Kenyans Fear Dakatcha Woodlands Biofuel Expansion

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 implies shedding blood,” he told the BBC.

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

He is one of the numerous individuals opposed to the development of a large 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 goals

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

This plant, initially from South America, has long been grown in Africa as a hedge to keep out animals – goats stay well away as it is harmful. The area impacted is community 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 actually leased nearly a million hectares in Africa; jatropha curcas oil from a plantation in Senegal is being supplied to the Swedish furnishings retailer Ikea. Other business have actually rented land for the same purpose in Ethiopia, Mozambique and Ghana, in addition to in India.

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

The 27 EU countries have actually signed up to a regulation which mentions 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 readily available land to grow a biofuel crop in, for instance, the UK or Italy.

Why ‘feed’ a car?

But campaign groups have identified a few of the projects in Africa “land grabs” with alarming 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 have to move due to the fact that they wish to plant jatropha here,” said 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 settlements are over – the federal government has actually provided the green light for a pilot job to start with 10,000 hectares and all it is awaiting now is the final documents.

The business says numerous permanent and thousands of seasonal tasks will be created and it denies that anyone will be displaced by the task.

“We wish to protect your houses and the private residential or commercial property. We will farm around your homes,” Kenya Jatropha Energy Ltd head Girardello Adriano told the BBC from Milan.

“We are helping these individuals. They are extremely pleased 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 denied the initial 50,000-hectare request mentioning concerns over the effect on the environment and the sustainability of the task.

“We were advising 1,000 hectares … We have informed them to justify if the number has to alter and that is why we have not authorized the task already,” said Benjamin Malwa Langwen, of the National Environment Management Authority (Nema).

However, there are now the Dakatcha job to be scrapped as brand-new research casts doubt on whether jatropha is actually a greener option 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 job in Kenya’s Dakatcha woodlands 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 fossil fuels.

This is partially due to the fact that large quantities of carbon are kept in the woodlands’ greenery and soil but the plantation would mean clearing the land of this plants.

“The report shows that EU policies are absurd policies because they are not decreasing greenhouse gas emissions as the EU is announcing,” said ActionAid’s Chris Coxon.

“The proposed biofuel plantation will devastate the woodlands, driving the globally threatened Clarke’s Weaver bird to extinction and depriving thousands of local individuals of their incomes,” said Helen Byron of the RSPB.

In response, the EU Commission protected its energy policy as “the most detailed and sophisticated sustainability scheme for biofuels anywhere in the world”.

Unorthodox techniques

At the remote Mulunguni primary school, which lies within the Dakatcha Woodlands, numerous new class and pit latrines have actually just been constructed.

They were part moneyed by the European Union – the really organisation which is now implicated of pushing policies which residents fear could see the school closed down.

“My worry is the displacement of the community. It is not good to construct a class and then send out the students 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 task.”

There are clearly concerns on the ground that once the lease is signed, the population will be at the mercy of a profit-driven business.

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 eco-friendly energy need to never ever 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 traditional medication.

If they feel pull down by the government and the regional authorities, locals just may turn to unconventional methods in a bid to keep the land.

“If all the seniors come together for one goal, then it is very simple to eliminate him with our medicines,” stated Barova Kiribai, a conventional therapist, referring to the owner of the Italian biofuels company.

The fate of the individuals here is in the hands of the Kenyan government and Malindi’s municipal council.

It is not surprising they are worried.

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

ActionAid

Kenya Jatropha Energy

RSPB

Nema

Ikea