Deal #3738

There are three associations active in Ibi Village: Novacel, GI Agro et Profinaf Invest. They have complementary missions: the exploitation and commercialisation of agroindustrial productions, social and technical development, and the implementation of innovative projects in the field of fight against climate change. Novacel and GI-Agro are controlled by an individual Olivier Mushiete. Olivier a DRC citizen, and long-term resident in Belgium claim to have inherited the land from his late father together with his siblings. 8000ha was titled in his name and a part of this was used for the concession for the project. A World Bank report states that the presence of the BioCarbon Fund, a World Bank-administered Fund purchased half a million carbon credits, which led to the French company Orbeo (a joint venture between chemicals company Rhodia and the French bank Société General that has since been bought by Belgian company Solvay Energy Services) making an up-front payment for an equal amount of carbon credits to that of the BioCarbon Fund. In addition, the BioCarbon Fund has had a pivotal role in enabling NOVACEL to obtain loans from private firms to finance the upfront investments of the project and assisted with the technical registration for CDM. The UN Environmental Programme, UNEP, covered some of the costs for technical documents required to prepare a carbon offset project. Two French companies, UMICORE (active in the mining sector) and Suez (an energy corporation), are mentioned as having provided 7-year loans of EUR 250,000 each (charcoal sales were expected to generate revenue from year 7, enabling the repayment of the loans). Several reports also note that two individuals (unnamed) invested a total of EUR 550,000 in the project.