Kenyans fear Dakatcha Woodlands biofuel expansion
23 March 2011
By Will Ross
BBC News, Dakatcha
Sitting in the shade of a tree beside 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 means shedding blood," he told the BBC.
"Land is really important to us. We farm and get our income from it. On this land we bury our dead."
He is one of the lots of individuals opposed to the production of a big biofuel plantation in the area, about an hour's drive inland from the seaside town of Malindi.
It is a dry area and home to some 20,000 individuals as well as internationally threatened animal and bird types.
Ambitious goals
An Italian business has actually asked the authorities for permission to rent 50,000 hectares there to grow jatropha curcas, 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 remain well away as it is dangerous. 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 oil from a plantation in Senegal is being provided to the Swedish furniture merchant Ikea. Other business have rented land for the same purpose in Ethiopia, Mozambique and Ghana, as well as in India.
This growth 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 actually signed up to an instruction which specifies that by 2020, 20% of energy should be from sustainable sources, external.
Why is Africa impacted?
Because it is tough to find 50,000 hectares of available land to grow a biofuel crop in, for instance, the UK or Italy.
Why 'feed' an automobile?
But project groups have identified a few of the projects in Africa "land grabs" with dire consequences for the often voiceless African communities.
Some ask: "Why 'feed' an automobile in Europe when cravings at home is still a truth?"
"Our future is no longer in our hands. We have been told we have to move since they wish to plant jatropha here," said 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 negotiations are over - the federal government has okayed for a pilot task to begin with 10,000 hectares and all it is waiting on now is the final documentation.
The business states hundreds of irreversible and thousands of seasonal jobs will be created and it denies that anybody will be displaced by the task.
"We wish to safeguard your homes and the personal property. We will farm around your homes," Kenya Jatropha Energy Ltd head Girardello Adriano informed the BBC from Milan.
"We are helping these people. They are very happy for this task. No-one will be moved."
How green are biofuels?
According to the Kenyan federal government's environment guard dog, the deal has not yet been sealed. It rejected the preliminary 50,000-hectare demand mentioning concerns over the effect on the environment and the sustainability of the job.
"We were advising 1,000 hectares ... We have told them to justify if the number has to alter and that is why we have not approved the project already," stated Benjamin Malwa Langwen, of the National Environment Management Authority (Nema).
However, there are now fresh calls for the Dakatcha task to be scrapped as brand-new research casts doubt on whether jatropha curcas is really 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 investigate just how green the jatropha job in Kenya's Dakatcha forests would be.
The research study by the consultancy group North Energy, external discovered that jatropha curcas would give off 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 saved in the forests' plants and soil however the plantation would indicate clearing the land of this greenery.
"The report shows that EU policies are absurd policies since they are not decreasing greenhouse gas emissions as the EU is proclaiming," said ActionAid's Chris Coxon.
"The proposed biofuel plantation will ravage the forests, driving the internationally threatened Clarke's Weaver bird to extinction and denying thousands of local people of their incomes," stated Helen Byron of the RSPB.
In response, the EU Commission safeguarded its energy policy as "the most extensive and innovative sustainability scheme for biofuels anywhere in the world".
Unorthodox approaches
At the remote Mulunguni main school, which lies within the Dakatcha Woodlands, several new classrooms and pit latrines have actually simply been constructed.
They were part moneyed by the European Union - the really organisation which is now implicated of pushing policies which residents fear could see the school closed down.
"My worry is the displacement of the community. It is bad to construct a class and after that send the students away," stated the deputy head Godfrey Karissa.
"Yes we need jobs. But a farm without a home is bad. You require to have a home before you go to your job."
There are clearly concerns 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 oil from Kenya up until it can be sure that this will not add to the conversion of natural habitats.
"This switch from nonrenewable fuel sources to renewable energy need to never be at the cost of people or the environment," Ikea informed the BBC in a declaration.
The forests are likewise an abundant source of product for traditional medication.
If they feel let down by the government and the local authorities, homeowners just may turn to unconventional methods in a quote to keep the land.
"If all the elders come together for one goal, then it is really simple to eliminate him with our medications," said Barova Kiribai, a conventional therapist, referring to the owner of the Italian biofuels business.
The fate of individuals here remains in the hands of the Kenyan government and Malindi's community council.
It is not unexpected they are stressed.
Kenya's politicians do not have an excellent performance history when it concerns working in the interests of individuals.
ActionAid
Kenya Jatropha Energy
RSPB
Nema
Ikea
