Alex Rose-Innes
In order to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the basic need for energy (including wood energy) had been identified by the United Nations (UN) as a primary goal for the African continent.
Charcoal, a wood derivative, continues to provide basic energy to millions of people, especially in poorer areas across the continent. It has many advantages when compared to burning wood, a major driver of forest degradation.
From a health point of view, the smoke it creates is also significantly less than that of burning wood. A charcoal fire generates high temperatures and lasts longer and transporting it is cheaper than wood. According to a document by the African Union Commission, its reliability in local markets makes it an important popular cooking fuel in many countries, particularly in areas without reliable access to modern energy.
A recent study in Uganda found that consumption of charcoal by refugees is significantly higher compared to that of host communities. With global economic growth, approximately 60% of the world’s population had to date secured access to clean cooking fuels and technologies. However, it is estimated that more than 2 billion people still use inefficient open fires or simple cook stoves today, of which 848 million of these live in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA.) This is 2-3 times higher per capita consumption than in any other country.
The Food Agriculture Organisation (FAO) estimates that the global production of charcoal amounted to more than 53million tons in 2018, of which over 34million tons (64%) were produced in Africa which originated from the continent’s forests and woodlands. Due to a continued increase in market demand, charcoal production in Africa had almost doubled in 20 years and accounted for roughly two-thirds of global production.
The Africa Energy Outlook 2019, a report of the International Energy Agency (IEA), wood charcoal would remain an important energy source in SSA by 2040 with increasing demand from urban areas. The increase is likely linked to population growth and to the urbanisation process, with a large number of people shifting from fuelwood to charcoal for domestic cooking and heating. Charcoal production and supply does not require a large amount of upfront investment such as those for electricity or natural gas.
A national charcoal survey in Uganda showed that about two-thirds of households in urban areas use charcoal and one-third use fuelwood for cooking. Only a small percentage of households relied on gas or electricity. Studies conducted in Ghana, Kenya, Malawi and Tanzania show similar situations and trends in charcoal production and consumption. In Malawi 54% of urban households and 11% of all national households relied on charcoal for cooking in 2015.
While charcoal production generates income to support livelihoods of many rural people, it also leads to deforestation, reduced wood supply and environmental degradation. Corrective efforts in the past focused on prohibition of charcoal production, but did not properly address these problems. It only led to further illegal production, transportation and marketing.
In many countries throughout SSA, wood for charcoal production is often sourced from natural forests or woodlands with minimal management or produced as a by-product of land clearance for agriculture. Charcoal producers, mostly rural people on a part-time basis, may need a license or permit to cut wood for charcoal production, depending on the existence of applicable regulations (as in Malawi.)
Most of such regulatory measures, including quotas, licenses, permits, taxation and in some cases certification so far had mixed results due to the complexity of this informal sector. Transition to a sustainable charcoal sector requires major changes such as land-tenure reforms, sustainable forest management plans and practices, proper organisation of charcoal producers and adequate measures to improve traceability along the value chain from source to market.
This sector with its large impact on forest degradation, plays a major role in climate change, not only due to deforestation, but also due to emissions of greenhouse gases during charcoal production. The production and use of fuelwood and charcoal contributes 2-7% with SSA accounting for one-third of these emissions, mainly due to unsustainable forest management, insufficient charcoal manufacture and wood fuel combustion.
Sustainable production and supply of charcoal play important roles in food security, including production, processing, utilisation and access to food through income generation. It is often readily available in local markets as opposed to electricity, modern liquid or gaseous fuels, particularly in the urban and/or peri-urban areas in African countries. Reliable access to affordable cooking fuels enables food being well cooked, making it more digestible and enhancing the uptake of nutrients.
Income from charcoal production and trade enables food purchasing and agriculture investment. The FAO estimated that about 195 million people in Africa (20%) of the population in the region, engaged in the production of fuelwood and charcoal. Although it had in most cases only been on a part-time basis, it generated a total income of about US$10 billion from charcoal alone in 2011.
Charcoal production could also be integrated in food production systems through agroforestry practices. Studies found that certain agroforestry systems can provide wood resources for year-round charcoal production, combined with staple agricultural crops. Woodlots and tree plantations established for sustainable charcoal production could provide forest foods, animal fodder and fuelwood simultaneously and contribute to global efforts to halt and prevent deforestation.
On the other hand, unsustainable charcoal production and fuelwood collection with a lack of clear and secure forest and tree tenure, currently constitute the main cause of forest degradation, particularly in SSA. Large-scale production of charcoal, especially in areas serving the markets of major urban areas, could have significant adverse impacts on forests and other natural resources putting sustainability at risk. An earlier study on the linkages between charcoal production and forest degradation and deforestation in Tanzania found that charcoal production was responsible for the degradation of 25% of closed woodland, deforestation of 20% of closed woodland and 51%of open woodland in the catchment area to the west and north of Dar es Salaam.
Different from fuelwood use, mostly produced and consumed locally in a more decentralised manner in rural areas, the intensive and continuous demand for charcoal from large urban areas drives long-distance transportation of charcoal, resulting in negative environmental impacts of charcoal production. It also produced negative outcomes at landscape level.
The Africa Energy Outlook showed that forest degradation and deforestation hold serious consequences for the harvesting of fuelwood, mainly driven by inefficient charcoal production for cities. Though systematic and sound data are not sufficient to clearly attribute forest degradation and/or deforestation to concentrated charcoal production to supply urban markets, many studies had established connections between that.
The concerns regarding charcoal production sustainability are focused on three key issues across the entire value chain: sourcing of wood for charcoal production (cutting trees and harvesting wood), the wood-to-charcoal conversion efficiency (carbonisation process) and the effectiveness regarding governance of the charcoal sector (policies, regulations, and enforcement).
Wood for charcoal production could be harvested by cutting trees in natural forests or managed woodlots through clear felling or selective cutting. It could also be obtained from land clearance for agriculture, silvicultural thinning or residues from forest harvesting and timber processing. In most cases, the cost share of sourcing wood in the final market prices of charcoal is very low, with or without fees paid for official permissions (licensing) from forestry authorities.
This profit-sharing structure may not provide adequate incentives to charcoal producers to pay due attention to sustainable wood sourcing from forests or woodlots, dedicated woodlot plantations for charcoal production, particularly given the current land tenure structure and the easy access to public or community forests.
For sustainable sourcing of wood in the long run, adequate regulations should be established to ensure sourcing costs better reflect the value of the wood, trees and forests. In the carbonisation process to convert wood into charcoal, the most popular kilns are earth-mount or earth-pit with relatively low efficiencies compared to modern charcoal kilns. Upgrading the conversion efficiency of charcoal kilns would save 40% of wood for the same amount of charcoal produced. The shift from traditional to highly efficient kilns could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80%. Such technical improvement, however, rarely happens on the ground, unless supported by funded projects.
