Kenyans Fear Dakatcha Woodlands Biofuel Expansion

Kenyans fear Dakatcha Woodlands biofuel expansion

23 March 2011

By Will Ross

BBC News, Dakatcha

Being in the shade of a tree next to his thatched mud hut in in Kenya's Dakatcha Woodlands, Joshua Kahindi Pekeshe is defiant.

"We are not going to let this land go even if it implies shedding blood," he told the BBC.

"Land is really essential to us. We farm and get our income from it. On this land we bury our dead."

He is one of the lots of people opposed to the development of a large biofuel plantation in the location, about an hour's drive inland from the seaside town of Malindi.

It is an arid location and home to some 20,000 people in addition to internationally threatened animal and bird types.

Ambitious goals

An Italian business has asked the authorities for consent to lease 50,000 hectares there to grow jatropha curcas, whose seeds are rich in oil that can be turned into bio-diesel.

This plant, originally from South America, has actually long been grown in Africa as a hedge to stay out animals - goats stay well away as it is toxic. The area impacted is neighborhood land which is being kept in trust by the regional council.

Kenya Jatropha Energy Ltd is 100%-owned by the Milan-based Nuove Iniziative Industriali SRL.

It has rented nearly a million hectares in Africa; jatropha curcas oil from a plantation in Senegal is being supplied to the Swedish furniture seller Ikea. Other companies have leased land for the very same purpose in Ethiopia, Mozambique and Ghana, in addition to in India.

This growth has been stimulated by the European Union, which has actually set ambitious goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and lowering its reliance on imported oil.

The 27 EU countries have actually registered to a regulation which specifies that by 2020, 20% of energy need to be from sustainable sources, external.

Why is Africa affected?

Because it is challenging to find 50,000 hectares of available land to grow a biofuel crop in, for instance, the UK or Italy.

Why 'feed' a car?

But project groups have actually identified some of the projects in Africa "land grabs" with alarming repercussions for the typically voiceless African communities.

Some ask: "Why 'feed' an automobile in Europe when cravings in your home is still a truth?"

"Our future is no longer in our hands. We have been told we need to move because they desire to plant jatropha curcas here," stated 27-year-old Merciline Koi, a mother of 2, who added that there had actually been no deal of settlement for leaving her home in Dakatcha Woodlands.

Kenya Jetropha Energy Ltd states the settlements are over - the government has offered the green light for a pilot task to start with 10,000 hectares and all it is waiting on now is the final documentation.

The business says hundreds of irreversible and thousands of seasonal jobs will be developed and it rejects that anybody will be displaced by the job.

"We wish to protect your houses and the personal property. We will farm around your houses," Kenya jatropha curcas Energy Ltd head Girardello Adriano told the BBC from Milan.

"We are helping these people. They are extremely delighted for this project. No-one will be moved."

How green are biofuels?

According to the Kenyan government's environment guard dog, the deal has actually not yet been sealed. It refused the initial 50,000-hectare demand mentioning issues over the effect on the environment and the sustainability of the job.

"We were advising 1,000 hectares ... We have actually told them to justify if the number has to change and that is why we haven't approved the task up to now," said Benjamin Malwa Langwen, of the National Environment Management Authority (Nema).

However, there are now fresh require the Dakatcha job to be ditched as new research study casts doubt on whether jatropha curcas is really a greener alternative to oil.

The anti-poverty campaign group ActionAid and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) commissioned a report to investigate just how green the jatropha project in Kenya's Dakatcha forests would be.

The research study by the consultancy group North Energy, external found that jatropha curcas would produce in between 2.5 and 6 times more greenhouse gases when compared to nonrenewable fuel sources.

This is partially since large quantities of carbon are saved in the woodlands' greenery and soil but the plantation would mean clearing the land of this plant life.

"The report shows that EU policies are foolish policies since they are not decreasing greenhouse gas emissions as the EU is proclaiming," said ActionAid's Chris Coxon.

"The proposed biofuel plantation will ravage the forests, driving the worldwide threatened Clarke's Weaver bird to termination and denying countless local individuals of their incomes," said Helen Byron of the RSPB.

In response, the EU Commission protected its energy policy as "the most detailed and advanced sustainability scheme for biofuels throughout the world".

Unorthodox approaches

At the remote Mulunguni primary school, which lies within the Dakatcha Woodlands, numerous brand-new classrooms and pit latrines have simply been developed.

They were part funded by the European Union - the really organisation which is now implicated of pushing policies which residents fear might see the school closed down.

"My concern is the displacement of the neighborhood. It is bad to construct a class and after that send out the pupils away," said the deputy head Godfrey Karissa.

"Yes we require jobs. But a farm without a home is bad. You require to have a home before you go to your job."

There are plainly issues on the ground that when the lease is signed, the population will be at the mercy of a profit-driven business.

Ikea says it will not source jatropha oil from Kenya till it can be sure that this will not add to the conversion of natural environments.

"This switch from fossil fuels to renewable energy need to never be at the expense of individuals or the environment," Ikea informed the BBC in a statement.

The forests are likewise a rich source of material for conventional medication.

If they feel pull down by the government and the regional authorities, locals simply might turn to unconventional techniques in a bid to keep the land.

"If all the seniors come together for one goal, then it is very simple to remove him with our medications," stated Barova Kiribai, a conventional therapist, referring to the owner of the Italian biofuels company.

The fate of the individuals here remains in the hands of the Kenyan government and Malindi's community council.

It is not surprising they are fretted.