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 defiant.

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

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

He is one of the many individuals opposed to the production of a large biofuel plantation in the location, about an hour’s drive inland from the coastal town of Malindi.

It is an arid location and home to some 20,000 individuals in addition to worldwide threatened animal and bird types.

Ambitious goals

An Italian business has actually asked the authorities for consent to lease 50,000 hectares there to grow jatropha, whose seeds are abundant in oil that can be turned into bio-diesel.

This plant, originally from South America, has actually long been grown in Africa as a hedge to keep out animals - goats remain well away as it is dangerous. The location affected is neighborhood land which is being kept in trust by the regional council.

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

It has actually rented practically a million hectares in Africa