Kenyans fear Dakatcha Woodlands biofuel expansion

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 suggests 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 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 location and home to some 20,000 people as well as globally threatened animal and bird types.

Ambitious goals

An Italian company has asked the authorities for approval 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 actually long been grown in Africa as a hedge to stay out animals - goats remain well away as it is harmful. The area impacted 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 leased practically a million hectares in Africa; jatropha curcas oil from a plantation in Senegal is being supplied to the Swedish furniture retailer Ikea. Other companies have actually rented land for the exact 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 ambitious objectives for decreasing greenhouse gas emissions and lowering 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 impacted?

Because it is hard to discover 50,000 hectares of readily available land to grow a biofuel crop in, for example, the UK or Italy.

Why 'feed' an automobile?

But campaign groups have labelled some of the projects in Africa "land grabs" with alarming effects for the often voiceless African communities.

Some ask: "Why 'feed' a vehicle in Europe when hunger in the house is still a reality?"

"Our future is no longer in our hands. We have actually been informed we have 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 actually been no deal of payment for leaving her home in Dakatcha Woodlands.

Kenya Jetropha Energy Ltd says the settlements are over - the has actually okayed for a pilot task to begin with 10,000 hectares and all it is waiting on now is the final paperwork.

The business states numerous permanent and countless seasonal tasks will be developed and it rejects that anyone will be displaced by the job.

"We desire to secure your homes and the personal property. We will farm around your homes," Kenya jatropha curcas Energy Ltd head Girardello Adriano told the BBC from Milan.

"We are helping these individuals. They are very happy for this job. 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 turned down the preliminary 50,000-hectare request citing issues over the impact on the environment and the sustainability of the task.

"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 authorized the task already," said Benjamin Malwa Langwen, of the National Environment Management Authority (Nema).

However, there are now fresh calls for the Dakatcha project to be ditched as new research study calls into question whether jatropha curcas is actually 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 investigate just how green the jatropha task in Kenya's Dakatcha woodlands would be.

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

This is partially since big amounts of carbon are saved in the forests' plants and soil however the plantation would indicate clearing the land of this plant life.

"The report reveals that EU policies are foolish policies because they are not minimizing greenhouse gas emissions as the EU is announcing," said ActionAid's Chris Coxon.

"The proposed biofuel plantation will ravage the woodlands, driving the internationally threatened Clarke's Weaver bird to extinction and denying countless local individuals of their incomes," stated Helen Byron of the RSPB.

In action, the EU Commission safeguarded its energy policy as "the most comprehensive and sophisticated 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 new classrooms and pit latrines have actually just been constructed.

They were part funded by the European Union - the very organisation which is now implicated of pressing policies which locals fear might see the school closed down.

"My worry is the displacement of the community. It is bad to build a classroom and after that send the students away," said the deputy head Godfrey Karissa.

"Yes we need tasks. But a farm without a home is not excellent. You need to have a home before you go to your task."

There are clearly concerns on the ground that as soon as the lease is signed, the population will be at the mercy of a profit-driven company.

Ikea states it will not source jatropha curcas oil from Kenya till it can be sure that this will not add to the conversion of natural environments.

"This switch from fossil fuels to renewable resource must never be at the expenditure of people or the environment," Ikea told the BBC in a statement.

The forests are likewise a rich source of product for conventional medication.

If they feel pull down by the government and the regional authorities, homeowners just might turn to unconventional techniques in a bid to keep the land.

"If all the senior citizens come together for one goal, then it is very easy to eliminate him with our medicines," said Barova Kiribai, a traditional healer, describing the owner of the Italian biofuels company.

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

It is not surprising they are stressed.

Kenya's political leaders do not have a great performance history when it concerns operating in the interests of individuals.

ActionAid

Kenya Jatropha Energy

RSPB

Nema

Ikea