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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 next to 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 really essential to us. We farm and get our livelihood from it. On this land we bury our dead.”
He is among the numerous people opposed to the creation of a large biofuel plantation in the area, about an hour’s drive inland from the seaside town of Malindi.
It is an arid location and home to some 20,000 individuals in addition to internationally threatened animal and bird types.
Ambitious goals
An Italian business has actually asked the authorities for approval to rent 50,000 hectares there to grow jatropha curcas, whose seeds are rich in oil that can be developed into bio-diesel.
This plant, originally from South America, has long been grown in Africa as a hedge to stay out animals – goats stay well away as it is toxic. The area affected is neighborhood land which is being held in trust by the local council.
Kenya jatropha curcas Energy Ltd is 100%-owned by the Milan-based Nuove Iniziative Industriali SRL.
It has rented nearly a million hectares in Africa; jatropha oil from a plantation in Senegal is being supplied to the Swedish furniture merchant Ikea. Other business have leased land for the very same purpose in Ethiopia, Mozambique and Ghana, along with in India.
This growth has been spurred by the European Union, which has set ambitious goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and lowering its reliance on imported oil.
The 27 EU nations have actually signed up to an instruction which states that by 2020, 20% of energy ought to be from sustainable sources, external.
Why is Africa impacted?
Because it is difficult 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 labelled some of the tasks in Africa “land grabs” with alarming effects for the often voiceless African communities.
Some ask: “Why ‘feed’ a vehicle in Europe when hunger in the house is still a truth?”
“Our future is no longer in our hands. We have actually been told we have to move since they desire to plant jatropha curcas here,” said 27-year-old Merciline Koi, a mom of 2, who added that there had been no offer of payment for leaving her home in Dakatcha Woodlands.
Kenya Jetropha Energy Ltd says the settlements are over – the government has actually okayed for a pilot task to begin with 10,000 hectares and all it is awaiting now is the final documents.
The company says hundreds of long-term and countless seasonal jobs will be created and it denies that anyone will be displaced by the job.
“We desire to secure the homes and the personal property. We will farm around your homes,” Kenya jatropha curcas Energy Ltd head Girardello Adriano informed the BBC from Milan.
“We are assisting these people. They are extremely 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 turned down the initial 50,000-hectare request mentioning concerns over the effect on the environment and the sustainability of the project.
“We were recommending 1,000 hectares … We have actually told them to validate if the number has to alter which is why we have not authorized the job already,” said Benjamin Malwa Langwen, of the National Environment Management Authority (Nema).
However, there are now fresh require the Dakatcha task to be scrapped as new research study 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 project in Kenya’s Dakatcha woodlands would be.
The study by the consultancy group North Energy, external found that jatropha curcas would release in between 2.5 and six times more greenhouse gases when compared to nonrenewable fuel sources.
This is partly due to the fact that large quantities of carbon are kept in the forests’ greenery and soil but the plantation would indicate clearing the land of this plants.
“The report reveals that EU policies are foolish policies since they are not decreasing greenhouse gas emissions as the EU is announcing,” said ActionAid’s Chris Coxon.
“The proposed biofuel plantation will devastate the woodlands, driving the globally threatened Clarke’s Weaver bird to extinction and depriving countless regional people of their livelihoods,” said Helen Byron of the RSPB.
In response, the EU Commission protected its energy policy as “the most thorough and advanced sustainability plan for biofuels anywhere in the world”.
Unorthodox techniques
At the remote Mulunguni primary school, which lies within the Dakatcha Woodlands, a number of brand-new class and pit latrines have simply been constructed.
They were part funded by the European Union – the very organisation which is now accused of pushing policies which locals fear could see the school shut down.
“My worry is the displacement of the neighborhood. It is bad to develop a class and then send out the pupils away,” stated the deputy head Godfrey Karissa.
“Yes we require tasks. But a farm without a home is not great. 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 mercy of a .
Ikea states it will not source jatropha oil from Kenya until it can be sure that this will not add to the conversion of natural environments.
“This switch from fossil fuels to renewable resource need to never 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 conventional medication.
If they feel pull down by the federal government and the local authorities, citizens just may turn to unconventional approaches in a quote to keep the land.
“If all the seniors come together for one objective, then it is very easy to eliminate him with our medicines,” stated Barova Kiribai, a conventional healer, describing the owner of the Italian biofuels company.
The fate of the people here remains in the hands of the Kenyan government and Malindi’s local council.
It is not surprising they are fretted.
Kenya’s politicians do not have a good performance history when it comes to operating in the interests of the individuals.
ActionAid
Kenya Jatropha Energy
RSPB
Nema
Ikea