Urgent Appeal Kenya: 20,000 people face displacement as European biofuels take over in Malindi
In January 2010, the people of Malindi, on Kenya's Indian Ocean were woken up by smoke and the sound of bulldozers coming from the Dakatcha forest
That was how they learnt that 50,000 hectares of the land held in trust by the community and upon which they are dependent for their livelihoods had been handed over to NIISRL (Iniziative Industriali Nouve SRL), an Italian company that produces electricity from renewable sources, including palm oil it imports from Côte d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Guinea Conacry, Kenya, Senegal, and Malaysia. It aims to produce the biofuel crop, Jaltropa the so-called ''miracle-plant'' supposed to provide high yields of oil to be converted into fuel.
According to the draft approved by the Kenyan national authorities (and not the local population), 30% of the oil produced in Kenya will be exported to Italy, and 70% will be used for national energy consumption (jatropha is not edible). However, the company has recently declared to the Italian press that it would export to Italy as much as 80% of the oil produced, while only 20% of it will be used to satisfy the domestic demand in Kenya.
ActionAid Kenya has predicted that twenty thousand people are in danger of being displaced and that the ecological balance of the region will be severely threatened.
The rush to biofuels:
Their plight is emblematic of a growing global problem: The EU and US legal targets for biofuel production has led to ‘land grabbing’ throughout the developing world. Land that could be used to feed hungry people, is now putting fuel in the engines of the rich world.
Farming communities are been displaced in alarming numbers as large multinationals rush to acquire land for biofuels with little or no consultation or compensation of the local population, and broken promises to the local government and people whose land they have "leased".
The people of Malindi were not consulted; theyheard about the deal on the morning the bulldozers moved in. It has taken months of continuous pressure by civil society groups even to discover the terms of the lease: the land will be leased for 33 years at a cost of 2 euros per hectare.
Biofuels, hunger and climate change:
The main reason given for this headlong rush into industrial biofuel production is that it is a way of tackling climate change; instead of burning oil or gas we can simply burn plants. However, the scientific evidence now points to the fact that industrial biofuels will be even worse for the climate than the fossil fuels they were designed to replace.
Biofuels cause hunger by pushing up food prices and depriving poor farmers in areas such as Malindi of the land they used to grow food.
It is estimated that 30 million people have already been made hungry by biofuels, while another 260 million have been placed at risk of hunger.
Urgent appeal:
In Malindi, local communities, supported by Kenyan civil society, have been fighting for the Kenyan government to recognise their right to their land. But the battle has become harder and the risk of losing everything is real and imminent.
ActionAid Kenya and our French partners, Peuples Solidaires, are now calling for international solidarity to defend the people of Malindi and have launched an urgent appeal to be sent to the Kenyan Minister of the Enviroment, John Michuki.
Take action with us and help defend the people of Malindi, their food sovereignty, their right to their own land and prevent the destruction of the precious Dakatcha woodlands:
