PT Sinergi Oleo Nusantara

Kenyans Fear Dakatcha Woodlands Biofuel Expansion

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 indicates shedding blood,” he told the BBC.

“Land is very essential to us. We farm and get our livelihood from it. On this land we bury our dead.”

He is among the many people opposed to the creation of a large biofuel plantation in the area, about an hour’s drive inland from the coastal town of Malindi.

It is a dry location and home to some 20,000 individuals as well as internationally threatened animal and bird types.

Ambitious goals

An Italian company has actually asked the authorities for approval to lease 50,000 hectares there to grow jatropha, whose seeds are rich 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 keep out animals – goats stay well away as it is toxic. The location impacted is neighborhood land which is being held in trust by the regional council.

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

It has actually leased practically a million hectares in Africa; jatropha oil from a plantation in Senegal is being supplied to the Swedish furnishings merchant Ikea. Other business have rented land for the very same function in Ethiopia, Mozambique and Ghana, as well as in India.

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

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

Why ‘feed’ a vehicle?

But project groups have actually identified some of the tasks in Africa “land grabs” with dire consequences for the typically voiceless African neighborhoods.

Some ask: “Why ‘feed’ a vehicle in Europe when appetite at home is still a reality?”

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

Kenya Jetropha Energy Ltd states the negotiations are over – the federal government has offered the green light for a pilot project to start with 10,000 hectares and all it is waiting on now is the last documentation.

The business states hundreds of long-term and thousands of seasonal tasks will be created and it denies that anybody will be displaced by the task.

“We desire to safeguard your houses 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 individuals. They are really pleased for this task. No-one will be moved.”

How green are biofuels?

According to the Kenyan federal government’s environment watchdog, the offer has not yet been sealed. It rejected the preliminary 50,000-hectare request pointing out concerns over the influence on the environment and the sustainability of the job.

“We were suggesting 1,000 hectares … We have informed them to validate if the number has to alter which is why we have not authorized the project up to now,” stated Benjamin Malwa Langwen, of the National Environment Management Authority (Nema).

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

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

This is partially because large amounts of carbon are stored in the woodlands’ plant life and soil however the plantation would suggest clearing the land of this plant life.

“The report reveals that EU policies are silly policies since they are not minimizing greenhouse gas emissions as the EU is proclaiming,” said ActionAid’s Chris Coxon.

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

In action, the EU Commission protected 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 Woodlands, a number of new class and pit latrines have just been developed.

They were part funded by the European Union – the really organisation which is now implicated of pushing policies which residents fear might see the school closed down.

“My worry is the displacement of the community. It is not excellent to build a classroom and after that send out the students away,” stated the deputy head Godfrey Karissa.

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

There are clearly 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 until it can be sure that this will not contribute to the conversion of natural environments.

“This switch from fossil fuels to eco-friendly energy should never be at the expenditure of people or the environment,” Ikea told the BBC in a declaration.

The woodlands are likewise an abundant source of product for conventional medication.

If they feel let down by the government and the regional authorities, citizens simply may turn to unorthodox methods in a bid to keep the land.

“If all the senior citizens come together for one goal, then it is extremely easy to eliminate him with our medicines,” stated Barova Kiribai, a traditional therapist, referring to the owner of the Italian biofuels business.

The fate of the people here remains 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 good performance history when it pertains to operating in the interests of the individuals.

ActionAid

Kenya Jatropha Energy

RSPB

Nema

Ikea