Promote sustainable charcoal production

While environmentalists have consistently warned of the dangers of widespread use of charcoal as an energy source, millions of people especially in developing countries including Tanzania are still dependent on it.

It remains the basic means of cooking and earning a living despite the inherent threat to forest resources and environmental degradation.

Available statistics show that Africa is the most affected by the menace. The continent is said to be losing its forest cover twice as fast as the rest of the world, according to a recent United Nations report.

The report says four million hectares of forests in Africa are felled each year, with the result that while the continent originally boasted seven million square kilometres of forests, a third of that has now been lost, mostly to charcoal trade.

Tanzania too is among countries that are reported to be endangered. Recent studies reveal shocking findings that the country’s overall forest cover could disappear in about ten to 16 decades if the current deforestation trend is not curbed.

The studies, undertaken separately by the Conservation International – a US non-profit organisation and the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), show respectively that 2,300 and 4,200 square kilometres of forests in Tanzania are being destroyed annually.

It is for this reason that we praise the move by Barclays Bank Tanzania Limited to inject 1.5bn/- in the Dar es Salaam Charcoal Project (DCP), a three year undertaking aimed at educating local people on how to cut down deforestation through tree planting and sustainable charcoal production.

According to the bank’s Head of Community Relations, Moni Msemo, the project will cover 12 villages of Kisarawe and Rufiji Districts in Coast regions which are major suppliers of charcoal to the country’s biggest charcoal consuming metropolitan, Dar es Salaam.

We believe that by targeting Dar es Salaam, the project’s success would have a huge impact on the national environment conservation efforts.

While the government has been undertaking annual tree planting campaigns in the country as well as sensitising the people on the dangers of deforestation, the move by Barclays Bank is a shining example of public-private partnership worth emulation.

We appeal to other private institutions to take a leaf from the Dar project and set up similar projects in other parts of the country so that charcoal production using bio-energy technology should not only help cut deforestation but also offer employment to the many jobless youths.

What Tanzanians ought to bear in mind is that fending off environmental conservation is a war that requires full mass participation.

The production of charcoal and the use of it as fuel, and the burning of forests to clear land for agricultural development or other purposes are activities responsible for the emission of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, leading to global warming. This may result in constant drought, crop failure, flooding, water shortage and the emergence of refugees fleeing disaster areas.

Therefore sustainable production of charcoal is one of the ways of saving ourselves from disaster.

This war can only be won through massive tree planting and protecting forests which absorb carbon dioxide and thus prevent global warming.