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ABC’s initial focus is the Philippines, where it has established a
wholly-owned
subsidiary,
Abundant Biofuels Philippines, Inc., and arranged two
opportunities for
building fully-integrated Jatropha biodiesel operations,
which
collectively represent over time the opportunity to develop up to 1
million hectares
of renewable Jatropha oil fields, although its intentions are
to develop an
initial 10,000 hectares followed by an
additional
250,000
hectares.
Under an
agreement with the Supreme Council of Datus Alimaong, ABC
will begin
planting on Lumad ancestral lands in the Philippines. ABC’s
Farm Management
Plan calls for ABC establishing in its first year four
“plantations” of
2,500 hectares each, with each plantation to be managed
by a separate
Lumad tribal village as its workforce, thus employing local
people in the
project. This initial planting will provide ABC with the seeds necessary
to plant an additional 250,000 hectares, bringing the total
hectares planted
to 260,000, subject to additional financing to fund this
expansion.
Unique
to ABC’s partnership with the Datus Alimaong, is that 20% of the
profits from the
Lumad plantings will be shared
under
the joint venture
arrangement to
provide educational,
healthcare
and infrastructural
improvements in
the Lumad communities.
The
Government of the Philippines, through the Philippines Forest
Corporation, has
offered ABC the opportunity to lease an additional
500,000 hectares.
To
understand ABC’s approach in working with indigenous people
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