A Brazilian start-up is testing the possibility of implementing a large-scale biofuels project using jatropha, a family of hardy, succulent plants. The company, BioVentures Brasil, is getting $1 million from the InterAmerican Development Bank (IDB) for a pilot project on about seven hectares (17 acres) in Bahia, in northeastern Brazil, where it hopes to eventually develop a plantation on 20,000 hectares (49,400 acres) of mostly abandoned cattle-grazing land. IDB sees promise in biofuels and is backing seven such projects — two involving waste, three involving sugarcane and two involving jatropha, including the one in Bahia. The bank, however, is treading carefully. It recently created a stricter “Biofuels Sustainability Scorecard’’ to help project developers gauge issues of concern like food security, water management, biodiversity, carbon emissions and indigenous rights.
http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/02/jatropha-takes-root-in-brazil/