Kenyans Fear Dakatcha Woodlands Biofuel Expansion

Kenyans fear Dakatcha Woodlands biofuel 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 bold.

“We are not going to let this land go even if it suggests shedding blood,” he told the BBC.

“Land is very important to us. We farm and get our livelihood from it. On this land we bury our dead.”

He is among the many individuals 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 people as well as globally threatened animal and bird types.

Ambitious objectives

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

This plant, initially from South America, has actually long been grown in Africa as a hedge to stay out animals – goats stay well away as it is poisonous. The location impacted is community 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 rented almost a million hectares in Africa; jatropha curcas oil from a plantation in Senegal is being provided to the Swedish furniture retailer Ikea. Other companies have rented land for the very same function in Ethiopia, Mozambique and Ghana, in addition to in India.

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

The 27 EU countries have registered to an instruction which mentions that by 2020, 20% of energy ought to be from sustainable sources, external.

Why is Africa impacted?

Because it is challenging to discover 50,000 hectares of available land to grow a biofuel crop in, for instance, the UK or Italy.

Why ‘feed’ a cars and truck?

But campaign groups have labelled some of the projects in Africa “land grabs” with dire effects for the frequently voiceless African neighborhoods.

Some ask: “Why ‘feed’ a vehicle in Europe when cravings at home is still a truth?”

“Our future is no longer in our hands. We have actually been told we need to move due to the fact that they want to plant jatropha curcas 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 project to begin with 10,000 hectares and all it is waiting on now is the final documents.

The company states hundreds of irreversible and thousands of seasonal tasks will be developed and it rejects that anybody will be displaced by the task.

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

“We are helping these people. They are extremely pleased for this project. 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 declined the preliminary 50,000-hectare request mentioning issues over the effect on the environment and the sustainability of the job.

“We were recommending 1,000 hectares … We have actually told them to validate if the number needs to alter and that is why we have not authorized the job already,” said Benjamin Malwa Langwen, of the National Environment Management Authority (Nema).

However, there are now fresh calls for the Dakatcha task to be scrapped as new research study casts doubt on whether jatropha is actually 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 project in Kenya’s Dakatcha woodlands would be.

The research study by the consultancy group North Energy, external found that jatropha would emit in between 2.5 and 6 times more greenhouse gases when compared to nonrenewable fuel sources.

This is partially because large quantities of carbon are kept in the woodlands’ plants and soil however the plantation would mean clearing the land of this plants.

“The report shows that EU policies are foolish policies due to the fact that they are not decreasing greenhouse gas emissions as the EU is announcing,” stated ActionAid’s Chris Coxon.

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

In action, the EU Commission protected its energy policy as “the most extensive and advanced sustainability scheme for biofuels throughout the world”.

Unorthodox techniques

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

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

“My worry is the displacement of the community. It is not excellent to construct a classroom and after that send the students away,” said the deputy head Godfrey Karissa.

“Yes we require jobs. But a farm without a home is not excellent. You require to have a home before you go to your job.”

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

Ikea states 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 must never ever be at the expenditure of people or the environment,” Ikea told the BBC in a declaration.

The forests are also a of material for conventional medicine.

If they feel let down by the federal government and the local authorities, citizens just may turn to unconventional approaches in a quote to keep the land.

“If all the senior citizens come together for one objective, then it is extremely easy to remove him with our medicines,” stated Barova Kiribai, a traditional healer, referring to 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 unexpected they are stressed.

Kenya’s politicians do not have an excellent track record when it concerns operating in the interests of the individuals.

ActionAid

Kenya Jatropha Energy

RSPB

Nema

Ikea