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<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jun2008/2008-06-26-03.asp">http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jun2008/2008-06-26-03.asp</a><br>
<h5><b><font size="+1">Sugar for Biofuel to Displace Kenya's Tana Delta
Wildlife</font></b></h5>
<b>NAIROBI, Kenya</b>, 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.
<p>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.
</p>
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<td><img src="cid:part1.04010109.08040000@aim.com" height="259"
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<h5>A view over the Tana River Delta <font size="-2">(Photo by <a
href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/zuc123/" target="_blank">Zuc123</a>)</font>
</h5>
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<p>The government is behind the project, with President
Mwai Kibaki expressing his personal approval at a public rally in
Garsen last year.
</p>
<p>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.
</p>
<p>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."
</p>
<p>"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.
</p>
<p>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.
</p>
<p>NEMA's decision also overlooks an ongoing dispute over
compensation for farmers and fishermen who would lose their land and
fishing rights.
</p>
<p>"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."
</p>
<p>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.
</p>
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<td><img src="cid:part2.09020206.00060405@aim.com" height="320"
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<h5>A herd of topi, a savannah antelope, on the Tana River Delta.
<font size="-2">(Photo courtesy <a
href="http://www.tanadelta.com" target="_blank">Tana Delta Camp</a>)</font>
</h5>
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<p>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. </p>
<p>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.
</p>
<p>"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.
</p>
<p>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.
</p>
<p>The company says the income from sugar cane cultivation will be
US$2.45 million over 20 years.
</p>
<p>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.
</p>
<p>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.
</p>
<p>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.
</p>
<p>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.
</p>
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<td width="175"><img src="cid:part3.08010901.01010203@aim.com"
height="217" width="175"></td>
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<h5>African fish eagles breed on the Tana River Delta.<font
size="-2"> (Photo by Michel Laplace-Toulouse of <a
href="http://www.africanlatitude.com" target="_blank">African Latitude</a>
courtesy <a href="http://www.birdlife.org" target="_blank">BirdLife
International</a>) </font></h5>
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<p>The Tana Delta land conversion covers an area nearly
five times larger than the area currently farmed by all the company's
out growers.
</p>
<p>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.
</p>
<p>"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.
</p>
<p>Conservationists say that an integrated management plan for the
entire Tana River basin should precede any development considerations. </p>
<p>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.
</p>
<p>"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." </p>
<p align="center"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="-1">Copyright
Environment News Service (ENS) 2008. All rights reserved.</font>
</p>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
"I am not a liberator. Liberators do not exist. The people liberate themselves." – Che Guevara</pre>
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