Kenyans Fear Dakatcha Woodlands Biofuel Expansion

Kenyans fear Dakatcha Woodlands biofuel expansion

23 March 2011

By Will Ross

BBC News, Dakatcha

Sitting in the shade of a tree next to 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 really essential to us. We farm and get our income 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 an arid area and home to some 20,000 people as well as worldwide threatened animal and bird species.

Ambitious goals

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

This plant, initially from South America, has actually long been grown in Africa as a hedge to keep out animals – goats stay well away as it is harmful. The area impacted is neighborhood land which is being kept 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 almost a million hectares in Africa; jatropha oil from a plantation in Senegal is being supplied to the Swedish furniture seller Ikea. Other companies have rented land for the exact same function in Ethiopia, Mozambique and Ghana, in addition to in India.

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

The 27 EU nations have actually signed up to a directive which states that by 2020, 20% of energy need to be from sustainable sources, external.

Why is Africa affected?

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

Why ‘feed’ a vehicle?

But campaign groups have labelled some of the tasks in Africa “land grabs” with dire repercussions for the frequently voiceless African communities.

Some ask: “Why ‘feed’ an automobile in Europe when appetite in the house is still a truth?”

“Our future is no longer in our hands. We have been informed we have to move because 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 payment for leaving her home in Dakatcha Woodlands.

Kenya Jetropha Energy Ltd says the negotiations are over – the federal government has actually okayed for a pilot task to start with 10,000 hectares and all it is awaiting now is the last paperwork.

The company says hundreds of long-term and thousands of seasonal jobs will be created and it denies that anyone will be displaced by the task.

“We wish to protect your homes 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 assisting these people. They are very happy for this task. 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 preliminary 50,000-hectare demand pointing out concerns over the impact on the environment and the sustainability of the job.

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

However, there are now fresh calls for the Dakatcha project to be scrapped as new research study calls into question 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 just how green the jatropha project in Kenya’s Dakatcha woodlands would be.

The research study by the consultancy group North Energy, external discovered that jatropha would discharge between 2.5 and 6 times more greenhouse gases when compared to .

This is partially due to the fact that large quantities of carbon are saved in the woodlands’ plant life and soil however the plantation would indicate clearing the land of this greenery.

“The report shows that EU policies are foolish 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 woodlands, driving the globally 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 safeguarded its energy policy as “the most comprehensive and innovative sustainability plan for biofuels throughout the world”.

Unorthodox methods

At the remote Mulunguni main school, which lies within the Dakatcha Woodlands, a number of brand-new class and pit latrines have actually simply been built.

They were part funded by the European Union – the very organisation which is now implicated of pressing policies which locals fear might see the school shut down.

“My worry is the displacement of the community. It is not good to construct a class and then send out the pupils away,” stated the deputy head Godfrey Karissa.

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

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

Ikea says it will not source jatropha oil from Kenya up until it can be sure that this will not add to the conversion of natural environments.

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

The forests are likewise a rich source of product for standard medicine.

If they feel let down by the federal government and the local authorities, homeowners just might turn to unconventional techniques in a quote to keep the land.

“If all the senior citizens come together for one goal, then it is really 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 individuals here remains in the hands of the Kenyan federal government and Malindi’s local council.

It is not unexpected they are fretted.

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

ActionAid

Kenya jatropha curcas Energy

RSPB

Nema

Ikea