Kenyans Fear Dakatcha Woodlands Biofuel Expansion

Kenyans fear Dakatcha 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 suggests 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 among the lots of 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 an arid area and home to some 20,000 people in addition to internationally threatened animal and bird species.

Ambitious goals

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

This plant, originally from South America, has actually long been grown in Africa as a hedge to keep out animals – goats stay well away as it is toxic. The location 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 rented nearly a million hectares in Africa; jatropha oil from a plantation in Senegal is being provided to the Swedish furnishings seller Ikea. Other companies have actually rented land for the very same function in Ethiopia, Mozambique and Ghana, along with in India.

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

The 27 EU nations have actually registered to a regulation which specifies that by 2020, 20% of energy ought to be from sustainable sources, external.

Why is Africa affected?

Because it is hard to find 50,000 hectares of offered land to grow a biofuel crop in, for instance, the UK or Italy.

Why ‘feed’ a vehicle?

But campaign groups have identified a few of the projects in Africa “land grabs” with dire effects for the often voiceless African neighborhoods.

Some ask: “Why ‘feed’ a cars and truck in Europe when appetite in the house is still a reality?”

“Our future is no longer in our hands. We have been told we have to move since they wish to plant jatropha here,” said 27-year-old Merciline Koi, a mom of 2, who included that there had been no deal of compensation for leaving her home in Dakatcha Woodlands.

Kenya Jetropha Energy Ltd states the settlements are over – the federal government has okayed for a pilot project to begin with 10,000 hectares and all it is waiting for now is the final documentation.

The business says numerous long-term and thousands of seasonal tasks will be created and it rejects that anybody will be displaced by the job.

“We desire to safeguard your houses and the personal residential or commercial property. We will farm around your homes,” Kenya jatropha curcas Energy Ltd head Girardello Adriano told the BBC from Milan.

“We are assisting 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 watchdog, the deal has not yet been sealed. It rejected the initial 50,000-hectare request citing concerns over the effect on the environment and the sustainability of the project.

“We were advising 1,000 hectares … We have told them to justify if the number has to change which is why we haven’t approved the project up to now,” said Benjamin Malwa Langwen, of the National Environment Management Authority (Nema).

However, there are now fresh calls for the Dakatcha task to be ditched as new research study 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 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 would produce in between 2.5 and 6 times more greenhouse gases when compared to fossil fuels.

This is partially since large quantities of carbon are saved in the woodlands’ vegetation and soil but the plantation would suggest clearing the land of this plants.

“The report shows that EU policies are foolish policies since they are not lowering greenhouse gas emissions as the EU is proclaiming,” stated ActionAid’s Chris Coxon.

“The proposed biofuel plantation will devastate the forests, driving the internationally threatened Clarke’s Weaver bird to termination and denying thousands of local individuals of their livelihoods,” 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 methods

At the remote Mulunguni main school, which lies within the Dakatcha Woodlands, several brand-new classrooms and pit latrines have just been developed.

They were part moneyed by the European Union – the extremely organisation which is now accused of pushing policies which locals fear might see the school closed down.

“My concern is the displacement of the community. It is bad to build a class and then send out the students away,” stated the deputy head Godfrey Karissa.

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

There are clearly issues on the ground that when the lease is signed, the population will be at the mercy of a profit-driven company.

Ikea states it will not source jatropha curcas oil from Kenya till it can be sure that this will not contribute to the conversion of natural habitats.

“This switch from nonrenewable fuel sources to renewable resource need to never ever be at the expense of individuals or the environment,” Ikea told the BBC in a statement.

The woodlands are also an abundant source of material for conventional medicine.

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

“If all the seniors come together for one objective, then it is really simple to remove him with our medicines,” said Barova Kiribai, a conventional healer, describing the owner of the Italian biofuels company.

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

It is not surprising they are worried.

Kenya’s politicians do not have a great track record when it comes to working in the interests of individuals.

ActionAid

Kenya jatropha curcas Energy

RSPB

Nema

Ikea