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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 indicates shedding blood," he informed the BBC.

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

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

It is a dry area and home to some 20,000 people along with globally threatened animal and bird species.

Ambitious objectives

An Italian business has asked the authorities for permission to rent 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 keep out animals - goats stay well away as it is dangerous. The area impacted is community land which is being kept 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 oil from a plantation in Senegal is being supplied to the Swedish furnishings retailer Ikea. Other companies have 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 ambitious goals for decreasing greenhouse gas emissions and decreasing its reliance on imported oil.

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

Why is Africa affected?

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

Why 'feed' an automobile?

But project groups have labelled some of the jobs in Africa "land grabs" with alarming repercussions for the frequently voiceless African communities.

Some ask: "Why 'feed' a car in Europe when appetite in the house is still a truth?"

"Our future is no longer in our hands. We have been told we need to move since they want to plant jatropha here," stated 27-year-old Merciline Koi, a mother of 2, who included that there had been no offer of settlement for leaving her home in Dakatcha Woodlands.

Kenya Jetropha Energy Ltd states the settlements are over - the government has actually provided the green light for a pilot job to start with 10,000 hectares and all it is awaiting now is the last .

The company says hundreds of permanent and thousands of seasonal jobs will be developed and it denies that anybody will be displaced by the task.

"We want to secure your homes and the private home. We will farm around your homes," Kenya Jatropha Energy Ltd head Girardello Adriano informed the BBC from Milan.

"We are assisting these individuals. They are very delighted for this task. No-one will be moved."

How green are biofuels?

According to the Kenyan federal government's environment watchdog, the offer has actually not yet been sealed. It rejected the initial 50,000-hectare request citing concerns over the impact on the environment and the sustainability of the task.

"We were suggesting 1,000 hectares ... We have told them to justify if the number has to alter and that is why we haven't approved the task 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 brand-new research calls into question whether jatropha curcas is actually a greener alternative to oil.

The anti-poverty project group ActionAid and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) commissioned a report to investigate just how green the jatropha job in Kenya's Dakatcha forests would be.

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

This is partly due to the fact that big amounts of carbon are kept in the woodlands' greenery and soil but the plantation would imply clearing the land of this plants.

"The report reveals that EU policies are absurd policies due to the fact that they are not minimizing greenhouse gas emissions as the EU is proclaiming," said ActionAid's Chris Coxon.

"The proposed biofuel plantation will devastate the forests, driving the internationally threatened Clarke's Weaver bird to extinction and denying countless regional individuals of their incomes," said Helen Byron of the RSPB.

In response, the EU Commission safeguarded its energy policy as "the most thorough and innovative sustainability scheme for biofuels throughout the world".

Unorthodox techniques

At the remote Mulunguni primary school, which lies within the Dakatcha Woodlands, a number of new classrooms and pit latrines have actually simply been developed.

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

"My concern is the displacement of the neighborhood. It is bad to develop a classroom and then send the students away," stated the deputy head Godfrey Karissa.

"Yes we need jobs. But a farm without a home is bad. You need to have a home before you go to your task."

There are plainly issues on the ground that when 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 until it can be sure that this will not contribute to the conversion of natural habitats.

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

The woodlands are also an abundant source of product for standard medicine.

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

"If all the senior citizens come together for one objective, then it is very simple to eliminate him with our medications," stated 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 federal government and Malindi's municipal council.

It is not unexpected they are worried.

Kenya's political leaders do not have a good track record when it concerns working in the interests of individuals.

ActionAid

Kenya jatropha curcas Energy

RSPB

Nema

Ikea