Kenyans Fear Dakatcha Woodlands Biofuel Expansion

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 extremely crucial to us. We farm and get our livelihood from it. On this land we bury our dead.”

He is among the numerous individuals opposed to the production of a large biofuel plantation in the location, about an hour’s drive inland from the coastal town of Malindi.

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

Ambitious goals

An Italian company 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, originally from South America, has actually long been grown in Africa as a hedge to stay out animals – goats stay well away as it is toxic. The area impacted 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 leased almost a million hectares in Africa; jatropha curcas oil from a plantation in Senegal is being supplied to the Swedish furniture merchant Ikea. Other companies have actually rented land for the very same purpose in Ethiopia, Mozambique and Ghana, in addition to in India.

This expansion has actually been spurred by the European Union, which has set ambitious objectives for decreasing greenhouse gas emissions and reducing its reliance on imported oil.

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

Why is Africa impacted?

Because it is difficult to find 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 identified a few of the jobs in Africa “land grabs” with dire repercussions for the often voiceless African communities.

Some ask: “Why ‘feed’ an automobile in Europe when cravings at home is still a reality?”

“Our future is no longer in our hands. We have actually been informed we need to move due to the fact that they want to plant jatropha here,” stated 27-year-old Merciline Koi, a mom of 2, who included that there had actually been no deal of payment for leaving her home in Dakatcha Woodlands.

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

The business states hundreds of permanent and countless seasonal jobs will be created and it denies that anybody will be displaced by the project.

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

“We are helping these individuals. They are really happy for this job. No-one will be moved.”

How green are biofuels?

According to the Kenyan government’s environment guard dog, the deal has actually not yet been sealed. It declined the initial 50,000-hectare request citing issues over the influence on the environment and the sustainability of the task.

“We were suggesting 1,000 hectares … We have actually told them to validate if the number needs to change which is why we have not authorized the task already,” stated Benjamin Malwa Langwen, of the National Environment Management Authority (Nema).

However, there are now fresh require the Dakatcha job to be scrapped as new research calls into question whether jatropha curcas is truly 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 job in Kenya’s Dakatcha forests would be.

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

This is partially due to the fact that large amounts of carbon are saved in the forests’ plants and soil but the plantation would imply clearing the land of this plants.

“The report reveals that EU policies are silly policies due to the fact that they are not lowering greenhouse gas emissions as the EU is declaring,” 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 local people of their incomes,” said Helen Byron of the RSPB.

In action, the EU Commission protected its energy policy as “the most detailed 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 class and pit latrines have actually just been built.

They were part moneyed by the European Union – the really organisation which is now accused of pushing policies which residents fear could see the school shut 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 require tasks. But a farm without a home is not good. 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 company.

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

“This switch from nonrenewable fuel sources to renewable resource need to never ever be at the expenditure of individuals or the environment,” Ikea told the BBC in a .

The woodlands are also an abundant source of material for conventional medication.

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

“If all the senior citizens come together for one objective, then it is extremely simple to remove him with our medicines,” stated Barova Kiribai, a standard therapist, describing the owner of the Italian biofuels company.

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

It is not surprising they are worried.

Kenya’s political leaders do not have an excellent track record when it pertains to working in the interests of individuals.

ActionAid

Kenya Jatropha Energy

RSPB

Nema

Ikea