[Stoves] Biochar Projects for Science Students

[Crispin Pemberton-Pigott]

Dear Richard

Is anyone planting anything?  The ultimate vernacular intervention is a tree. 

Thanks for the prose. 
Crispin
-----Original Message-----
From: Richard Stanley <rstanley at legacyfound.org>
Sender: stoves-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org
Date: Mon, 22 Nov 2010 08:18:57 
To: Discussion of biomass cooking stoves<stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org>
Reply-To: Discussion of biomass cooking stoves
	<stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org>
Subject: Re: [Stoves] Biochar Projects for Science Students

Just drove down from sunny Arusha to overly sunny (and humid) Dar es Salaam Tanzania along what used to be  beautiful corridor of highland savannah to tropical savannah in the 70's.  Now with 4X the population nationally and a 10X population growth in the major cities , the destruction from charcoal making is everywhere evident in the charred soil mounds left from charcoal making  are seen every 50 meters apart charred stumps: Not pretty...

Same was noticed a in the mid 90's in Lilongwe Malawi driving out towards Dedza or for that matter Salima...drive along their orads now and it is a lot worse...erosion begins soil cover regresses etc ...And given most else equal- by way of population growth patterns, lifestyle /cooking fuelwood demand, climate topography and soil substrate similarities etc,  you cannot help but  see the prognosis for Tanzania. 

Not pretty at all.

Whatever we are all doing gets into the local vernacular in ways which see the idea sustained and expanded with population growth---pretty darn quick , or we find the Bill Gates or George Soros of the world focussing on this problem for the next decade---One thing is very clear 
neither the government nor the donor in the current configuration has the (whats a nice diplomatic term here) "wherewithall" to resolve the issue. Innovations will have to be  delivered right into the local vernacular directly...

R Stanley
Dar.


On Nov 22, 2010, at 7:28 AM, Crispin Pemberton-Pigott wrote:

> Dear Kevin
> 
> It seems to me there is something excessive about 25% char in the soil. 
> 
> Forest fires char entire root systems so it certainly is natural. 
> 
> It surprises me that permaculture people would not be in favour of something that is natural and which would benefit certain plant guilds. 
> 
> I still find the 'limits shrinkage' in soils argument convincing. Root hairs are fragile. 
> 
> Greetings from sunny South Africa
> Crispin
> 
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