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 indicates shedding blood," he told the BBC.

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

He is one of the numerous individuals opposed to the production of a large biofuel plantation in the location, about an hour's drive inland from the coastal town of Malindi.

It is a dry location and home to some 20,000 individuals along with internationally threatened animal and bird species.

Ambitious objectives

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

This plant, originally from South America, has actually long been grown in Africa as a hedge to keep out animals - goats remain well away as it is harmful. The area affected is community 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 actually rented almost a million hectares in Africa; jatropha curcas oil from a plantation in Senegal is being supplied to the Swedish furnishings seller Ikea. Other companies have leased land for the same purpose in Ethiopia, Mozambique and Ghana, in addition to in India.

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

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

Why is Africa impacted?

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

Why 'feed' an automobile?

But project groups have identified some of the jobs in Africa "land grabs" with dire consequences for the often voiceless African neighborhoods.

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

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

Kenya Jetropha Energy Ltd states the settlements are over - the federal government has actually okayed for a pilot task to begin with 10,000 hectares and all it is awaiting now is the last documentation.

The company states numerous permanent and countless seasonal tasks will be created and it rejects that anyone will be displaced by the task.

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

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

How green are biofuels?

According to the Kenyan federal government's environment guard dog, the deal has actually not yet been sealed. It refused the preliminary 50,000-hectare demand citing 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 validate if the number has to alter which is why we have not approved the task already," stated Benjamin Malwa Langwen, of the National Environment Management Authority (Nema).

However, there are now fresh calls for the Dakatcha project to be scrapped as new research casts doubt on whether jatropha curcas is actually a greener option to oil.

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

The research study by the consultancy group North Energy, external discovered that jatropha would emit in between 2.5 and 6 times more greenhouse gases when compared to fossil fuels.

This is partly since big amounts of carbon are kept in the woodlands' greenery and soil but the plantation would imply clearing the land of this plants.

"The report reveals that EU policies are silly policies since they are not reducing greenhouse gas emissions as the EU is announcing," 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 livelihoods," said Helen Byron of the RSPB.

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

Unorthodox approaches

At the remote Mulunguni primary school, which lies within the Dakatcha Woodlands, a number of brand-new classrooms and pit latrines have actually simply been built.

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

"My concern is the displacement of the neighborhood. It is bad to construct a classroom and then send the students away," stated the deputy head Godfrey Karissa.

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

There are clearly concerns 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 up until it can be sure that this will not contribute to the conversion of natural environments.

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

The forests are likewise an abundant source of product for conventional medication.

If they feel let down by the federal government and the local authorities, citizens just may turn to unconventional approaches in a bid to keep the land.

"If all the seniors come together for one goal, then it is extremely simple to remove him with our medicines," said Barova Kiribai, a standard healer, describing the owner of the Italian biofuels company.

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

It is not unexpected they are worried.