Kenyans fear Dakatcha Woodlands biofuel expansion

23 March 2011

By Will Ross

BBC News, Dakatcha

Sitting in the shade of a tree beside 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 extremely important to us. We farm and get our livelihood from it. On this land we bury our dead."

He is among the lots of people opposed to the development of a big biofuel plantation in the area, about an hour's drive inland from the coastal town of Malindi.

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

Ambitious goals

An Italian company 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, initially from South America, has long been grown in Africa as a hedge to stay out animals - goats remain well away as it is dangerous. The area impacted is neighborhood land which is being kept in trust by the local council.

Kenya Jatropha 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 seller Ikea. Other companies have rented land for the same function in Ethiopia, Mozambique and Ghana, along with in India.

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

The 27 EU nations have actually registered to a directive which states that by 2020, 20% of energy ought to be from sustainable sources, external.

Why is Africa impacted?

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

Why 'feed' an automobile?

But project groups have labelled some of the projects in Africa "land grabs" with dire consequences for the frequently voiceless African communities.

Some ask: "Why 'feed' a car in Europe when cravings in the house is still a truth?"

"Our future is no longer in our hands. We have been informed we have to move due to the fact that they want to plant jatropha here," stated 27-year-old Merciline Koi, a mom of 2, who added that there had been no deal of compensation for leaving her home in Dakatcha Woodlands.

Kenya Jetropha Energy Ltd states the negotiations are over - the federal government has okayed for a pilot job to start with 10,000 hectares and all it is waiting on now is the last documentation.

The business says hundreds of long-term and thousands of seasonal tasks will be produced and it rejects that anyone will be displaced by the project.

"We wish to safeguard your homes and the private residential or commercial property. We will farm around your homes," Kenya Jatropha Energy Ltd head Girardello Adriano informed the BBC from Milan.

"We are assisting these people. They are very happy for this job. No-one will be moved."

How green are biofuels?

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

"We were advising 1,000 hectares ... We have actually informed them to justify if the number needs to alter which is why we haven't approved the task already," said Benjamin Malwa Langwen, of the National Environment Management Authority (Nema).

However, there are now fresh calls for the Dakatcha project to be scrapped as brand-new research study calls into question whether jatropha is actually 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 examine simply how green the jatropha project in Kenya's Dakatcha forests would be.

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

This is partly due to the fact that big amounts of carbon are kept in the forests' greenery and soil however the plantation would indicate clearing the land of this greenery.

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

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

In reaction, the EU Commission safeguarded its energy policy as "the most extensive and innovative sustainability plan for biofuels anywhere in the world".

Unorthodox approaches

At the remote Mulunguni main school, which lies within the Dakatcha Woodlands, several new classrooms and pit latrines have actually just been built.

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

"My worry is the displacement of the neighborhood. It is not excellent to construct a classroom and after that send out the pupils away," stated the deputy head Godfrey Karissa.

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

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

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

"This switch from fossil fuels to sustainable energy should never ever be at the cost of people or the environment," Ikea informed the BBC in a statement.

The forests are also a rich source of product for standard medicine.

If they feel pull down by the government and the local authorities, citizens just might turn to unorthodox techniques in a quote to keep the land.

"If all the elders come together for one objective, then it is extremely simple to eliminate him with our medicines," stated Barova Kiribai, a conventional healer, referring to the owner of the Italian biofuels business.

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

It is not unexpected they are fretted.

Kenya's political leaders do not have a great track record when it concerns working in the interests of individuals.

ActionAid

Kenya jatropha curcas Energy

RSPB

Nema

Ikea