has planted or has an off-take agreement of the oilseed from 200,290 hectares around the world, including China and Indonesia.

D1 says jatropha may also assist some economies in adapting their agriculture as many developing countries are to face drier weather and water shortages because of global warming.

(For summit blog: summitnotebook.reuters.com/)

(For more on the Reuters Global Agriculture and Biofuel Summit, see ID:nSP132831

(Reporting by Nao Nakanishi; Editing by Michael Urquhart)

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Can biofuels solve the oil crunch?

This subject of this article takes place in the U.S., but really could be anywhere. It is enlightening to know that BioFuel (BioDiesel) is becoming more and more available in the U.S. When will the rest of the world, especially Bangladesh, catch up?

CNN Article

• Story Highlights

• CNN.com crew to drive from California to Georgia on biodiesel fuel

• Biodiesel fuel is made from chemically modified vegetable oil

• Follow road trip on CNN.com Live and on CNN.com’s Sci-Tech blog

• Crew to offer green road trip tips; vote on possible destinations here

By Cody McCloy
CNN

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) — A summer with budget-busting gasoline prices seems like the worst time to launch a cross-country road trip from California to Georgia, but this one is different: We’re road-testing alternative fuel that might help reduce pollution and break the nation’s reliance on foreign oil.

The gasoline alternative is called biodiesel, and it’s made by chemically modifying vegetable oil. The resulting biodiesel is nontoxic, biodegradable and can be blended at any level with regular diesel.

Most diesel cars can run on it, and it can be found in more and more places around the country. Watch Web developer Brian Hardy and I make a two-week journey from California’s San Francisco Bay area to Atlanta, Georgia, on CNN.com Live.

During our road trip, we’re blogging and reporting about what kind of mileage we’re getting with biodiesel fuel and how easy it is to find places that sell it. See Cody’s road trip photos »

Biodiesel is just one of several biofuels powering more and more U.S. cars and trucks. Mesa, Arizona, for example, has switched its fleet of 1,000 municipal vehicles such as fire engines and street sweepers to biodiesel and other green fuels such as ethanol, and compressed natural gas. Watch a quick tour of Cody’s vehicle »

Some biofuels are less expensive per gallon than gasoline — cutting the average cost of gas by 20 to 35 cents per gallon, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. An average American family can save up to $300 per year by using ethanol, according to the DOE Web site.

Biodiesel fuel, however, is not always cheaper than gasoline — although it is made using renewable resources, such as vegetable oil or used cooking oil. The pros and cons of alternative fuels »

Atlanta-area biodiesel dealer Rob Del Bueno says — if you really think about it — it’s amazing how something as simple as a gallon of fuel can move a heavy multi-ton vehicle down the road.

“We think fuel is expensive, but for what you get, the price that you pay at the pump is so insignificant to what’s really going on.”

But Department of Energy chemical engineer John Scahill warns that the price of petroleum — now at about $125 per barrel — will become “prohibitively expensive within our lifetime.”

About $333 billion exited the United States in 2007 due to the purchase of oil, according to Scahill, illustrating the high cost of importing foreign energy. Biofuel is produced and sold in the United States — which keeps money from those transactions circulating inside the U.S. economy.

“About 140 billion gallons of gasoline per year are used for transportation in the United States,” said Scahill, “and we can save about a third of that if we maximize our use of biofuels.”

Our biodiesel vehicle is a 1978 International Harvester Scout that we purchased in San Jose, California, just for this adventure. We trust this all-terrain classic will serve us well on our trip. CNN.com users can vote on possible destinations at the bottom of the American Road Trips special report here.

We’ll talk to experts about emerging energy sources that offer alternatives to oil including wind power, hydro-electric and solar. Follow Cody’s trip on interactive map »

And we’ll offer tips on how to make your summer road trip more environmentally friendly and easier on your pocketbook.

We’ll be testing GPS navigation gear and other cool gadgets to see how they work during a real road trip. But because it’s a road trip, we’ll also be camping and enjoying some of the most spectacular sites in the Southwest and Southeastern United States. And we’ll be asking CNN.com users to suggest destinations and to vote on where we travel.

Fuel Prices in Bangladesh Jump 67 Percent

Now we know why the world over people are developing alternative fuels. It is high time the Government of Bangladesh realizes they need to take definitive steps to provide safe and cheaper alternatives to costly petroleum.

