Kenyans fear Dakatcha Woodlands biofuel expansion
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 bold.
"We are not going to let this land go even if it means 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 many people opposed to the production of a large biofuel plantation in the area, about an hour's drive inland from the seaside town of Malindi.
It is an arid location and home to some 20,000 people in addition to internationally threatened animal and bird species.
Ambitious objectives
An Italian company has asked the authorities for approval to rent 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 stay well away as it is harmful. The location impacted is neighborhood land which is being held in trust by the local council.
Kenya jatropha curcas Energy Ltd is 100%-owned by the Milan-based Nuove Iniziative Industriali SRL.
It has actually rented almost a million hectares in Africa; jatropha curcas oil from a plantation in Senegal is being provided to the Swedish furnishings seller Ikea. Other business have leased land for the very 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 goals for decreasing greenhouse gas emissions and lowering its dependence on imported oil.
The 27 EU nations have registered to a regulation which specifies that by 2020, 20% of energy must be from sustainable sources, external.
Why is Africa impacted?
Because it is tough to discover 50,000 hectares of available land to grow a biofuel crop in, for example, the UK or Italy.
Why 'feed' a vehicle?
But project groups have identified a few of the tasks in Africa "land grabs" with dire repercussions for the typically voiceless African neighborhoods.
Some ask: "Why 'feed' an automobile in Europe when appetite in the house is still a reality?"
"Our future is no longer in our hands. We have been informed we have to move since they want to plant jatropha curcas here," stated 27-year-old Merciline Koi, a mother of 2, who included that there had been no deal of settlement for leaving her home in Dakatcha Woodlands.
Kenya Jetropha Energy Ltd states the negotiations are over - the federal government has actually given the green light for a pilot project to begin with 10,000 hectares and all it is waiting on now is the final documentation.
The business says numerous irreversible and thousands of seasonal jobs will be created and it denies that anybody will be displaced by the job.
"We want to secure your houses and the personal home. We will farm around the houses," Kenya jatropha curcas Energy Ltd head Girardello Adriano told the BBC from Milan.
"We are helping these people. They are really happy for this job. 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 turned down the initial 50,000-hectare demand pointing out concerns over the effect on the environment and the sustainability of the job.
"We were advising 1,000 hectares ... We have actually informed them to justify if the number has to change and that is why we haven't authorized the job already," said Benjamin Malwa Langwen, of the National Environment Management Authority (Nema).
However, there are now fresh calls for the Dakatcha job to be scrapped as new research study calls into question whether jatropha curcas is actually 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 task in Kenya's Dakatcha forests would be.
The research study by the consultancy group North Energy, external discovered that jatropha curcas would give off between 2.5 and six times more greenhouse gases when compared to nonrenewable fuel sources.
This is partly because big amounts of carbon are stored in the forests' plants and soil however the plantation would suggest clearing the land of this plant life.
"The report reveals that EU policies are absurd policies since they are not lowering greenhouse gas emissions as the EU is proclaiming," said ActionAid's Chris Coxon.
"The proposed biofuel plantation will devastate the forests, driving the internationally threatened Clarke's Weaver bird to extinction and denying countless local people of their incomes," stated Helen Byron of the RSPB.
In action, the EU Commission protected its energy policy as "the most comprehensive and advanced sustainability scheme for biofuels anywhere in the world".
Unorthodox methods
At the remote Mulunguni main school, which lies within the Dakatcha Woodlands, numerous brand-new classrooms and pit latrines have just been constructed.
They were part funded by the European Union - the extremely organisation which is now implicated of pressing policies which residents fear might see the school closed down.
"My concern is the displacement of the community. It is bad to build a class and after that send the pupils away," said the deputy head Godfrey Karissa.
"Yes we require tasks. But a farm without a home is not great. You need to have a home before you go to your job."
There are plainly issues on the ground that when the lease is signed, the population will be at the grace 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 habitats.
"This switch from nonrenewable fuel sources to renewable resource should never be at the expenditure of people or the environment," Ikea informed the BBC in a statement.
The forests are likewise a rich source of material for conventional medication.
If they feel let down by the government and the regional authorities, locals simply may turn to unorthodox techniques in a quote to keep the land.
"If all the senior citizens come together for one goal, then it is really easy to eliminate him with our medicines," stated Barova Kiribai, a standard healer, describing the owner of the Italian biofuels business.
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 political leaders do not have an excellent track record when it concerns working in the interests of the people.
ActionAid
Kenya jatropha curcas Energy
RSPB
Nema
Ikea
