The Tana delta, which lies 120 miles north of the coastal city of Mombasa and drains Kenya’s longest river, is a mix of savannah, mangrove swamps, forest and beaches
Kenya has approved a controversial biofuel project that environmentalists say could destroy some of the country’s most pristine wetlands. More than 80 sq miles of the Tana river delta is scheduled to become a sugar cane plantation, with much of the crop turned into ethanol in a purpose-built factory. The area is home to lions, hippos, reptiles, primates, rare sharks and 345 bird species, and sustains thousands of farmers and fishermen whose protests have been largely ignored, according to campaigners.
Paul Matiku, executive director of Nature Kenya, a Nairobi-based conservation group, described the proposed development by Mumias Sugar, a locally listed firm, as “an ecological and social disaster” that would cause heavy drainage of the delta.
“It will seriously damage our priceless national assets and will put the livelihoods of the people living in the delta in jeopardy,” he said.
The merits of growing biofuels are the source of increasingly acrimonious debate in east Africa, where vast tracts of open land in Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia and Tanzania are attracting the attention of local and international agriculture firms hoping to cash in on the demand from the US and the European Union for clean energy sources such as ethanol.
While local governments welcome the prospect of investment and job creation, there is strong opposition from environmentalists and development campaigners who say that arable land should not be used for non-food crops – especially in a region susceptible to food shortages.
The Tana delta, which lies 120 miles north of the coastal city of Mombasa and drains Kenya’s longest river, is a mix of savannah, mangrove swamps, forest and beaches.
The vast supply of fresh water has made the area much coveted by sugar companies who must rely on variable rainfall on their plantations in other parts of Kenya. Mumias Sugar, which will run the £190m scheme with the Tana and Athi Rivers Development Authority, insists the net effect will be positive, with thousands of jobs created and vastly improved infrastructure in the area. The company employed two private consulting firms to produce an environment impact assessment report showing that the ecological damage will be limited.
Kenya’s National Environmental Management Authority (Nema) was revealed to have approved the scheme last week, subject to conditions. But villagers and fishermen, who treat the land in and around the Tana river delta as communal, say that their concerns about the loss of livelihoods have not been addressed. Pastoralists who bring 60,000 cattle from as far afield as the Somali and Ethiopian border regions to graze in the delta during the dry season are also angry, and have disrupted public hearings on the project.
Local civil society groups that have campaigned to stop the sugar factory being built and to have the most sensitive parts of the delta declared a protected area say that their objections have been ignored both by Mumias and the government. A letter from Nature Kenya to Nema in December, written in response to a request for public comment on the plans, has never been acknowledged, said Matiku, who blames local politicians for pushing ahead with the project. “The voices of the poor and the marginalised in Kenya have again been ignored,” he said.
A report commissioned by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds in May claims that Mumias’s projections significantly overestimated the potential profit and ignored fees for the use of water and the effect of pollution from the sugar factory. The study concluded that the Tana delta’s ecological benefits, including flood prevention, the storage of greenhouse gases and food provision “defied valuation”, and warned of grave environmental consequences if the project went ahead.
Among the rare birds that shelter in the forests are the southern banded snake eagle, the Malindi pipit, the Tana river cisticola and the Basra reed warbler. “This decision is a very serious blow to Kenyan wildlife and to wildlife worldwide, since many migrating species use the Tana delta in internationally important numbers,” said Paul Buckley, an Africa specialist with the RSPB.
“Until now, Kenya’s support for global agreements to protect wildlife has been excellent but this development could severely damage Kenya’s reputation for caring for its environment.”
[Source: The Guardian]
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