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 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 told the BBC.

“Land is really crucial to us. We farm and get our income from it. On this land we bury our dead.”

He is one of the numerous people opposed to the development 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 individuals in addition to globally threatened animal and bird types.

Ambitious objectives

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

This plant, initially from South America, has long been grown in Africa as a hedge to keep out animals – goats remain well away as it is harmful. The area affected is neighborhood land which is being held in trust by the regional council.

Kenya jatropha curcas Energy Ltd is 100%-owned by the Milan-based Nuove Iniziative Industriali SRL.

It has rented practically a million hectares in Africa; jatropha oil from a plantation in Senegal is being supplied to the Swedish furnishings retailer Ikea. Other companies have actually leased land for the same function in Ethiopia, Mozambique and Ghana, as well as in India.

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

The 27 EU nations have actually signed up to an instruction which mentions that by 2020, 20% of energy must be from sustainable sources, external.

Why is Africa impacted?

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

Why ‘feed’ a car?

But project groups have identified a few of the projects in Africa “land grabs” with dire repercussions for the often voiceless African communities.

Some ask: “Why ‘feed’ a cars and truck in Europe when appetite at home is still a truth?”

“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 curcas here,” said 27-year-old Merciline Koi, a mother of 2, who included that there had been no offer of settlement for leaving her home in Dakatcha Woodlands.

Kenya Jetropha Energy Ltd states the negotiations are over – the federal government has offered the green light for a pilot project to start with 10,000 hectares and all it is waiting on now is the final documentation.

The company states numerous long-term and countless seasonal tasks will be developed and it denies that anybody will be displaced by the project.

“We desire to protect your homes and the personal property. We will farm around your houses,” Kenya Jatropha Energy Ltd head Girardello Adriano told the BBC from Milan.

“We are assisting these people. They are extremely delighted for this project. No-one will be moved.”

How green are biofuels?

According to the Kenyan federal government’s environment guard dog, the deal has actually not yet been sealed. It turned down the preliminary 50,000-hectare demand mentioning issues over the effect on the environment and the sustainability of the job.

“We were advising 1,000 hectares … We have told them to validate if the number has to alter and that is why we haven’t approved the job already,” stated 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 calls into question whether jatropha is truly 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 job in Kenya’s Dakatcha woodlands would be.

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

This is partially because large quantities of carbon are kept in the forests’ vegetation and soil but the plantation would imply clearing the land of this greenery.

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

“The proposed biofuel plantation will devastate the woodlands, driving the internationally threatened Clarke’s Weaver bird to termination and depriving thousands of regional individuals of their livelihoods,” said Helen Byron of the RSPB.

In response, the EU Commission protected its energy policy as “the most extensive and innovative sustainability scheme for biofuels anywhere in the world”.

Unorthodox techniques

At the remote Mulunguni primary school, which lies within the Dakatcha Woodlands, a number of 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 concern is the displacement of the community. It is not great to develop a classroom and then send out the pupils away,” stated the deputy head Godfrey Karissa.

“Yes we require jobs. But a farm without a home is not great. You require 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 until 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 cost of people or the environment,” Ikea informed the BBC in a statement.

The forests are likewise an abundant source of product for conventional medication.

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

“If all the seniors come together for one goal, then it is extremely easy to eliminate him with our medications,” said Barova Kiribai, a traditional therapist, describing the owner of the Italian biofuels business.

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

It is not unexpected they are fretted.

Kenya’s political leaders do not have an excellent performance history when it pertains to operating in the interests of individuals.

ActionAid

Kenya Jatropha Energy

RSPB

Nema

Ikea