Leading certifying organisation the International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC) has awarded the first ISCC EU low indirect land-use change (ILUC) certificate to Italian energy company Eni‘s Kenyan castor oil supplier Janari Farms.
Eni uses castor beans produced by Janari Farms as an agri-feedstock in biofuel production.
Farmers at Janari Farms had cultivated castor on severely degraded land without risk of direct and indirect displacement of food and feed crops, the ISCC said on 18 February.
The low ILUC risk certification stated that increasing demand for biofuel feedstock could be satisfied in two main ways: by improving agricultural yields through practices such as sequential cropping, better soil management, crop protection or modernised machinery; or by cultivating crops on previously unused, abandoned or severely degraded land.
In this way, low ILUC risk feedstock production avoided displacing natural, unmanaged ecosystems like forests, wetlands or grasslands, to produce biomass for food, feed or biofuels, the ISCC said.
In Kenya, severely degraded lands are characterised by poor soil fertility, erosion and limited agricultural productivity, making them marginally suitable or economically unsuitable for food crops, according to the ISCC.
The ISCC is an independent multi-stakeholder initiative and leading certification system supporting sustainable, fully traceable, deforestation-free and climate-friendly supply chains.
ISCC certification covers sustainable agricultural biomass, biogenic wastes and residues, non-biological renewable materials and recycled carbon-based materials.
