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 suggests shedding blood," he informed 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 among the numerous individuals opposed to the production 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 people as well as worldwide threatened animal and bird types.

Ambitious objectives

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

This plant, originally 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 location impacted is neighborhood 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 actually rented almost a million hectares in Africa; jatropha curcas oil from a plantation in Senegal is being supplied to the Swedish furniture retailer Ikea. Other business have actually rented land for the very same function in Ethiopia, Mozambique and Ghana, along with in India.

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

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

Why is Africa affected?

Because it is tough 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 actually identified some of the tasks in Africa "land grabs" with alarming repercussions for the often voiceless African neighborhoods.

Some ask: "Why 'feed' a car in Europe when hunger at home is still a truth?"

"Our future is no longer in our hands. We have been told we need to move because they wish to plant jatropha here," said 27-year-old Merciline Koi, a mother of 2, who included that there had been no offer of settlement 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 company says numerous irreversible and thousands of seasonal tasks will be created and it denies that anybody will be displaced by the project.

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

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

How green are biofuels?

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

"We were recommending 1,000 hectares ... We have actually told them to justify if the number has to alter which is why we haven't approved the project up to now," 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 calls into question whether jatropha curcas is truly 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 just how green the jatropha curcas task in Kenya's Dakatcha forests would be.

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

This is partly because large quantities of carbon are stored in the woodlands' plant life and soil but the plantation would suggest clearing the land of this greenery.

"The report shows that EU policies are absurd policies since they are not decreasing greenhouse gas emissions as the EU is declaring," stated 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 local people of their livelihoods," said Helen Byron of the RSPB.

In reaction, the EU Commission defended its energy policy as "the most thorough and innovative sustainability plan for biofuels throughout the world".

Unorthodox techniques

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

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

"My concern is the displacement of the neighborhood. It is not good to build a classroom and after that send the pupils away," said the deputy head Godfrey Karissa.

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

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 company.

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

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

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

If they feel pull down by the government and the local authorities, residents simply might turn to unconventional methods in a bid to keep the land.

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

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

It is not unexpected they are fretted.

Kenya's politicians do not have a good performance history when it comes to working in the interests of individuals.

ActionAid

Kenya Jatropha Energy

RSPB

Nema

Ikea