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 indicates shedding blood," he informed the BBC.
"Land is really essential to us. We farm and get our livelihood from it. On this land we bury our dead."
He is among the lots of individuals opposed to the development of a big 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 globally threatened animal and bird types.
Ambitious objectives
An Italian company has asked the authorities for consent to lease 50,000 hectares there to grow jatropha, whose seeds are abundant in oil that can be become 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 kept in trust by the local council.
Kenya jatropha curcas Energy Ltd is 100%-owned by the Milan-based Nuove Iniziative Industriali SRL.
It has actually leased practically a million hectares in Africa; jatropha oil from a plantation in Senegal is being supplied to the Swedish furnishings seller Ikea. Other business have actually leased land for the exact same function in Ethiopia, Mozambique and Ghana, as well as in India.
This expansion has actually been stimulated by the European Union, which has set enthusiastic objectives for decreasing greenhouse gas emissions and reducing its reliance on imported oil.
The 27 EU nations have registered to a regulation which specifies that by 2020, 20% of energy should be from sustainable sources, external.
Why is Africa affected?
Because it is difficult to find 50,000 hectares of readily available land to grow a biofuel crop in, for instance, the UK or Italy.
Why 'feed' a cars and truck?
But campaign groups have actually labelled some of the jobs in Africa "land grabs" with dire effects for the typically voiceless African neighborhoods.
Some ask: "Why 'feed' a car in Europe when hunger at home is still a truth?"
"Our future is no longer in our hands. We have been informed 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 added that there had actually been no deal of settlement for leaving her home in Dakatcha Woodlands.
Kenya Jetropha Energy Ltd says the negotiations are over - the federal government has actually given the green light for a pilot job to begin with 10,000 hectares and all it is waiting on now is the last paperwork.
The company states hundreds of irreversible and countless seasonal tasks will be produced and it rejects that anybody will be displaced by the task.
"We want to safeguard your houses and the private home. We will farm around your homes," Kenya Jatropha Energy Ltd head Girardello Adriano told 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 guard dog, the offer has actually not yet been sealed. It declined the initial 50,000-hectare demand citing issues over the effect on the environment and the sustainability of the project.
"We were suggesting 1,000 hectares ... We have told them to validate if the number has to alter which is why we have not approved the project up to now," stated Benjamin Malwa Langwen, of the National Environment Management Authority (Nema).
However, there are now fresh require the Dakatcha project to be ditched as new research study casts doubt on whether jatropha is really a greener option 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 task in Kenya's Dakatcha forests would be.
The research study by the consultancy group North Energy, external found that jatropha would produce in between 2.5 and six times more greenhouse gases when compared to fossil fuels.
This is partly due to the fact that large amounts of carbon are stored in the woodlands' vegetation and soil however the plantation would indicate clearing the land of this plant life.
"The report reveals that EU policies are absurd policies since they are not reducing greenhouse gas emissions as the EU is announcing," said ActionAid's Chris Coxon.
"The proposed biofuel plantation will ravage the forests, driving the worldwide threatened Clarke's Weaver bird to extinction and denying thousands of regional individuals of their livelihoods," said Helen Byron of the RSPB.
In reaction, the EU Commission defended its energy policy as "the most detailed and innovative sustainability scheme for biofuels throughout the world".
Unorthodox techniques
At the remote Mulunguni primary school, which lies within the Dakatcha Woodlands, several new classrooms and pit latrines have actually simply been built.
They were part moneyed by the European Union - the extremely organisation which is now accused of pushing policies which locals fear might see the school shut down.
"My worry is the displacement of the community. It is not great to build a classroom and after that send the pupils away," stated the deputy head Godfrey Karissa.
"Yes we need tasks. But a farm without a home is bad. You require to have a home before you go to your job."
There are plainly issues on the ground that when the lease is signed, the population will be at the mercy of a profit-driven business.
Ikea says it will not source jatropha curcas oil from Kenya up until it can be sure that this will not contribute to the conversion of natural environments.
"This switch from nonrenewable fuel sources to eco-friendly energy should never ever be at the cost of individuals or the environment," Ikea told the BBC in a statement.
The forests are also a rich source of product for traditional medicine.
If they feel let down by the federal government and the regional authorities, citizens just may turn to unorthodox methods in a quote to keep the land.
"If all the seniors come together for one objective, then it is very easy to remove him with our medicines," stated Barova Kiribai, a standard healer, describing the owner of the Italian biofuels business.
The fate of individuals here remains in the hands of the Kenyan federal government and Malindi's local council.
It is not surprising they are stressed.
Kenya's politicians do not have a good track record when it comes to working in the interests of individuals.
ActionAid
Kenya Jatropha Energy
RSPB
Nema
Ikea
