Jean Claude Gandur

Jean Claude Gandur is the chairman of Addax Bioenergy.

"Jean Claude Gandur is the founder and Chairman of private investment group AOG. He has forged an entrepreneurial business model based on socially-responsible investing that has proven its worth for over 30 years. He founded the Addax and Oryx Foundation in 1996 to help fight the root causes of poverty in Africa and the Middle East. It was registered in Switzerland in 2007, with an independent board of trustees."

Gandur and Addax Bioenergy are buying 20,000 hectares of sugarcane plantations in Sierra Leone with plans to use the sugarcane for ethanol production. The ethanol will be exported to Europe.

According to Business Insider:

"The scandal: To convince local communities to accept the project, the company promised community members that their loland rice-growing areas would not be used. Addaz has reneged on their pledges. The land has been dried out, large and deep channels were dug to drain them, and Addax is cultivating the lower lying swamp land previously used for rice production. Addax also promised land development in the form of schools, health facilities, a community center, and water wells. But to date, none of those promises have been fulfilled."

Resources and articles

Related Sourcewatch articles

• Global Land Grab

External Resources

• Food Crisis and the Global Land Grab

External Articles

• Courtney Comstock, "Meet The Millionaires And Billionaires Suddenly Buying Tons Of Land In Africa," Business Insider, June 30, 2011.