---

• Story Highlights
• Gasoline to cost $3.42 a gallon
• Government subsidizes fuel for citizens
• Most Bangladeshis earn less than $1 a day

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Bangladesh’s government raised fuel prices by up to 67 percent Tuesday, adding to the cost of living for Bangladeshis, most of whom live on less than $1 a day.

Bangladesh imports crude oil and petroleum products, which are then sold at subsidized rates. But surging crude oil prices have strained government finances.

“We took the decision to raise fuel prices, finding no other way to reduce revenue losses,” M. Tamim, an aide to Bangladesh’s interim government, said.

Under the new rates, which started immediately, a liter of premium grade gasoline will be raised 34 percent to 90 takas ($3.42 per gallon). Diesel and kerosene prices were raised 37.5 percent to 55 takas ($3.04 a gallon).

Liquefied petroleum gas — mostly used for cooking in areas without piped gas supply — saw the largest hike of 66.67 per cent, with a cylinder now costing 1,000 takas ($14.81), instead of 600 takas ($8.89).

Fuel prices were last raised in April 2007, when a barrel of crude oil cost about $60 a barrel on the international market. Recently, crude has spiked above $140 a barrel.

Bangladesh has already seen increases in transport, commodity and food prices in recent months.

NRB Remittances Push FC Reserves Past 6BN

Good news! We know we have enough FC to pay for our import of crude (this year).

————————————————————————————

Expatriate Bangladeshis sent US$ 829.5 million in remittance in July – the previous highest remittance of $ 808.7 million came in March 2007 – edging the foreign exchange reserves to near $ 6 billion.

According to Bangladesh Bank, like the outgoing year the trend of increased remittance inflow continued at the beginning of the current fiscal year.

In the first month of last fiscal year the remittance inflow was $ 567.1 million and in July this fiscal year the remittance inflow was $ 268.4 million higher than the corresponding month in the last fiscal year.

“In the outgoing fiscal year record 8 billion Us dollar remittances flowed into the country. We hope the amount will reach 10 billion US dollars in the current fiscal year. We already see the signs,” Bangladesh Bank governor Dr Salehuddin Ahmed told bdnews24.com.

The central bank chief said remittance was contributing more than the readymade garment sector did to the economy. He said a considerable amount of money earned from RMG sector is spent on buying raw material (back-to-back letters of credit).

According to Bangladesh Bank’s Forex Reserve and Treasury Management Department, in the outgoing 2007-08 fiscal year the expatriate Bangladeshis sent in $ 7.94 billion in remittance, which is 33 percent higher than the previous fiscal year’s (2006-07). They had sent $5.98 billion remittance in fiscal year 2006-07.

The remittance inflow in July last year was $567 million. However, during Jan-June period of last fiscal year remittance inflow was more than $ 700 million on average every month.

As the remittance and export earnings rose in the last week of June the central bank’s reserves topped $ 6000 million. At one stage in July the reserves rose to $ 6250 million. At the time $800 million was paid in import bill to Asian Clearing Union (ACU), resulting in the drop of reserves to $5400 million.

In the last few days the reserves surged back to near $6 billion. On Tuesday the central bank had a reserve of $5900 million.

bdnews24.com/arh/eh/bd/2029hours

Female Empowerment through BioFuel

This fact sheet found here talks about gender and bioenergy. Again in Bangladesh, BioFuel Development Company presently has a project to develop biodiesel for Bangladesh. This is from a non-edible source (Jatropha). Female Empower is part of this initiative.

• In many developing countries, women are responsible

both for securing energy for the household and producing crops.

Consequently, developments in bioenergy and related biofuel markets have the potential to benefit women if well planned; yet if gender and poverty

considerations are not incorporated into bioenergy policies and practices, the livelihoods of women and their families could be threatened.

• Women from poor regions rely heavily on traditional biomass systems to obtain the essential energy for their households. In Mali, Nepal, and Lao PDR, biomass (firewood

and charcoal) represents 80% of the country’s national energy consumption and in India approximately 625 million people cook with biomass.

• Women spend three times as much time transporting fuel and water than men, and regularly carry four times as much as men in volume. Biogas systems have in some cases increased a woman’s daily workload because of the additional dung and water that has to be carried.

