This is devastating news, indeed. It the midst of all this, it would be a silver lining if WWF could produce more quantitative assessments of the situation. In addition to the unsustainable harvests that have been mentioned, it would be good to find out what proportion of the farmers have experience with making charcoal. I say this because, here in Mexico, we are about to compare kiln efficiencies of full-time experienced charcoalers versus those who produce charcoal as a lucrative activity when times are hard (as is the case now in Madagascar ). Making charcoal efficiently is difficult, and it requires experience and patience, virtues that are usually absent from a desperate people. Hence, for Madagascar the issue may by many times larger than a tripling of the number of charbonniers if we assume many of the farmers are inexperienced producers. Low efficiency kilns, short-term plans, and a lack of incentives to conserve are the likely mix here, and they spell more danger than we want to imagine.
Tuyeni Mwampamba
July 2, 2010 @ 18:03