Kenyans fear Dakatcha Woodlands biofuel growth
23 March 2011
By Will Ross
BBC News, Dakatcha
Sitting 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 livelihood from it. On this land we bury our dead."
He is one of the many individuals opposed to the production of a big 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 individuals along with worldwide threatened animal and bird species.
Ambitious objectives
An Italian business has actually 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, originally 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 affected is community land which is being held in trust by the local 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 curcas oil from a plantation in Senegal is being provided to the Swedish furnishings merchant Ikea. Other companies have rented land for the same purpose in Ethiopia, Mozambique and Ghana, along with in India.
This expansion has been spurred by the European Union, which has set ambitious objectives for decreasing greenhouse gas emissions and lowering its dependence on imported oil.
The 27 EU countries have signed up to a directive which specifies that by 2020, 20% of energy should be from sustainable sources, external.
Why is Africa affected?
Because it is hard to discover 50,000 hectares of offered land to grow a biofuel crop in, for example, the UK or Italy.
Why 'feed' a cars and truck?
But campaign groups have actually labelled a few of the projects in Africa "land grabs" with alarming repercussions for the frequently voiceless African neighborhoods.
Some ask: "Why 'feed' a cars and truck in Europe when appetite at home is still a reality?"
"Our future is no longer in our hands. We have been informed we have to move since they desire to plant jatropha curcas here," said 27-year-old Merciline Koi, a mom 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 provided the green light for a pilot job to begin with 10,000 hectares and all it is awaiting now is the last paperwork.
The business states numerous long-term and countless seasonal jobs will be created and it rejects that anybody will be displaced by the job.
"We want to secure your homes and the personal property. We will farm around your homes," Kenya jatropha curcas Energy Ltd head Girardello Adriano informed 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 federal government's environment watchdog, the deal has actually not yet been sealed. It denied the initial 50,000-hectare request citing concerns over the influence on the environment and the sustainability of the project.
"We were suggesting 1,000 hectares ... We have actually told them to validate if the number has to change which 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 task to be scrapped as new research casts doubt on 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 examine just how green the jatropha task in Kenya's Dakatcha forests would be.
The study by the consultancy group North Energy, external discovered that jatropha curcas would give off in between 2.5 and six times more greenhouse gases when compared to nonrenewable fuel sources.
This is partially since large amounts of carbon are saved in the forests' greenery 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 lowering greenhouse gas emissions as the EU is proclaiming," said ActionAid's Chris Coxon.
"The proposed biofuel plantation will ravage the woodlands, driving the worldwide threatened Clarke's Weaver bird to extinction and depriving countless regional individuals of their livelihoods," said Helen Byron of the RSPB.
In response, the EU Commission safeguarded its energy policy as "the most extensive and advanced sustainability scheme 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 simply been built.
They were part funded by the European Union - the extremely organisation which is now implicated of pressing policies which residents fear might see the school shut down.
"My worry is the displacement of the community. It is not excellent to construct a classroom and after that send the students away," said the deputy head Godfrey Karissa.
"Yes we require jobs. But a farm without a home is not good. You need to have a home before you go to your task."
There are clearly issues on the ground that once the lease is signed, the population will be at the mercy of a profit-driven business.
Ikea states 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 must never be at the expense of people or the environment," Ikea informed the BBC in a declaration.
The woodlands are also a rich source of material for standard medicine.
If they feel let down by the federal government and the local authorities, homeowners simply may turn to unorthodox techniques in a quote to keep the land.
"If all the senior citizens come together for one objective, then it is really simple to eliminate him with our medications," stated Barova Kiribai, a traditional therapist, referring to the owner of the Italian biofuels company.
The fate of the people here is in the hands of the Kenyan federal government and Malindi's community council.
It is not unexpected they are fretted.
Kenya's political leaders do not have a good track record when it pertains to operating in the interests of the people.
ActionAid
Kenya jatropha curcas Energy
RSPB
Nema
Ikea
