Kenyans Fear Dakatcha Woodlands Biofuel Expansion

Kenyans fear Dakatcha Woodlands biofuel expansion

23 March 2011

By Will Ross

BBC News, Dakatcha

Being in the shade of a tree beside 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 suggests shedding blood,” he told the BBC.

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

He is among the numerous individuals opposed to the creation of a large biofuel plantation in the location, about an hour’s drive inland from the seaside town of Malindi.

It is an arid location and home to some 20,000 individuals as well as worldwide threatened animal and bird types.

Ambitious objectives

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

This plant, initially from South America, has 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 regional council.

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

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

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

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

Why is Africa affected?

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

Why ‘feed’ a car?

But project groups have actually identified a few of the projects in Africa “land grabs” with alarming effects for the typically voiceless African communities.

Some ask: “Why ‘feed’ a car in Europe when hunger at home is still a reality?”

“Our future is no longer in our hands. We have actually been told we have to move since they wish to plant jatropha curcas here,” said 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 settlements are over – the federal government has okayed for a pilot task to begin with 10,000 hectares and all it is waiting for now is the final documentation.

The business states numerous irreversible and thousands of seasonal jobs will be developed and it rejects that anybody will be displaced by the job.

“We want to protect your homes and the private 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 delighted for this task. No-one will be moved.”

How green are biofuels?

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

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

However, there are now fresh require the Dakatcha task to be ditched as new research calls into question whether jatropha curcas 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 investigate simply how green the jatropha curcas project in Kenya’s Dakatcha woodlands would be.

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

This is partially because big 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 silly 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 devastate the forests, driving the worldwide threatened Clarke’s Weaver bird to termination and depriving thousands of regional people of their livelihoods,” stated Helen Byron of the RSPB.

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

Unorthodox approaches

At the remote Mulunguni primary school, which lies within the Dakatcha Woodlands, several brand-new classrooms and pit latrines have actually just been constructed.

They were part funded by the European Union – the really organisation which is now implicated of pushing policies which locals fear could see the school shut down.

“My worry is the displacement of the neighborhood. It is not excellent to build a class and then send out 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 says 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 energy should never ever be at the expenditure of individuals or the environment,” Ikea informed the BBC in a statement.

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

If they feel let down by the government and the local authorities, residents just may turn to unorthodox techniques in a quote to keep the land.

“If all the elders come together for one objective, then it is extremely simple to remove him with our medicines,” stated Barova Kiribai, a therapist, referring to the owner of the Italian biofuels business.

The fate of individuals here is in the hands of the Kenyan federal government and Malindi’s local council.

It is not surprising they are worried.

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

ActionAid

Kenya jatropha curcas Energy

RSPB

Nema

Ikea