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 bold.

“We are not going to let this land go even if it suggests shedding blood,” he told the BBC.

“Land is really crucial to us. We farm and get our income from it. On this land we bury our dead.”

He is among the numerous 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 a dry area and home to some 20,000 individuals in addition to globally threatened animal and bird species.

Ambitious objectives

An Italian company has asked the authorities for consent to rent 50,000 hectares there to grow jatropha curcas, 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 stay out animals – goats remain well away as it is poisonous. The location impacted 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 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 actually rented land for the exact same function in Ethiopia, Mozambique and Ghana, along with in India.

This growth has actually been stimulated by the European Union, which has set ambitious goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and decreasing its dependence on imported oil.

The 27 EU countries have actually signed up to an instruction which specifies that by 2020, 20% of energy ought to be from sustainable sources, external.

Why is Africa impacted?

Because it is difficult to discover 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 labelled some of the projects in Africa “land grabs” with dire repercussions for the typically voiceless African communities.

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 been told we have to move since they want to plant jatropha here,” said 27-year-old Merciline Koi, a mom of 2, who added that there had actually been no offer of payment for leaving her home in Dakatcha Woodlands.

Kenya Jetropha Energy Ltd states the settlements are over – the federal government has actually provided the green light for a pilot job to begin with 10,000 hectares and all it is waiting for now is the final paperwork.

The company states numerous permanent and thousands of seasonal tasks will be developed and it denies that anyone will be displaced by the project.

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

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

How green are biofuels?

According to the Kenyan federal government’s environment watchdog, the deal has not yet been sealed. It denied the initial 50,000-hectare request pointing out concerns over the influence 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 which is why we haven’t approved the job up to now,” stated Benjamin Malwa Langwen, of the National Environment Management Authority (Nema).

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

The study by the group North Energy, external found that jatropha curcas would give off in between 2.5 and 6 times more greenhouse gases when compared to fossil fuels.

This is partly since large amounts of carbon are kept in the woodlands’ greenery and soil however the plantation would mean clearing the land of this plant life.

“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 declaring,” stated ActionAid’s Chris Coxon.

“The proposed biofuel plantation will devastate the forests, driving the worldwide threatened Clarke’s Weaver bird to termination and denying countless local individuals of their livelihoods,” stated Helen Byron of the RSPB.

In action, the EU Commission protected its energy policy as “the most comprehensive and innovative sustainability plan for biofuels anywhere in the world”.

Unorthodox methods

At the remote Mulunguni main school, which lies within the Dakatcha Woodlands, a number of brand-new class and pit latrines have simply been built.

They were part funded by the European Union – the extremely organisation which is now implicated of pushing policies which locals fear could see the school closed down.

“My concern is the displacement of the neighborhood. It is bad to build a class and then send the pupils away,” said the deputy head Godfrey Karissa.

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

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

Ikea says it will not source jatropha oil from Kenya until it can be sure that this will not contribute to the conversion of natural environments.

“This switch from nonrenewable fuel sources to renewable resource should 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 conventional medication.

If they feel let down by the government and the regional authorities, citizens just might turn to unconventional approaches in a quote to keep the land.

“If all the elders come together for one goal, then it is very simple to eliminate him with our medicines,” said Barova Kiribai, a traditional healer, referring to the owner of the Italian biofuels company.

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

It is not surprising they are worried.

Kenya’s politicians do not have a great performance history when it pertains to operating in the interests of individuals.

ActionAid

Kenya Jatropha Energy

RSPB

Nema

Ikea