• In some of the poorest countries (i.e. Afghanistan, Burundi, Eritrea, Mali, Mauritania,

and Togo) approximately 5% of all death and disease is caused by indoor air pollution. In other countries (i.e. Angola, Bangladesh, China and India) indoor air pollution is to blame for a total of 1.2 million deaths a year. Globally, dependence on solid fuels is one of the ten most important threats to public health. More efficient appliances and cleaner, alternative forms of energy are needed to combat indoor air pollution.

• First generation biofuels require feedstock based on crops, thereby increasing pressure
on food commodity prices and potentially affecting access to food (particularly for people with low incomes) and the long-term stability of food supplies. The grain required to fill the petrol tank of a Range Rover with ethanol is sufficient to feed one person for a year, and assuming that the petrol tank is refilled every two weeks, the amount of grain required annually would feed a hungry African village for a year. Women are already more vulnerable to nutritional problems, (for example, 50% of the women and children in developing countries are anaemic) due to physical, social, economic, gender and cultural issues (e.g. pregnancy, lactation, inequitable food distribution within families).
• Women are the main producers of the world‘s staple crops (rice, wheat, maize), providing up to 90% of the rural poor’s food intake and producing 60–80% of the food in most developing countries. Without special consideration, women are unlikely
to benefit from international trade in first generation biofuels as they tend to be marginalized from such activities, thereby limiting their potential income sources. Land tenure for women is often less secure; fewer than 5% of women farmers in developing countries own land. They are therefore more vulnerable to displacement from the uncontrolled expansion of large-scale mono-crop agriculture.
• Producing biofuels for export requires feedstock production based on large-scale monocultures, with their associated impacts on land, water and other resources. Expanded production in addition to the displacement of other land uses will lead to increased levels of deforestation, which is already taking place in Malaysia and Brazil. Forests contribute to the livelihoods of many of the 1.2 billion people living in extreme poverty; 70% of these are women. Uncontrolled biofuel production could worsen the living conditions of women living in poverty, in particular those that rely on the forest for their survival.
• High oil prices reduce women’s access to modern fuels and thus make agricultural
activities less efficient and more burdensome. By growing biofuel feedstock alongside food crops, women can spread their risk and importantly, gain access to additional energy sources, thus making their own work more efficient and freeing up time to spend on other activities. Women’s organizations should be empowered to implement a sustainable “food-and-fuel” system, allowing local energy needs to be met and providing opportunities for income generation from selling biofuels and by-products to broader markets.
• The promotion of international biofuel markets based on first-generation feedstock, and their associated environmental and social risks, will overshadow the potential of community-scale biofuel futures and the associated empowerment of women.
• Bioenergy and biofuels represent only one of many energy options. Women need to be empowered to be able to choose the appropriate mix of sustainable energy options to suit their needs.
Energy is a means of satisfying needs. Both women and men rely on energy for most of their daily activities but they have different needs and roles and the various energy
services have different impacts on men and women. In the past, women’s energy needs and lifestyles have been ignored, and both traditional fuels and modern energy services have certain limitations that can increase women’s problems. Simply abolishing
traditional fuels is not a solution because the lack of energy can damage women’s health, and limit their ability to care for their families, get an education, earn income, and engage in social and political affairs.
There are many different risks associated with bioenergy – environmental, economic and social – as well as potential opportunities. Understanding and managing these risks in a gender-sensitive way is fundamental to ensure that the opportunities presented by bioenergy reach both men and women.
The use of biofuels could solve women’s energy needs as long as consideration is taken of women’s basic needs, and of how their use might increase women’s workload, might affect or improve their health, and reduce or increase household income. For example,
producing biodiesel from jatropha could potentially lead to landscape restoration as jatropha can grow in desert-like conditions and, when planted as a “living hedge”, it can reduce soil erosion, and increase nitrification and water retention. Small-scale community jatropha projects have also been shown to empower women. For example, women in Ghana use the jatropha biodiesel for the production of shea butter and in Mali, jatropha seeds are used to produce soap. In Kenya, local biofuel markets provide farmers with cash which in turn can support the switch from fuel-wood to cleaner, more efficient energy sources.
