Kenyans Fear Dakatcha Woodlands Biofuel Expansion

Kenyans fear 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 lots of 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 internationally threatened animal and bird species.

Ambitious goals

An Italian company has asked the authorities for authorization to rent 50,000 hectares there to grow jatropha, whose seeds are abundant in oil that can be developed 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 affected is community land which is being kept in trust by the local 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 furnishings retailer Ikea. Other business have actually rented land for the very same function in Ethiopia, Mozambique and Ghana, as well as in India.

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

The 27 EU nations have registered to a directive which states 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 offered land to grow a biofuel crop in, for instance, the UK or Italy.

Why ‘feed’ an automobile?

But project groups have actually labelled a few of the projects in Africa “land grabs” with dire effects for the frequently 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 actually been told we have to move since they want to plant jatropha curcas here,” said 27-year-old Merciline Koi, a mom of 2, who included that there had been no offer of compensation for leaving her home in Dakatcha Woodlands.

Kenya Jetropha Energy Ltd says the negotiations are over – the government has actually okayed for a pilot project to begin with 10,000 hectares and all it is awaiting now is the last documentation.

The company says hundreds of irreversible and thousands of seasonal jobs will be created and it denies that anyone will be displaced by the job.

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

“We are assisting these people. They are really pleased for this project. No-one will be moved.”

How green are biofuels?

According to the Kenyan government’s environment watchdog, the deal has not yet been sealed. It turned down the preliminary 50,000-hectare demand mentioning concerns over the impact on the environment and the sustainability of the project.

“We were suggesting 1,000 hectares … We have informed them to justify if the number has to change and that is why we haven’t approved the job already,” said Benjamin Malwa Langwen, of the National Environment Management Authority (Nema).

However, there are now fresh calls for the Dakatcha project to be scrapped as brand-new research casts doubt on whether jatropha curcas is actually a greener alternative to oil.

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

The 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 partly since big amounts of carbon are kept in the forests’ plants and soil however the plantation would mean clearing the land of this greenery.

“The report shows that EU policies are foolish policies due to the fact that they are not decreasing greenhouse gas emissions as the EU is proclaiming,” stated ActionAid’s Chris Coxon.

“The proposed biofuel plantation will ravage the forests, driving the worldwide threatened Clarke’s Weaver bird to termination and depriving countless regional individuals of their incomes,” said Helen Byron of the RSPB.

In action, the EU Commission safeguarded its energy policy as “the most detailed and sophisticated sustainability scheme for biofuels anywhere in the world”.

Unorthodox methods

At the remote Mulunguni main school, which lies within the Dakatcha Woodlands, numerous new classrooms and pit latrines have actually just been developed.

They were part funded by the European Union – the extremely organisation which is now accused of pressing policies which residents fear could see the school closed down.

“My concern is the displacement of the community. It is not excellent to develop a classroom and after that send the pupils away,” stated the deputy head Godfrey Karissa.

“Yes we require jobs. But a farm without a home is bad. You require to have a home before you go to your job.”

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

“This switch from nonrenewable fuel sources to eco-friendly energy must never ever be at the cost of individuals or the environment,” Ikea told the BBC in a statement.

The forests are likewise a rich source of material for traditional medication.

If they feel pull down by the federal government and the local authorities, citizens simply may turn to unconventional approaches in a quote to keep the land.

“If all the seniors come together for one objective, then it is extremely easy to remove him with our medicines,” said Barova Kiribai, a conventional healer, describing the owner of the Italian biofuels business.

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

It is not unexpected they are worried.

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

ActionAid

Kenya Jatropha Energy

RSPB

Nema

Ikea