Kenyans Fear Dakatcha Woodlands Biofuel Expansion

Kenyans fear Dakatcha Woodlands biofuel growth

23 March 2011

By Will Ross

BBC News, Dakatcha

Being 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 means shedding blood," he told the BBC.

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

He is one of the many people opposed to the creation 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 in addition to worldwide threatened animal and bird species.

Ambitious goals

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

This plant, initially from South America, has actually long been grown in Africa as a hedge to keep out animals - goats remain well away as it is poisonous. The area impacted is community land which is being kept in trust by the local council.

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

It has rented practically a million hectares in Africa; jatropha curcas oil from a plantation in Senegal is being supplied to the Swedish furnishings merchant Ikea. Other business have actually rented land for the exact same function in Ethiopia, Mozambique and Ghana, as well as in India.

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

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

Why is Africa impacted?

Because it is challenging to discover 50,000 hectares of readily available 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 alarming effects for the frequently voiceless African communities.

Some ask: "Why 'feed' a vehicle 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 since they wish to plant jatropha here," said 27-year-old Merciline Koi, a mom of 2, who included that there had been no offer of compensation for leaving her home in Dakatcha Woodlands.

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

The business says hundreds of permanent and countless seasonal tasks will be created and it rejects that anyone will be displaced by the task.

"We want to secure your homes and the private property. We will farm around the homes," Kenya Jatropha Energy Ltd head Girardello Adriano informed the BBC from Milan.

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

How green are biofuels?

According to the Kenyan federal government's environment watchdog, the offer has not yet been sealed. It refused the preliminary 50,000-hectare request pointing out concerns over the influence on the environment and the sustainability of the project.

"We were suggesting 1,000 hectares ... We have told them to justify if the number needs to alter which is why we haven't authorized the job already," stated Benjamin Malwa Langwen, of the National Environment Management Authority (Nema).

However, there are now fresh calls for the Dakatcha job to be ditched as brand-new research calls into question whether jatropha is really a greener alternative to oil.

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

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

This is partly since big quantities of carbon are kept in the forests' vegetation and soil but the plantation would imply clearing the land of this vegetation.

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

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

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

Unorthodox methods

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

They were part moneyed by the European Union - the very organisation which is now implicated of pushing policies which residents fear could see the school shut down.

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

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

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

"This switch from nonrenewable fuel sources to sustainable energy must never ever be at the expenditure of individuals or the environment," Ikea informed the BBC in a declaration.

The woodlands are likewise an abundant source of product for standard medication.

If they feel let down by the government and the local authorities, homeowners just might turn to unconventional techniques in a bid to keep the land.

"If all the seniors come together for one objective, then it is extremely simple to remove him with our medications," said Barova Kiribai, a standard 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 community council.