Kenyans fear Dakatcha Woodlands biofuel growth
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 means shedding blood," he told the BBC.
"Land is very 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 location and home to some 20,000 individuals along with globally threatened animal and bird species.
Ambitious objectives
An Italian company has asked the authorities for approval to lease 50,000 hectares there to grow jatropha, whose seeds are abundant in oil that can be become bio-diesel.
This plant, initially from South America, has actually long been grown in Africa as a hedge to keep out animals - goats stay well away as it is harmful. The location affected is neighborhood 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 provided to the Swedish furnishings retailer Ikea. Other companies have actually leased land for the very same function in Ethiopia, Mozambique and Ghana, as well as in India.
This expansion has actually been stimulated by the European Union, which has actually set ambitious objectives for decreasing greenhouse gas emissions and lowering its dependence on imported oil.
The 27 EU nations have actually registered to an instruction which specifies that by 2020, 20% of energy must be from sustainable sources, external.
Why is Africa impacted?
Because it is difficult 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 identified some of the jobs in Africa "land grabs" with dire effects for the typically voiceless African communities.
Some ask: "Why 'feed' a vehicle in Europe when hunger in your home is still a reality?"
"Our future is no longer in our hands. We have been told we need to move because they wish to plant jatropha curcas here," stated 27-year-old Merciline Koi, a mother of 2, who added that there had actually been no deal of compensation for leaving her home in Dakatcha Woodlands.
Kenya Jetropha Energy Ltd says the negotiations are over - the government has provided the green light for a pilot job to start with 10,000 hectares and all it is waiting for now is the final paperwork.
The company states numerous long-term and thousands of seasonal jobs will be developed and it denies that anyone will be displaced by the project.
"We wish to protect your houses and the personal residential or commercial property. We will farm around the homes," Kenya Jatropha Energy Ltd head Girardello Adriano told the BBC from Milan.
"We are assisting these individuals. They are extremely delighted for this job. No-one will be moved."
How green are biofuels?
According to the Kenyan government's environment watchdog, the offer has actually not yet been sealed. It rejected the preliminary 50,000-hectare demand pointing out concerns over the effect on the environment and the sustainability of the project.
"We were advising 1,000 hectares ... We have actually informed them to validate if the number needs to change and that is why we have not authorized the project up to now," said Benjamin Malwa Langwen, of the National Environment Management Authority (Nema).
However, there are now fresh require the Dakatcha task to be ditched as brand-new research casts doubt on 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 investigate simply how green the jatropha curcas project in Kenya's Dakatcha woodlands would be.
The study by the consultancy group North Energy, external found that jatropha curcas would release between 2.5 and 6 times more greenhouse gases when compared to nonrenewable fuel sources.
This is partially because big amounts of carbon are saved in the woodlands' vegetation and soil but the plantation would imply clearing the land of this greenery.
"The report shows that EU policies are foolish policies because they are not reducing greenhouse gas emissions as the EU is announcing," said ActionAid's Chris Coxon.
"The proposed biofuel plantation will devastate the woodlands, driving the worldwide threatened Clarke's Weaver bird to extinction and depriving countless local people of their livelihoods," stated Helen Byron of the RSPB.
In response, the EU Commission defended its energy policy as "the most thorough and advanced sustainability scheme for biofuels throughout the world".
Unorthodox approaches
At the remote Mulunguni main school, which lies within the Dakatcha Woodlands, several brand-new classrooms and pit latrines have simply been built.
They were part funded by the European Union - the extremely organisation which is now implicated of pressing policies which residents fear could 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 students away," said the deputy head Godfrey Karissa.
"Yes we require tasks. But a farm without a home is bad. You need to have a home before you go to your job."
There are plainly issues on the ground that once the lease is signed, the population will be at the mercy of a profit-driven company.
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 must never ever be at the expenditure of individuals or the environment," Ikea informed the BBC in a statement.
The forests are likewise a rich source of product for traditional medicine.
If they feel pull down by the government and the local authorities, homeowners simply might turn to unorthodox methods in a quote to keep the land.
"If all the senior citizens come together for one goal, then it is very easy to eliminate him with our medicines," said Barova Kiribai, a standard healer, referring to the owner of the Italian biofuels business.
The fate of the people here remains in the hands of the Kenyan federal government and Malindi's community council.
It is not surprising they are fretted.
Kenya's political leaders do not have a good performance history when it concerns operating in the interests of individuals.
ActionAid
Kenya jatropha curcas Energy
RSPB
Nema
Ikea
