Kenyans fear Dakatcha Woodlands biofuel growth

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 bold.

"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 many people opposed to the creation of a big biofuel plantation in the area, about an hour's drive inland from the town of Malindi.

It is a dry location and home to some 20,000 people in addition to globally threatened animal and bird types.

Ambitious goals

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

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