16 June 2008
Maputo — The Mozambican government should strengthen its capacity to inspect the exploitation and transport of charcoal in order to reduce its contribution to deforestation.
This is one of the recommendations from a study on "The Maputo City Charcoal Marketing Chain", presented on Monday, the first day of an international conference on "Charcoal and Communities".
The study notes that much charcoal production is entirely informal, since many of the producers have no licences. Only those who transport the charcoal to the city, where they sell it, hold licences.
"Care is still not being taken to replant the tree species cut down for charcoal, although this measure is observed when trees are logged for timber", the study remarked. To make matters worse, the trees were being hacked down in an entirely disorganized fashion, which will make reforestation more difficult.
The study recommends better, less wasteful techniques for producing charcoal, as well as the use of cheaper alternative fuels, which will reduce the pressure on forests near Maputo.
Speaking at the opening of the conference, the Deputy Agriculture Minister, Catarina Pajume, said that charcoal production leads to considerable deforestation, causing environmental problems in many African countries.
"Despite the government's efforts to control the use of forest resources, along the main roads in Mozambique we witness a reduction in plant cover, and charcoal production is one of the main causes of this", she said.
This amounted to an attack on the natural resources on which many households depend, and charcoal production was thus "contributing to a worsening of poverty", Pajume added.
About 70 per cent of the energy consumed in Maputo comes from charcoal, and the situation is likely to be similar in the other major cities.
Charcoal producers are relatively well off. By producing 20 to 30 sacks of charcoal a month, a producer can earn between 100 and 150 dollars - which is much more than the statutory minimum wage (of less than 70 dollars a month). Some 150,000 families are believed to make their living from charcoal
The real money, however, is made by the transporters, who can earn 15 times more than the producers.
Pajume said that, in Mozambique as in many other African countries, the demand for charcoal has been growing as a result of migration from the countryside to the cities. Charcoal remains relatively cheap, and so is the fuel of choice for poor households that are not connected to the electricity grid, and regard bottled gas as far too expensive.
But if exploitation of the forests continued at the current pace, then charcoal would become scarce and the price would rise. "If action is not taken to ensure efficient production of traditional fuels, this may lead to reduced production such that the urban requirements can no longer be met", said Pajume.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
