50,000 Acre Kenya Biofuels Project Threatens Birdlife …and Humans
Conservationists in Kenya are opposing a multi-million dollar biofuels project citing threats to bird life abundant in a riverine delta area. The 50,000 acre sugar cane project was meant to provide raw cane for a giant sugar milling company too but it is believed its vision was more for biofuel than food.
But another team of UK environmentalists recently commissioned a report that highlighted a possible loss of livelihood for local peasant farmers, chemical pollution and interference with the ecology in turn threatening tourism and wildlife in the area.
The miller, however, has not publicly responded to these concerns and may as well go ahead with the plans, earlier also opposed by local political leaders. Instead of sweet smell of sugar, the miller, Mumias Sugar (which has no functional website!), also smells a whiff of politics in the air.
“This development would be a national disaster, wreaking havoc with the area’s ecosystem and spelling the end for wildlife across much of the Delta,” Paul Matiku, a conservationist, said.
“Large areas would become ecological deserts. The Delta is a wildlife refuge with cattle herders depending on it for centuries as well. There is no commitment to mitigation for the damage that will be done and no evidence that local incomes will be in any way improved. The sugarcane scheme cannot be allowed to go ahead.”
This standoff could yet be on for a long time, though. It is believed that most of the biofuel products that will be produced here will be destined for the UK market and environmentalists there are avowed to stop it.
The 130,000 hectare Tana Delta wetlands are arguably Kenya’s largest, most ecologically and biologically diverse, socially and economically important wetland and hosts a wide array of ecosystems including forests, swamps, dunes, beaches and ocean.
It supports exotic plants and animal species, some of which are listed as being endangered. The delta is immensely valuable to the local people who have built an intricate relationship between their lifestyles and the dynamics of the delta’s ecosystems.
It is teeming with lots of bird species and is also home to wildlife like lions, crocodiles and hippos.
An ethanol refinery is also part of the planned project and if the conservationists and environmentalists have their way, US$ 325.5 million investment will be at stake. Although thousands of jobs will be created, environmental groups are concerned that monoculture planting will replace a large area of diverse habitat, and that irrigation will use up large amounts of the available water.
For the locals, the area has also been a battle ground for vicious tribal and clan wars between pastoralist communities and farmers for its resources particularly the crocodile-infested waters of the river Tana and grazing land.
Photo Credit: Flickr
Oil price increases have not shrunk the human food supply, but biofuel production has. The more biofuels we produce, the less food we have to eat, because we grow biofuel crops, even switchgrass, using the same land, water, fertilizer, farm equipment, and labor we use to grow food. Biofuel production accelerates global warming, creates water shortages, and erodes topsoil. A new study says biofuels from cellulose sources, such as switchgrass, wood chips, crop waste, etc., will never be cost effective.
See biofuel facts at - http://home.att.net/~meditation/bio-fuel-hoax.html