Kenyans fear Dakatcha Woodlands biofuel growth

23 March 2011

By Will Ross

BBC News, Dakatcha

Sitting in the shade of a tree next to 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 means shedding blood," he told the BBC.

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

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

It is a dry location and home to some 20,000 individuals along with worldwide threatened animal and bird types.

Ambitious goals

An Italian business has actually asked the authorities for authorization 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 keep out animals - goats remain well away as it is poisonous. The area impacted is neighborhood 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 rented almost a million hectares in Africa; jatropha oil from a plantation in Senegal is being supplied to the Swedish furniture seller Ikea. Other business have actually leased land for the very same function in Ethiopia, Mozambique and Ghana, as well as in India.

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

The 27 EU nations have registered to a directive which mentions that by 2020, 20% of energy need to be from sustainable sources, external.

Why is Africa impacted?

Because it is tough to find 50,000 hectares of available land to grow a biofuel crop in, for example, the UK or Italy.

Why 'feed' a vehicle?

But campaign groups have actually labelled some of the jobs in Africa "land grabs" with alarming repercussions for the often voiceless African communities.

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

"Our future is no longer in our hands. We have actually been informed we have to move since they wish to plant jatropha curcas here," stated 27-year-old Merciline Koi, a mom of 2, who added that there had been no offer of payment for leaving her home in Dakatcha Woodlands.

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

The company states numerous permanent and countless seasonal tasks will be developed and it denies that anyone will be displaced by the job.

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

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

How green are biofuels?

According to the Kenyan federal government's environment watchdog, the deal has actually not yet been sealed. It declined the initial 50,000-hectare demand mentioning concerns over the impact on the environment and the sustainability of the job.

"We were advising 1,000 hectares ... We have actually told them to justify if the number has to alter and that is why we have not authorized the task up to now," stated Benjamin Malwa Langwen, of the National Environment Management Authority (Nema).

However, there are now fresh require the Dakatcha project to be scrapped as brand-new research study casts doubt on whether jatropha is really 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 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 would release between 2.5 and six times more greenhouse gases when compared to fossil fuels.

This is partially due to the fact that big quantities of carbon are saved in the forests' plant life and soil however the plantation would mean clearing the land of this plant life.

"The report reveals that EU policies are foolish policies due to the fact that they are not reducing greenhouse gas emissions as the EU is announcing," 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 thousands of regional people of their incomes," said Helen Byron of the RSPB.

In response, the EU Commission defended its energy policy as "the most extensive and sophisticated sustainability scheme for biofuels anywhere in the world".

Unorthodox methods

At the remote Mulunguni primary school, which lies within the Dakatcha Woodlands, numerous new classrooms and pit latrines have actually simply been developed.

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

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

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

There are clearly concerns 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 oil from Kenya till it can be sure that this will not contribute 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 told the BBC in a declaration.

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

If they feel pull down by the federal government and the local authorities, homeowners simply might turn to unorthodox techniques in a quote to keep the land.

"If all the elders come together for one goal, then it is extremely simple to remove him with our medications," said Barova Kiribai, a conventional therapist, referring to the owner of the Italian biofuels business.

The fate of the people here remains in the hands of the Kenyan government and Malindi's municipal council.

It is not surprising they are fretted.

Kenya's political leaders do not have a good track record when it pertains to operating in the interests of individuals.

ActionAid

Kenya Jatropha Energy

RSPB

Nema

Ikea