Kenyans fear Dakatcha Woodlands biofuel growth

23 March 2011

By Will Ross

BBC News, Dakatcha

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

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

"Land is extremely important to us. We farm and get our livelihood from it. On this land we bury our dead."

He is among the many individuals 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 objectives

An Italian company has actually asked the authorities for permission to rent 50,000 hectares there to grow jatropha curcas, whose seeds are abundant in oil that can be into bio-diesel.

This plant, initially from South America, has long been grown in Africa as a hedge to keep out animals - goats stay well away as it is dangerous. The location impacted is community land which is being held in trust by the regional council.

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

It has rented almost a million hectares in Africa; jatropha oil from a plantation in Senegal is being supplied to the Swedish furniture retailer Ikea. Other companies have actually rented land for the same function in Ethiopia, Mozambique and Ghana, in addition to in India.

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

The 27 EU nations have signed up to an instruction which states that by 2020, 20% of energy ought to be from sustainable sources, external.

Why is Africa affected?

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

Why 'feed' a vehicle?

But campaign groups have actually identified a few of the projects in Africa "land grabs" with alarming effects for the often voiceless African communities.

Some ask: "Why 'feed' an automobile in Europe when appetite in the house is still a truth?"

"Our future is no longer in our hands. We have been informed we need to move since they want to plant jatropha curcas here," stated 27-year-old Merciline Koi, a mom of 2, who included that there had been no offer of payment for leaving her home in Dakatcha Woodlands.

Kenya Jetropha Energy Ltd states the settlements are over - the federal 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 documents.

The business says hundreds of long-term and countless seasonal tasks will be developed and it denies that anybody will be displaced by the task.

"We want to protect your homes and the personal residential or commercial property. We will farm around your houses," Kenya Jatropha Energy Ltd head Girardello Adriano informed the BBC from Milan.

"We are helping these individuals. They are very delighted for this job. No-one will be moved."

How green are biofuels?

According to the Kenyan government's environment watchdog, the deal has actually not yet been sealed. It declined the initial 50,000-hectare request citing issues over the effect on the environment and the sustainability of the task.

"We were advising 1,000 hectares ... We have informed them to justify if the number has to alter and that is why we have not authorized the project already," said Benjamin Malwa Langwen, of the National Environment Management Authority (Nema).

However, there are now fresh require the Dakatcha task to be scrapped as new research calls into question whether jatropha is really a greener option to oil.

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

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

This is partly since large quantities of carbon are kept in the forests' greenery and soil however the plantation would mean clearing the land of this vegetation.

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

"The proposed biofuel plantation will devastate the forests, driving the globally threatened Clarke's Weaver bird to termination and depriving thousands of local people of their livelihoods," stated Helen Byron of the RSPB.

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

Unorthodox approaches

At the remote Mulunguni main school, which lies within the Dakatcha Woodlands, numerous new class and pit latrines have just been developed.

They were part funded by the European Union - the extremely organisation which is now implicated of pressing policies which locals fear might see the school shut down.

"My worry is the displacement of the neighborhood. It is bad to build a classroom and after that send the students away," stated the deputy head Godfrey Karissa.

"Yes we need tasks. But a farm without a home is not great. You require to have a home before you go to your task."

There are clearly concerns on the ground that once the lease is signed, the population will be at the mercy of a profit-driven business.

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

"This switch from nonrenewable fuel sources to renewable resource should never be at the expenditure of individuals or the environment," Ikea told the BBC in a declaration.

The forests are also a rich source of material for conventional medicine.

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

"If all the seniors come together for one objective, then it is really easy to eliminate him with our medications," stated Barova Kiribai, a traditional therapist, referring to the owner of the Italian biofuels business.

The fate of individuals here is in the hands of the Kenyan federal government and Malindi's local council.

It is not unexpected they are fretted.

Kenya's politicians do not have an excellent performance history when it concerns operating in the interests of the people.

ActionAid

Kenya Jatropha Energy

RSPB

Nema

Ikea