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.
A study presented at the June symposium on charcoal organized in Arusha, Tanzania, finds that,
1. At current rates, no high value timber will be left in Tanzania’s coastal forest in 37 years.
2. The Tanzanian government lost $53 million USD in 2005. This is due to the fact that 96% of the timber harvest was undeclared.
3. China imports 10 times more timber from Tanzania that total declared imports.
Dar es Salaam consumes the equivalent of 16 olympic pools in charcoal every day. This figure is increasing daily as rural populations migrate to urban centers. At $350 million per year, charcoal is big business, too.
This great video produced by the World Bank last year (2010) lays out the issue in a way that is well-documented and visually compelling.
This short YouTube video is based on an interview I did in June with Henry Twinemasiko, the director of the REF schools in Rubaare, Uganda, (visit our project page) who appealed to us six months ago for help in bringing energy efficiency and renewable fuels to his school district. Henry is a tremendously inspiring and committed man and together we have a plan to cut the schools woodfuel consumption (and the associated costs), and generate revenue for the schools by converting the region’s agricultural waste into fuel briquettes for the school and the community. We have also began with our Continue reading
Today we begin posting the first of a dozen paper’s presented in June at a symposium in Arusha, Tanzania, on Sustainable Charcoal. The event, co-organized by The Charcoal Project, heralded the launch of a year-long initiative that will culminate in an International Conference on Charcoal and Solid Biomass in 2012.
Today’s topic focuses on the absence of reliable data on woodfuel and charcoal use from a national and global perspective.
Hot Tip: this is sure to be a top-shelf priority at next year’s conference!