Kenyans fear Dakatcha Woodlands growth

23 March 2011

By Will Ross

BBC News, Dakatcha

Being 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 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 among the many individuals opposed to the production of a big biofuel plantation in the location, about an hour's drive inland from the seaside town of Malindi.

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

Ambitious objectives

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

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

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

It has rented nearly a million hectares in Africa