Kenyans fear Dakatcha Woodlands biofuel growth
23 March 2011
By Will Ross
BBC News, Dakatcha
Being 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 important 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 production of a large biofuel plantation in the area, about an hour's drive inland from the coastal town of Malindi.
It is an arid area and home to some 20,000 people along with internationally threatened animal and bird species.
Ambitious objectives
An Italian business has actually asked the authorities for authorization to lease 50,000 hectares there to grow jatropha curcas, whose seeds are abundant 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 keep out animals - goats remain well away as it is harmful. The location impacted is community 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 rented nearly a million hectares in Africa; jatropha curcas oil from a plantation in Senegal is being supplied to the Swedish furnishings merchant Ikea. Other business have leased land for the exact same purpose in Ethiopia, Mozambique and Ghana, along with in India.
This expansion has actually been spurred by the European Union, which has actually set ambitious goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and lowering its reliance on imported oil.
The 27 EU nations have actually registered to a directive which specifies that by 2020, 20% of energy must 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 project groups have identified some of the jobs in Africa "land grabs" with alarming consequences for the typically voiceless African communities.
Some ask: "Why 'feed' an automobile in Europe when hunger 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 curcas here," stated 27-year-old Merciline Koi, a mother of 2, who included that there had been no offer of compensation for leaving her home in Dakatcha Woodlands.
Kenya Jetropha Energy Ltd states the settlements are over - the federal government has okayed for a pilot job to start with 10,000 hectares and all it is waiting for now is the final paperwork.
The company states hundreds of irreversible and thousands of seasonal jobs will be developed and it rejects that anybody will be displaced by the job.
"We want to secure your homes and the personal residential or commercial property. We will farm around your houses," Kenya Jatropha Energy Ltd head Girardello Adriano informed the BBC from Milan.
"We are helping these individuals. They are really happy for this project. 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 initial 50,000-hectare demand citing issues over the influence on the environment and the sustainability of the job.
"We were suggesting 1,000 hectares ... We have actually informed them to justify if the number has to change which is why we haven't approved the project already," said Benjamin Malwa Langwen, of the National Environment Management Authority (Nema).
However, there are now fresh require the Dakatcha task to be scrapped as new research calls into question whether jatropha is actually a greener alternative to oil.
The anti-poverty campaign group ActionAid and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) commissioned a report to examine just how green the jatropha curcas job in Kenya's Dakatcha woodlands would be.
The study by the consultancy group North Energy, external discovered that jatropha would produce in between 2.5 and six times more greenhouse gases when compared to fossil fuels.
This is partially since large amounts of carbon are stored in the forests' greenery 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 lowering greenhouse gas emissions as the EU is proclaiming," stated ActionAid's Chris Coxon.
"The proposed biofuel plantation will devastate the forests, driving the globally threatened Clarke's Weaver bird to extinction and denying countless regional people of their incomes," said Helen Byron of the RSPB.
In response, the EU Commission defended its energy policy as "the most comprehensive and innovative sustainability scheme for biofuels anywhere in the world".
Unorthodox methods
At the remote Mulunguni primary school, which lies within the Dakatcha Woodlands, a number of brand-new class and pit latrines have actually simply been developed.
They were part moneyed by the European Union - the really 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 good to build a class and after that send the students away," stated the deputy head Godfrey Karissa.
"Yes we require jobs. But a farm without a home is not good. You require to have a home before you go to your job."
There are clearly concerns on the ground that once the lease is signed, the population will be at the grace of a profit-driven company.
Ikea states it will not source jatropha curcas oil from Kenya up until it can be sure that this will not add to the conversion of natural habitats.
"This switch from nonrenewable fuel sources to renewable resource should never be at the expenditure of individuals or the environment," Ikea told the BBC in a declaration.
The forests are likewise an abundant source of material for traditional medicine.
If they feel let down by the government and the local authorities, citizens simply may turn to unconventional approaches in a quote to keep the land.
"If all the senior citizens come together for one goal, then it is very easy to eliminate him with our medications," said Barova Kiribai, a conventional healer, referring to the owner of the Italian biofuels company.
The fate of individuals here is 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 a great track record when it concerns working in the interests of individuals.
ActionAid
Kenya jatropha curcas Energy
RSPB
Nema
Ikea
