Kampala — MOSES Musasizi stands up and takes a deep breath. He is taking a break from the back-breaking work that keeps him occupied all day.

He is one of the thousands of people who survive on charcoal burning in the thickets of Nakasongola District in central Uganda.

Accompanied by a group of buyers, Musasizi paces up and down between rows of neatly arranged bags of charcoal. Both he and the buyers seem excited at the prospect of minting money from the charcoal, which is also known as "black gold". "In Kampala, charcoal sells like hot cake," says Musasizi. "I use part of my earnings to pay school fees and the rest to clear debts."

While charcoal feeds this semi-arid part of the country, it is also eating away at it.

"Charcoal burning is very wasteful and threatens to deplete our forest cover," says John Kuteesakwe, the energy advisory project co-ordinator for biomass under the German Technical Co-operation.

His views about the wastefulness of charcoal burning are backed by the conclusions of a report, which shows that for every 10kg of wood, only 1kg is converted into charcoal. The report entitled "Should charcoal burning and use for cooking be promoted?"

advocates the use of wood fuel to cook. The authors, G. Rossier and W. Micuta, say: "With the conditions prevailing in developing countries, it is possible to save 90% of wood if it is burnt directly in fuel-efficient stoves instead of being converted into charcoal."

Charcoal burners do not use the crown of the tree for charcoal production yet it accounts for 25% of the wood, according to Food and Agriculture Organisation reports.

Another report entitled the "National Biomass Study" and released by the environment ministry, paints a bleak future for the charcoal-producing districts of central Uganda. "In this region, charcoal is mainly produced from woodlands which cover about 700,000 hectares and are capable of supplying 3.5 million tonnes of wood per year," the report says.

But three millions tonnes of wood are needed yearly to produce 250,000 tonnes of charcoal.

Results from other assessments show that bushfires and conversion of the forest cover to agricultural land account for an extra loss of 1.3 million tonnes.

"This implies the future of charcoal production in this area is not sustainable," says the report authored by Paul Drichi, a biomass expert. Because of massive extraction of wood, Lwampanga in Nakasongola has run out of trees and trade in charcoal has dropped.

Some sources say charcoal is being ferried from as far as Nebbi in order to meet the increasing demand in Kampala.

Charcoal consumption in Kampala has increased from 200,000 metric tonnes a year to 301,507 metric tonnes from 1995 to 2004. If this trend continues, the production of charcoal will become unsustainable within the next 10 years.

Although experts advocate the use of wood rather than charcoal to cook, some people consider it backward.

"As incomes increase, people prefer to use superior energy resources. People are shifting from using firewood to charcoal," Kuteesakwe says.

In the population census of 2002, the proportion of people using firewood reduced from 88.2% in 1991 to 81.8% in 2002. During the same period, the percentage of those using charcoal rose from 10.2% to 15.2%. According to the report by Rossier, reduction in charcoal in domestic and community stoves will make a significant contribution to saving trees in developing countries. Fuel-saving stoves retain between 30% and 65% of the heat produced and also prevent air pollution.

Whereas the burnt gases produced while using charcoal give out no smoke, they contain a considerable amount of carbon monoxide which is dangerous, Rossier says in the report.

There are many obstacles to the shift away from the use of charcoal, such as ignorance of its nature, deeply-rooted habits and lack of information on fuel-saving stoves. Kuteesakwe says the rate of adoption of energy-saving technologies is still low, but he adds that charocal users will have to start thinking about other forms of energy as charcoal and wood become scarce.

He also says that his team is working with the charcoal belt districts of central Uganda to organise charcoal burners into groups. He says once the charcoal burners are organised it will be possible to demonstrate to them innovations that recover more charcoal from wood.

"It will even be possible to levy a fee that can be used for restoration of the stocks that are getting depleted," Kuteesakwe says.