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 implies shedding blood," he told the BBC.

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

He is one of the lots of individuals opposed to the creation of a large biofuel plantation in the location, about an hour's drive inland from the seaside town of Malindi.

It is an arid area and home to some 20,000 individuals as well as worldwide threatened animal and bird species.

Ambitious goals

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

This plant, originally from South America, has long been grown in Africa as a hedge to stay out animals - goats stay well away as it is dangerous. The area impacted is community land which is being held in trust by the local council.

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

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

This growth has actually been stimulated by the European Union, which has actually set ambitious objectives for decreasing greenhouse gas emissions and minimizing its dependence on imported oil.

The 27 EU countries have actually signed up to an instruction which mentions that by 2020, 20% of energy should be from sustainable sources, external.

Why is Africa affected?

Because it is difficult to discover 50,000 hectares of offered land to grow a biofuel crop in, for example, the UK or Italy.

Why 'feed' an automobile?

But campaign groups have actually labelled some of the projects in Africa "land grabs" with dire consequences for the often voiceless African neighborhoods.

Some ask: "Why 'feed' an automobile 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 since they wish to plant jatropha here," stated 27-year-old Merciline Koi, a mother of 2, who added that there had actually been no deal of settlement for leaving her home in Dakatcha Woodlands.

Kenya Jetropha Energy Ltd says the negotiations are over - the government has actually okayed for a pilot job to start with 10,000 hectares and all it is awaiting now is the last paperwork.

The business states numerous irreversible and countless seasonal jobs will be developed and it denies that anyone will be displaced by the project.

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

"We are helping these individuals. They are really delighted for this project. No-one will be moved."

How green are biofuels?

According to the Kenyan government's environment guard dog, the offer has not yet been sealed. It refused the initial 50,000-hectare request citing issues over the effect on the environment and the sustainability of the job.

"We were advising 1,000 hectares ... We have told them to validate if the number needs to alter which is why we have not approved the job up to now," said Benjamin Malwa Langwen, of the National Environment Management Authority (Nema).

However, there are now fresh require the Dakatcha project to be scrapped as new research calls into question whether jatropha curcas is actually a greener option 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 job in Kenya's Dakatcha forests would be.

The study by the consultancy group North Energy, external found that jatropha would discharge between 2.5 and 6 times more greenhouse gases when compared to nonrenewable fuel sources.

This is partly since big amounts of carbon are kept in the woodlands' greenery and soil but the plantation would mean clearing the land of this greenery.

"The report shows that EU policies are silly policies because they are not lowering greenhouse gas emissions as the EU is announcing," stated ActionAid's Chris Coxon.

"The proposed biofuel plantation will ravage the woodlands, driving the globally threatened Clarke's Weaver bird to termination and depriving countless local individuals of their incomes," stated Helen Byron of the RSPB.

In reaction, the EU Commission defended its energy policy as "the most comprehensive and advanced sustainability scheme 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 simply been constructed.

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

"My concern is the displacement of the neighborhood. It is bad to build a classroom and then send out the pupils away," said the deputy head Godfrey Karissa.

"Yes we require tasks. But a farm without a home is bad. You require to have a home before you go to your job."

There are plainly concerns on the ground that when 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 until it can be sure that this will not contribute to the conversion of natural environments.

"This switch from nonrenewable fuel sources to renewable resource should never ever be at the expense of individuals or the environment," Ikea told the BBC in a declaration.

The forests are likewise a rich source of product for conventional medication.

If they feel let down by the federal government and the local authorities, citizens just may turn to unorthodox approaches in a quote to keep the land.

"If all the seniors come together for one goal, then it is really easy to eliminate him with our medications," 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 federal government and Malindi's community council.

It is not surprising they are worried.

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

ActionAid

Kenya Jatropha Energy

RSPB

Nema

Ikea