Kenyans fear Dakatcha Woodlands biofuel expansion

23 March 2011

By Will Ross

BBC News, Dakatcha

Sitting 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 means shedding blood,” he informed 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 among the many people opposed to the development of a large biofuel plantation in the location, about an inland from the coastal town of Malindi.

It is a dry area and home to some 20,000 people along with internationally 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 rich in oil that can be turned into bio-diesel.

This plant, originally from South America, has long been grown in Africa as a hedge to stay out animals - goats remain well away as it is dangerous. The location impacted is community 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 nearly a million hectares in Africa