It’s encouraging to hear the head of the Kenya Forestry Service call for the planting of trees for wood energy and other products. That’s exactly the right call. We would however want to make certain that his call to plant trees on agricultural lands does not come at the expense of food production. Food security must remain a priority. Luckily there are ways to do both and do them well. — The Charcoal Project Encourage commercial logging to grow Kenya’s forest cover – report Source: AlertNet Mon, 5 Nov 2012 19:10 GMT By Katy Migiro NAIROBI (AlertNet) – Kenya should Continue reading
Woodfuel
NEWS: Kenya to legalize charcoal trade
NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 5 – The government now wants to legalize the charcoal business in an attempt to beat illegal charcoal burning which is largely to blame for the loss of the country’s forest cover.
VIDEOS: Can Clean Cookstoves and Energy Poverty go viral
To support this goal, the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves came out a few weeks ago with several videos that have been in the making for some time now. (The first four videos on the Alliance’s YouTube channel are the ones in question. And, yes, Julia Roberts does appear in most of them!)
Joint UNIDO and Kenya biomass project to begin in June
Kenya and UNIDO launch 5-year biomass project. This is welcome news considering that over 68 percent of the population in Kenya use biomass for cooking, whilst Kenya’s Ministry of Energy estimates that up to 95 percent of the energy consumed in rural areas is in the form of fuel wood, agricultural residue and animal waste.
Forests must be on the Rio+20 agenda
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, in some parts of Africa woodfuels account for almost 90 per cent of primary energy consumption.
Scientists believe that deforestation across the Horn of Africa, particularly for firewood harvest, has been a major contributor to the pervasive drought in the region.