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 means shedding blood," he told the BBC.

"Land is extremely important to us. We farm and get our livelihood from it. On this land we bury our dead."

He is one of the numerous individuals opposed to the production of a large 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 along with worldwide threatened animal and bird types.

Ambitious objectives

An Italian company has asked the authorities for consent to lease 50,000 hectares there to grow jatropha curcas, 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 keep out animals - goats remain well away as it is dangerous. The area impacted is neighborhood land which is being held in trust by the regional council.

Kenya jatropha curcas Energy Ltd is 100%-owned by the Milan-based Nuove Iniziative Industriali SRL.

It has actually leased nearly a million hectares in Africa; jatropha oil from a plantation in Senegal is being provided to the Swedish furnishings retailer Ikea. Other companies have actually rented land for the exact same purpose in Ethiopia, Mozambique and Ghana, in addition to in India.

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

The 27 EU countries have actually signed up to a regulation which states that by 2020, 20% of energy ought to 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' a car?

But campaign groups have identified some of the projects in Africa "land grabs" with dire effects for the often voiceless African neighborhoods.

Some ask: "Why 'feed' an automobile in Europe when hunger in your home is still a reality?"

"Our future is no longer in our hands. We have actually been told we have to move because they want to plant jatropha curcas here," said 27-year-old Merciline Koi, a mom of 2, who added that there had been no offer of compensation for leaving her home in Dakatcha Woodlands.

Kenya Jetropha Energy Ltd states the settlements are over - the government has okayed for a pilot project to start with 10,000 hectares and all it is waiting for now is the last documents.

The company says hundreds of permanent and thousands of seasonal tasks will be created and it denies that anybody will be displaced by the project.

"We wish to protect your houses and the personal residential or commercial property. We will farm around your houses," Kenya Jatropha Energy Ltd head Girardello Adriano informed the BBC from Milan.

"We are helping these people. They are really pleased for this task. No-one will be moved."

How green are biofuels?

According to the Kenyan government's environment guard dog, the offer has actually not yet been sealed. It turned down the initial 50,000-hectare demand pointing out issues over the impact on the environment and the sustainability of the task.

"We were advising 1,000 hectares ... We have told them to validate if the number has to alter which is why we have not authorized the project 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 study calls into question whether jatropha curcas is truly 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 project in Kenya's Dakatcha woodlands would be.

The study by the consultancy group North Energy, external discovered that jatropha would produce between 2.5 and 6 times more greenhouse gases when compared to fossil fuels.

This is partly because large quantities of carbon are stored in the woodlands' vegetation and soil but the plantation would indicate clearing the land of this vegetation.

"The report shows that EU policies are foolish policies due to the fact that they are not reducing greenhouse gas emissions as the EU is declaring," said ActionAid's Chris Coxon.

"The proposed biofuel plantation will devastate the forests, driving the internationally threatened Clarke's Weaver bird to termination and depriving countless local people of their incomes," said Helen Byron of the RSPB.

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

Unorthodox approaches

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

They were part moneyed by the European Union - the very organisation which is now implicated of pushing policies which residents fear could see the school closed down.

"My concern is the displacement of the community. It is not good to develop a class and then send out the students away," said the deputy head Godfrey Karissa.

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

There are plainly concerns on the ground that as soon as the lease is signed, the population will be at the grace of a profit-driven business.

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 environments.

"This switch from fossil fuels to sustainable energy should never ever be at the cost of individuals or the environment," Ikea informed the BBC in a statement.

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

If they feel pull down by the federal government and the local authorities, homeowners just may turn to unorthodox approaches in a bid to keep the land.

"If all the seniors come together for one goal, then it is really simple to remove him with our medications," said Barova Kiribai, a conventional healer, describing the owner of the Italian biofuels business.

The fate of the people here is in the hands of the Kenyan federal government and Malindi's local council.

It is not surprising they are stressed.

Kenya's politicians do not have a good performance history when it pertains to working in the interests of the people.

ActionAid

Kenya jatropha curcas Energy

RSPB

Nema

Ikea