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 defiant.
"We are not going to let this land go even if it implies shedding blood," he informed the BBC.
"Land is very crucial to us. We farm and get our income from it. On this land we bury our dead."
He is one of the many people 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 a dry area and home to some 20,000 people in addition to globally threatened animal and bird types.
Ambitious goals
An Italian company has asked the authorities for approval to rent 50,000 hectares there to grow jatropha, whose seeds are rich in oil that can be turned into bio-diesel.
This plant, originally from South America, has long been grown in Africa as a hedge to stay out animals - goats remain well away as it is harmful. The location impacted is neighborhood land which is being kept in trust by the local council.
Kenya Jatropha Energy Ltd is 100%-owned by the Milan-based Nuove Iniziative Industriali SRL.
It has leased practically a million hectares in Africa; jatropha oil from a plantation in Senegal is being provided to the Swedish furnishings retailer Ikea. Other companies have actually rented land for the exact same purpose in Ethiopia, Mozambique and Ghana, in addition to in India.
This growth has been stimulated by the European Union, which has set ambitious objectives for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and decreasing its dependence on imported oil.
The 27 EU countries have actually signed up to a regulation 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 offered land to grow a biofuel crop in, for instance, the UK or Italy.
Why 'feed' a vehicle?
But campaign groups have actually identified a few of the projects in Africa "land grabs" with alarming consequences for the often voiceless African neighborhoods.
Some ask: "Why 'feed' a vehicle in Europe when appetite in your home is still a reality?"
"Our future is no longer in our hands. We have been told we need to move due to the fact that they wish to plant jatropha here," said 27-year-old Merciline Koi, a mother of 2, who included that there had actually been no deal of payment for leaving her home in Dakatcha Woodlands.
Kenya Jetropha Energy Ltd states the settlements are over - the government has actually offered the green light for a pilot project to begin with 10,000 hectares and all it is awaiting now is the last documentation.
The business states hundreds of long-term and countless seasonal tasks will be developed and it rejects that anyone will be displaced by the job.
"We wish to protect your houses and the personal property. We will farm around your houses," Kenya jatropha curcas Energy Ltd head Girardello Adriano informed the BBC from Milan.
"We are helping these individuals. They are very delighted for this task. No-one will be moved."
How green are biofuels?
According to the Kenyan federal government's environment watchdog, the offer has not yet been sealed. It rejected the preliminary 50,000-hectare demand pointing out concerns over the influence on the environment and the sustainability of the task.
"We were suggesting 1,000 hectares ... We have actually informed them to justify if the number needs to change 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 job to be ditched as new research calls into question whether jatropha curcas is really 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 project in Kenya's Dakatcha forests would be.
The research study by the consultancy group North Energy, external discovered that jatropha curcas would emit between 2.5 and six times more greenhouse gases when compared to fossil fuels.
This is partly since large quantities of carbon are saved in the woodlands' vegetation and soil but the plantation would suggest clearing the land of this vegetation.
"The report reveals that EU policies are absurd policies because they are not decreasing greenhouse gas emissions as the EU is proclaiming," said ActionAid's Chris Coxon.
"The proposed biofuel plantation will ravage the forests, driving the internationally threatened Clarke's Weaver bird to extinction and depriving countless local individuals of their livelihoods," said Helen Byron of the RSPB.
In response, the EU Commission protected its energy policy as "the most extensive and advanced sustainability plan for biofuels throughout the world".
Unorthodox approaches
At the remote Mulunguni main school, which lies within the Dakatcha Woodlands, numerous new classrooms and pit latrines have actually simply been constructed.
They were part funded by the European Union - the very organisation which is now accused of pressing policies which locals fear could see the school shut down.
"My concern is the displacement of the community. It is bad to develop a class and then send the pupils away," stated the deputy head Godfrey Karissa.
"Yes we require tasks. But a farm without a home is bad. You need 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 grace of a profit-driven business.
Ikea states it will not source jatropha curcas 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 renewable resource must never ever be at the expense of individuals or the environment," Ikea informed the BBC in a statement.
The forests are also an abundant source of product for standard medication.
If they feel let down by the government and the regional authorities, citizens simply might turn to unorthodox approaches in a bid to keep the land.
"If all the senior citizens come together for one objective, then it is very easy to remove him with our medicines," stated Barova Kiribai, a conventional therapist, referring to the owner of the Italian biofuels business.
The fate of the people here remains in the hands of the Kenyan government and Malindi's community council.
It is not surprising they are worried.
Kenya's political leaders do not have a good track record when it comes to operating in the interests of individuals.
ActionAid
Kenya Jatropha Energy
RSPB
Nema
Ikea
