Geographical Indication (GI) options for Ethiopian Coffee and Ghanaian Cocoa

The State of Biofuel Innovation in Mozambique
biofuels production in the country. According to the government’s National
Policy and Strategy on Biofuels (NPSB) of 2009, one of the key policy aims is:
To promote and explore agro-energy resources to guarantee energy security and
sustainable socio-economic development in order to contribute to the reduction
of the emissions of gas with greenhouse effect, which contributes to the global
warming, through selection and adoption of appropriate production technologies
and methods in agriculture and industry. (NPSB, 2009, translated from Portuguese
by the authors)
The NPSB is based on several studies commissioned by the government, including
a 2007 study that recommended pursuit of ethanol as a petrol additive and
pursuit of biodiesel (Econergy, 2007). The Econergy study report, released in
2008, found that, for ethanol production, sorghum and sugar cane should be
clear priorities, along with cassava (Econergy, 2008). For biodiesel, the best-suited
crops among those already being cultivated were identified as coconut, sunflower,
African palm, castor seed and jatropha. (The jatropha tree is a drought resistant
and fast-growing plant that produces non-edible seeds high in oil that can be
used for biofuel.) The 2008 Econergy report also concluded that implementation
of a biofuel policy and strategy would have significant benefits for Mozambique,
including:
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expansion of the agriculturally productive area in order to produce raw
materials;
reduction of fuel importation , then estimated as costing US$20 million
per year;
increased tax revenues;
creation of 150,000 new jobs;
increase of exports; and
growth in the transportation sector (e.g. increase of traffic in ports)
(Econergy, 2008).
However, notably absent from the narratives of the private sector, foreign governments
and the government of Mozambique is mention of a possible intellectual
property (IP) dimension (specifically a patent dimension) to the drive towards
large-scale biofuels production for the country. For instance, the aforementioned
assessment of biofuels in Mozambique, commissioned by the government and
conducted by Econergy, which formed the basis for the adoption of the NPSB of
2009, does not contain a single reference to the role of IP in the development of
the biofuels industry in Mozambique (Econergy, 2008).
We set out to discover whether the lack of focus on IP issues in Mozambique’s
biofuels strategy is perhaps a gap that needs filling. The study sought to understand
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