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 crucial to us. We farm and get our income from it. On this land we bury our dead.”

He is one of the many individuals 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 an arid area and home to some 20,000 people as well as worldwide threatened animal and bird species.

Ambitious goals

An Italian business has asked the authorities for permission to rent 50,000 hectares there to grow jatropha curcas, whose seeds are abundant in oil that can be become bio-diesel.

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