When charcoal is more than just heat

What if the charcoal you use every day to cook your meal and to boil your water is produced sustainably? What if the charcoal you use does not harm the forests and the birds, the flies and mice and all the other animals living in. What if the charcoal you use is from legally approved sources and does help communities to build their schools, municipal buildings, wells? It would be too good to be true, right?

Well, no. There is one project, addressing those issues and trying to make a difference. Meet the Tanzanian Forest Conservation Group (TFCG) members Rashidi, Mohammed and Amos.

Outside Ulaya Mbuyuni, a small village close to Kilosa in Morogoro District, Mohammed Titima follows the arrow on his GPS-device. He is searching for one of the four points defining the plot, where he and his colleagues are supposed to cut the trees next to produce their charcoal. The black device beeps. And Mohammed Titima signs the corner with red colour. “Ok. Next point,“ he murmurs and stumbles through the wood, the eyes fixed on the display, looking for the next point. Some fifty metres from the first point, the device beeps again. Titima found the second corner, signs it with red colour and goes ahead, to the third and finally to the fourth point. Each plot has the size of 50 x 50 metres and was defined by the project-managers in the beginning. Athuman Lugendo is one of them, responsible for the forests in 16 village-communities. “Ulaya Mbuyuni has 1,776 plots, Half of the plots are used to produce charcoal,“ he explains. Within the next 20 years, Titima would define and mark the corners of the remaining plots, as he and his community already harvested some 148 plots over the past four years, 37 plots each year. As the men are supposed to cut the trees at a height of 30 cm of their stems, it would allow the trees to recover quickly and become the same it was before. Titima is the chairman of the village’s Charcoal Producers Association. He is one of 16 chairpersons; they all together manage in 16 villages some 46,000 hectares of forests and reach a total of 22,000 people. Not with solar energy, not with agricultural production, but with charcoal.

Rashidi Kazeuka is the secretary of the same group. And if he knew something well, than how to make a living without paying attention to the forests and its wildlife. “Before, I was just cutting wood without considering anything but my income. But the project completely changed my view. I understood, how we can use and preserve the forest in the same time, make it a source of income for the next decades.” he says.

Now, he makes a better living and is able to provide not only charcoal, but is helping his community to send the children to school, to build wells and improve the standard of living. And he knows that while he is doing so, his children may follow him as charcoal producers, as the forests are likely to prevail.

Considering the fact, that depleting natural resources is very common around the world and bearing in mind, that measures to preserve the very same natural resources for the next generation is nothing else than a very long-term business, the shift of attitude towards the forests is striking.

One cornerstone of the approach is the inclusion of whole communities. “You know, since the whole village is benefitting, all do help to maintain the forest, to keep up with the rules and to follow our idea,“ Athuman Lugendo explains.

To do so, the village is organising the charcoal-production within two committees. One is responsible for charcoal production while another group is responsible for the natural resource management in the village, where men and women do discuss, how they want to manage their forests and water resources.

Together, the two groups define the area, where charcoal can be harvested. In addition, the group of charcoal-producers also helped to get legally recognised and accepted. As a group, the charcoal-producers can afford to get the legal registration, they can cope with the bureaucratic system of Tanzania and stepping out of the black dust of illegal charcoal-production. “Now, we know we are doing th eright thing,” Rashidi Kazeuka insisted in the discussion several time. For him, Mohammed Titima and Amos Maroda, this is very liberating and satisfying.

After cutting the trees, the wood is cut into pieces of one metre length and stacked to piles and covered with soil. It smells from burning wood, the kiln looks more like a pile of dirt, than something which is used to produce charcoal.

On the backend of the kiln two cavernous branches do serve as improvised chimneys; white smoke rises slowly but steadily and is carried away by the gentle breeze. Close to the kiln, one can feel the heat coming out of the pile. Inside the kiln something magical is happening: carbonisation. It is this process of burning wood without oxygen involved. The two branches, one on the left and one on the right of the kiln do serve as indicators.

“If the smoke becomes brown to black, you know that there is something wrong,” Athuman Lugendo explains. He is project officer for the TFCG and responsible for implementing the project. Before being carbonised, the three men and some other villagers pile up the wood, covere it with sticks and later with soil.

On the lower level-side, they start a small fire and then close the kiln. After some seven to eight days, the whole chunk of wood is carbonised. After being cooled, the charcoal is ready to be put in bags and to be sold. Using improved kilns is one of the pillars of the project.

“Instead of 10 to 12 days, carbonisation in the improved kilns does only take 7 to 8 days. In addition, the quality of the charcoal is higher,” Athuman says. This is partly, because Rashidi, Mohammed and Amos got a training on how to stack the wood and use so-called apron sticks before it is covered with soil and carbonised.

The project seems to be on a good way. But it was nothing but easy to implement it straight forward in the beginning. “As we started, some officials from the government told us, that we would eventually fail. Some tried to discourage us,” Rashidi Kazeuka tells me later.

The reason behind is somewhat simple: As soon as charcoal producers are recognised as legally operating small businesses and are as well backed by the community, there is no room left to play games.

“In the past, the local government officials sometimes came for inspection. They either took the charcoal with them or I paid a levy.” Kazeuka says. He was never sure, if it was based on rules and regulations or just based on the mood of the official.

“But we now know what is right and wrong. And we are proud of our work,” Mohammed completes the sentence.

But the relationship, the government has with charcoal dealers, is still difficult.

In 2006, due to massive deforestation, it banned charcoal just to realise that too many people depend on it and to release the ban a couple of days after prohibition. At that time, prices in the black-market were skyrocketing within few days. “Banning charcoal is unsustainable,” Charles Leonard, the director of TFCG says.

“In Dar Es Salaam, 95 of the people do need charcoal every day,” he says.

And hundred-thousands are earning their living from producing, transporting and selling the charcoal.

Charcoal and fuelwood have been the backbones of the Tanzanian energy-mix and are likely to remain for the next couple of years at least.

“You know, charcoal is something, you would not consider as energy-source for a semi-industrialised country,” Charles says.

And this is, why the government wants to promote other forms of energy: Gas, petroleum, electricity. Although the charcoal-value chain is a huge network of traders, producers, sellers and customers, a large part of the trade is illegal. Now, the big challenge for sustainably produced charcoal is to be recognised as such and hence be sold on a favorable premium. This is something, neither TFCG nor other groups have been able to do yet.

And as the vast majority of rural Tanzanians still tend to overuse their forest resources for the sake of a decent income and to satisfy the skyrocketing demand from the growing cities, there is nothing but a quick fix.

For the communities and TFCG, there is some work ahead. And for the donors, like the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) the opportunity to spend some more money on sustainable charcoal production will prevail for the next couple of years. If charcoal will prevail as a source of energy, on the other hand, is completely a different question.