Kenyans fear Dakatcha Woodlands biofuel growth

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 suggests shedding blood,” he told the BBC.

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

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

It is a dry location and home to some 20,000 people along with globally threatened animal and bird species.

Ambitious objectives

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

This plant, initially from South America, has actually long been grown in Africa as a hedge to keep out animals - goats stay well away as it is dangerous. 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 leased nearly a million hectares in Africa