[Sustain] Sugar for Biofuel to Displace Kenya Delta Wildlife

Tue Jul 15 10:10:42 PDT 2008

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jun2008/2008-06-26-03.asp

          *Sugar for Biofuel to Displace Kenya's Tana Delta Wildlife*

*NAIROBI, Kenya*, June 26, 2008 (ENS) - Kenya's Tana River Delta, 
inhabited by 350 species of birds, lions, elephants, rare sharks and 
reptiles, is about to be converted to sugar cane production over the 
objections of conservationists and local communities.

Kenya's National Environment Management Authority, NEMA, has approved a 
proposal by the Mumias Sugar Company, a publicly traded company based in 
Nairobi, to covert 2,000 square kilometers of the pristine delta into 
irrigated sugarcane plantations.

          A view over the Tana River Delta (Photo by Zuc123
          <http://www.flickr.com/photos/zuc123/>)

The government is behind the project, with President Mwai Kibaki 
expressing his personal approval at a public rally in Garsen last year.

But conservationists and villagers living in the delta believe the 
decision is illegal and are determined to block the development. The 
groups are considering what action they might take.

Paul Matiku, executive director of Nature Kenya said, "This decision is 
a national disaster and will devastate the delta. The Tana's ecology 
will be destroyed yet the economic gains will be pitiful. It will 
seriously damage our priceless national assets and will put the 
livelihoods of the people living in the Delta in jeopardy."

"The environmental assessment for the scheme was poor yet the government 
has defied even those very modest recommendations," said Matiku, whose 
99-year-old organization is the Kenyan affiliate of BirdLife International.

The National Environment Management Authority put 14 conditions on the 
sugarcane plan. But Matiku says the conditions are weak and ignore the 
environmental assessment, which showed that irrigation of crops would 
cause severe drainage of the Delta.

NEMA's decision also overlooks an ongoing dispute over compensation for 
farmers and fishermen who would lose their land and fishing rights.

"This is the only dry-season grazing area for hundreds of miles and its 
loss will leave many hundreds of farmers with nowhere to take their 
cattle," Matiku explained. "We refuse to accept that this decision is 
final," he said. "The development must be stopped at all costs."

The Tana is the largest river in Kenya. It flows from the central 
highlands down to the Indian Ocean where it enters the sea at Kipini 
with a delta 40 kilometers wide.

          A herd of topi, a savannah antelope, on the Tana River Delta.
          (Photo courtesy Tana Delta Camp <http://www.tanadelta.com>)

The district is generally dry and prone to drought, but this week at 
least 15,000 residents of the Tana Delta are coping with the destruction 
of their crops by floods.

After touring the flooded communities, their elected representative MP 
Danson Mungatana is asking the Ministry of Agriculture to give farmers 
seed for replanting and urged Mumias Sugar to start their Sh24 billion 
(US$373 million) project, saying all requirements have been met.

"They have a license and everything else has been finalized, let them 
start the project immediately so that the youth can get jobs," he told 
"The Nation" newspaper Tuesday.

But the economic benefits of the conversion of the Tana Delta to sugar 
cane are not clear. A report commissioned in May by Nature Kenya and the 
Royal Society for the Protection of Birds found deficiences in the 
calculation of benefits presented by Mumias.

The company says the income from sugar cane cultivation will be US$2.45 
million over 20 years.

But the conservationists' report shows that the revenue from fishing, 
farming, tourism and other lost livelihoods would be US$59 million over 
the same period.

The report found that Mumias has overestimated profits, ignored fees for 
water use and pollution from the sugarcane plant, and has disregarded 
the loss of income from wildlife tourists to the delta.

The study said the delta's ecological benefits "defied valuation" and 
that the proposal would cause the "irreversible loss of ecosystem 
services," benefits such as flood prevention, the storage of greenhouse 
gases and the provision of medicines and food.

Mumias Sugar grows some sugar cane; its own estates provide up to seven 
percent of its annual output, but its primary source is over 50,000 
registered "out growers" with a total of more than 400 square kilometers 
under cultivation.

          African fish eagles breed on the Tana River Delta. (Photo by
          Michel Laplace-Toulouse of African Latitude
          <http://www.africanlatitude.com> courtesy BirdLife
          International <http://www.birdlife.org>)

The Tana Delta land conversion covers an area nearly five times larger 
than the area currently farmed by all the company's out growers.

Sugar cane grown on the Tana Delta is likely to fuel ethanol production. 
In 2005, Mumias Sugar Managing Director Evans Kidero announced plans to 
expand into the production of ethanol to take advantage of the high cost 
of fuel.

"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," said Paul Buckley, an Africa 
specialist with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, which is 
the BirdLife affiliate in the UK.

Conservationists say that an integrated management plan for the entire 
Tana River basin should precede any development considerations.

The lack of project design documents, required by Kenyan environmental 
law, has been a critical omission in the whole Environmental Impact 
Assessment, EIA, process, Matiku points out.

"The current EIA was hurriedly produced and lacks vital information. 
NEMA should reject it and request for a new EIA study for the new 
project site," said Matiku. "The government's decision to approve the 
Tana River sugarcane and biofuels project will not only destroy 
biodiversity but also threaten rural livelihoods."

-- 
"I am not a liberator. Liberators do not exist. The people liberate themselves." -- Che Guevara

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