Kenyans fear Dakatcha Woodlands biofuel expansion
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 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 one of the lots of people opposed to the development of a big biofuel plantation in the location, about an hour's drive inland from the coastal town of Malindi.
It is a dry area and home to some 20,000 individuals in addition to globally threatened animal and bird species.
Ambitious goals
An Italian business has actually asked the authorities for consent to lease 50,000 hectares there to grow jatropha curcas, whose seeds are rich 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 stay well away as it is harmful. The location affected is neighborhood land which is being held in trust by the regional council.
Kenya Jatropha Energy Ltd is 100%-owned by the Milan-based Nuove Iniziative Industriali SRL.
It has rented nearly a million hectares in Africa; jatropha oil from a plantation in Senegal is being provided to the Swedish furnishings retailer Ikea. Other business have actually leased land for the exact same function in Ethiopia, Mozambique and Ghana, in addition to in India.
This expansion has actually been spurred by the European Union, which has actually set ambitious objectives for decreasing greenhouse gas emissions and decreasing its reliance on imported oil.
The 27 EU countries have actually signed up to an instruction which mentions 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 readily available land to grow a biofuel crop in, for example, the UK or Italy.
Why 'feed' a vehicle?
But project groups have labelled a few of the tasks in Africa "land grabs" with dire effects for the often voiceless African communities.
Some ask: "Why 'feed' a car in Europe when cravings at home is still a reality?"
"Our future is no longer in our hands. We have been told we need to move due to the fact that they want to plant jatropha curcas here," said 27-year-old Merciline Koi, a mom of 2, who added that there had actually been no offer of compensation for leaving her home in Dakatcha Woodlands.
Kenya Jetropha Energy Ltd states the settlements are over - the government has actually okayed for a pilot task to start with 10,000 hectares and all it is waiting for now is the final documentation.
The business says hundreds of permanent and thousands of seasonal jobs will be produced and it rejects that anyone will be displaced by the project.
"We want to protect your houses and the personal residential or commercial property. We will farm around your homes," Kenya jatropha curcas Energy Ltd head Girardello Adriano told the BBC from Milan.
"We are helping these people. They are extremely happy for this task. No-one will be moved."
How green are biofuels?
According to the Kenyan government's environment guard dog, the deal has actually not yet been sealed. It turned down the preliminary 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 validate if the number needs to alter and that is why we have not authorized the job already," said Benjamin Malwa Langwen, of the National Environment Management Authority (Nema).
However, there are now fresh calls for the Dakatcha project to be ditched as new research casts doubt on 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 task in Kenya's Dakatcha forests would be.
The study by the consultancy group North Energy, external discovered that jatropha curcas would produce in between 2.5 and 6 times more greenhouse gases when compared to fossil fuels.
This is partially because big quantities of carbon are kept in the woodlands' greenery and soil however the plantation would indicate clearing the land of this plants.
"The report shows that EU policies are foolish policies since they are not reducing greenhouse gas emissions as the EU is proclaiming," stated ActionAid's Chris Coxon.
"The proposed biofuel plantation will ravage the forests, driving the worldwide threatened Clarke's Weaver bird to extinction and denying thousands of local people of their livelihoods," said Helen Byron of the RSPB.
In response, the EU Commission defended its energy policy as "the most thorough and sophisticated sustainability plan for biofuels anywhere in the world".
Unorthodox methods
At the remote Mulunguni primary school, which lies within the Dakatcha Woodlands, several new classrooms and pit latrines have actually just been constructed.
They were part moneyed by the European Union - the really organisation which is now accused of pushing policies which locals fear could see the school closed down.
"My worry is the displacement of the neighborhood. It is not great to construct a class and after that send out the pupils away," said 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 issues on the ground that when the lease is signed, the population will be at the grace of a profit-driven business.
Ikea says it will not source jatropha 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 renewable resource must never be at the expenditure of people or the environment," Ikea informed the BBC in a declaration.
The forests are also an abundant source of material for standard medication.
If they feel pull down by the federal government and the local authorities, locals just might turn to unconventional techniques in a bid to keep the land.
"If all the seniors come together for one goal, then it is very simple to remove him with our medicines," said Barova Kiribai, a traditional healer, describing 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.
It is not surprising they are fretted.
Kenya's politicians do not have an excellent performance history when it concerns operating in the interests of the individuals.
ActionAid
Kenya jatropha curcas Energy
RSPB
Nema
Ikea
