Background:
Since 2013, the German government has been financing a development and climate finance project in Namibia called “Bush Control and Biomass Utilisation (BCBU)”. It is managed by the German Development Corporation, GIZ. Since 2019, the project’s focus has increasingly been on Namibia creating a future supply chain for woodchip and/or pellet exports to Europe.
As part of the project, GIZ commissioned the German consultancy company UNIQUE land use and forestry GmbH to assess the greenhouse gas emissions from large-scale debushing, i.e., removal of trees and bushes encroaching upon Namibian savanna rangelands. UNIQUE’s report was published at the end of 2019.1 Its most important conclusion is that large-scale debushing followed by so-called ‘rangeland restoration’ would increase Namibia’s carbon sink and thus reduce the country’s greenhouse gas emissions while, at the same time, allowing for a significant increase livestock numbers grazed on those rangelands.
Click here to read the full critique and analysis by Biofuelwatch