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 implies shedding blood," he told the BBC.
"Land is very important to us. We farm and get our income from it. On this land we bury our dead."
He is among the numerous individuals 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 an arid area and home to some 20,000 individuals in addition to globally threatened animal and bird types.
Ambitious objectives
An Italian business has asked the authorities for consent to rent 50,000 hectares there to grow jatropha curcas, whose seeds are rich in oil that can be turned into bio-diesel.
This plant, initially from South America, has long been grown in Africa as a hedge to stay out animals - goats remain well away as it is harmful. The area affected 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 nearly a million hectares in Africa; jatropha curcas oil from a plantation in Senegal is being supplied to the Swedish furniture merchant Ikea. Other companies have leased land for the same purpose in Ethiopia, Mozambique and Ghana, in addition to in India.
This expansion has actually been stimulated by the European Union, which has set ambitious objectives for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and decreasing its dependence on imported oil.
The 27 EU countries have actually signed up to an instruction which states that by 2020, 20% of energy ought to be from sustainable sources, external.
Why is Africa affected?
Because it is challenging 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 project groups have actually labelled some of the projects in Africa "land grabs" with alarming consequences for the typically voiceless African communities.
Some ask: "Why 'feed' an automobile in Europe when appetite at home is still a reality?"
"Our future is no longer in our hands. We have actually been told we need to move due to the fact that they wish to plant jatropha here," stated 27-year-old Merciline Koi, a mother of 2, who added 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 project to begin with 10,000 hectares and all it is awaiting now is the final documents.
The business says numerous long-term and thousands of seasonal jobs will be developed and it rejects that anybody will be displaced by the project.
"We wish to protect your houses and the private residential or commercial 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 extremely happy for this task. 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 preliminary 50,000-hectare request mentioning concerns over the influence on the environment and the sustainability of the job.
"We were recommending 1,000 hectares ... We have actually told them to justify if the number needs to change and that is why we haven't approved the job up to now," stated Benjamin Malwa Langwen, of the National Environment Management Authority (Nema).
However, there are now fresh require the Dakatcha task to be scrapped as new research calls into question whether jatropha curcas 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 examine simply how green the jatropha curcas job in Kenya's Dakatcha woodlands would be.
The study by the consultancy group North Energy, external found that jatropha curcas would produce in between 2.5 and six times more greenhouse gases when compared to fossil fuels.
This is partly because large quantities of carbon are saved in the forests' vegetation and soil however the plantation would imply clearing the land of this greenery.
"The report reveals that EU policies are absurd policies due to the fact that they are not reducing greenhouse gas emissions as the EU is declaring," stated ActionAid's Chris Coxon.
"The proposed biofuel plantation will devastate the forests, driving the worldwide threatened Clarke's Weaver bird to termination and denying thousands of regional individuals of their incomes," said Helen Byron of the RSPB.
In response, the EU Commission safeguarded its energy policy as "the most extensive and sophisticated sustainability scheme for biofuels anywhere in the world".
Unorthodox methods
At the remote Mulunguni main school, which lies within the Dakatcha Woodlands, a number of new class and pit latrines have actually simply been constructed.
They were part funded by the European Union - the extremely organisation which is now accused of pressing policies which residents fear might see the school closed down.
"My worry is the displacement of the community. It is bad 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 good. You require to have a home before you go to your job."
There are clearly concerns on the ground that when the lease is signed, the population will be at the grace of a profit-driven business.
Ikea states it will not source jatropha curcas oil from Kenya up until 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 ever be at the expenditure of individuals or the environment," Ikea told the BBC in a statement.
The woodlands are likewise an abundant source of material for standard medicine.
If they feel let down by the government and the regional authorities, homeowners just might turn to unconventional approaches in a quote to keep the land.
"If all the elders come together for one goal, then it is really simple to remove him with our medicines," stated Barova Kiribai, a standard healer, describing the owner of the Italian biofuels company.
The fate of the people here remains in the hands of the Kenyan federal government and Malindi's municipal council.
It is not unexpected they are fretted.
Kenya's politicians do not have a good track record when it concerns working in the interests of individuals.
ActionAid
Kenya jatropha curcas Energy
RSPB
Nema
Ikea
