This is the trailer to a short documentary on the charcoal sector in Africa portraying the specific example of the city of Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania. The film was published jointly by the World Bank and the Government of Tanzania in August 2009.
We featured the longer version of this film in a post back in August.
According to the Uganda National Environment Management Authority, pressure on land, water, forest and biological resources has dramatically increased to meet the needs of a growing population, leading to a loss of 76 percent of the country’s forest cover.
Geoffrey Oryema, the district leader of Nwoya, said poverty and lack of a meaningful livelihood source were the driving factors for environmental destruction.
“What do you expect somebody in the village without money to pay for his needs such as soap, salt, medicine and food to do?” Oryema said. “People are struggling to find alternatives to survive.”
A recent paper calls for immediate policy intervention around the Congo’s woodfuel demand.
Published in Cifor’s brief, it says, “The Congolese government needs to immediately improve management of the sector, in collaboration with stakeholders. The national Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) programme creates momentum for this.”
Nigeria has lost over N1 billion (USD 6,156,880) (Euro 4,629,360) to illegal export of charcoal and logs from states in the South West and North Central to the Middle East and Europe in the last four years.
An investigation by Daily Trust revealed that charcoal and wood export were the major factors responsible for the massive deforestation in the country.
The illegal export is booming despite the existence of federal laws that prohibits the export of logs from Nigeria.
In researching the fuel briquette solutions, we discovered there were multiple options available and no decision tree on how to choose between them. The Charcoal Project team spent the first six months researching and talking to developers, implementers, manufacturers and others with experience in the field.
Our research eventually led us to Isaac Owor, founder of EnviroCoal, a fuel-briquette manufacturer based in the capital, Kampala.