A gender perspective in the analysis of biofuels is necessary in order to understand men and women’s energy use and needs. It will enable biofuel initiatives to embrace the various requirements and fulfil, in an equitable manner, the community’s energy needs. Energy services should respond not to which kind of energy is best for the users (men and women), but should be about enabling women to choose which option adapts better
to their needs, context and possibilities.
Recommendations
• A gender perspective must be mainstreamed into planning and policy-making related to biofuels, to ensure that the concerns and needs of both men and women are taken into account. Women’s involvement in the development and implementation of biofuel policies is imperative because current policies may be undermining food security, degrading ecosystems and preventing rural farmers, especially women, from benefiting from biofuel markets.
• Biofuel production and use should be accompanied by adaptive measures that will maintain and enhance patterns of sustainability, while avoiding negative impacts on the health and socio-economic status of women and other marginalized groups.
• Biofuels could improve environmental conditions and people’s living conditions if they are developed in an effective and considerate manner.
• Women should have access to credit, carbon fund markets, and information, to enable them to learn about and decide which modern biomass resources and technologies can fulfil their needs.
• Governments should use disaggregated data to identify and quantify the different energy needs of women and men, in order to design and implement appropriate policies and programmes, and to evaluate the results. Government officials should be trained in bringing a gender perspective into their work.
• Public and private energy expenditure and investment programmes must include gender-sensitive budgets to make sure that the targeting of policies and resources is equitable.
• Most poor women in developing countries cannot afford to pay for energy services. Poor households spend about 15–28% of their income on energy while 2 billion people do not have access to electricity. Empowering women to provide their own energy is a key policy for sustainable development. This requires extension services to enable effective sustainable planting, and loans for purchasing seeds, plants, oil presses and generators.
• Women should have access to training programmes relating to the energy service sector. They will then be able to participate in decision-making, scientific development,
technical implementation and practical use of biofuels or any other alternative energy source.
• In order for bioenergy markets to be developed in a sustainable, equitable and gender-
sensitive way, a coordinated approach is required, given its cross-cutting nature, building on relevant policy fora including the CSD, CBD, UNFCCC and UNCCD.
Clancy, J., Oparaocha, S. and Roehr, U. (2004). Gender Equity and Renewable Energies. Thematic Background Paper No. 12, International Conference for Renewable Energies. Bonn.
Commission on Sustainable Development 15th Session. (2007). Women as a Major Groups Statement on Inter-linkages and cross-cutting issues. www.un.org/esa/sustdev/csd/csd15/statements/women_2may_linkages.pdf
Denton, F. (2002). Gender: The Missing Link to Energy for Sustainable Development. Policy Paper for WSSD, Johannesburg,
South Africa.
FAO. (2007a). Bioenergy could drive rural development – experts weigh bio-power impact. www.fao.org
FAO. (2007b). Gender and food security nutrition. http://www.fao.org/Gender/en/nutr-e.htm
FAO. (2007c). Women’s contributions to agricultural production and food security: Current status and perspectives. http://fao.org/DOCREP/x0198e/x098e02.htm#P166_12601
IUCN Energy, Ecosystems, and Livelihoods Initiative. (2007). Biofuels:
Managing risks into opportunities. Programme of work concept note.
Karlsson, G. (2006). Where Energy is Women’s Business: National and Regional Reports from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Pacific. ENERGIA. The Netherlands.
Karlsson, G. (2007). Women’s business? It would be far easier to alleviate poverty and promote economic development if women had a greater say in energy decision making. www.energia.org
Lynas, M. (2006). Frankenstein fuels. New Statesman 7 August.
McNeely, J.A. (2007). Green Energy or just a new set of problems.
Switzerland: IUCN.
Pimentel, D. and Patzek, T.W. (2005). Ethanol production using corn, switchgrass, and wood; biodiesel production using
soybean and sunflower. Natural Resources Research 14(1).
Sugrue, A. (2006). Why the development of biofuels can benefit the rural poor – Biofuels as a future source of energy for women in rural settlements in South Africa. Women in Environment Conference – Empowering Women for Environmental Action. CURES Southern Africa/EcoCity. South Africa.
Contact: Lorena Aguilar, Senior Gender Adviser. lorena.aguilar@iucn.org www.genderandenvironment.org