[Stoves] Biochar Projects for Science Students

Richard Stanley rstanley at legacyfound.org
Tue Nov 23 13:15:20 CST 2010


Crispin,

Funny but maybe we missed that. We were there all through the Amin war episode several years on eother side in fact and it did not seem to  change so much at all in Arusha, other than the fact that lots of local cars and busses were commandeered for transport ...
But those were the heady days of Ujamaa and lots of other problems were being dealt with at the same time.. If you had seee Lilongwee surrounds say in the 60's then again in the 90's thats the kind of change we are speaking of here, only the denudation pattern lags about ten to 15 years behind here in Tanzania.

The "Amin" war may have triggered a spurt in demand but I do not recall charcoal having ever been a real issue in Tz until the past ten years when supply begin to edge behind population growth. Its one main reason I never pushed to enter Tanznia with the fuel briquette project even though we remain somewhat embedded there: The briquette could not compete with the relatively low cost of charcoal for the small producers we were going to train...That was in the early 90's It was then technically viable in Malai already, Kenya and Uganda followed next and no since 2007 Tanzania is expanding through its own small producer network...  It never old have looked twice the briquette alternative  ten years ago...

All the while donors have been going off on the woodlot planting paths with all the best intentions. The technical ideas are all known. Many different plans and schemes have been implemented but few have ever stuck.. It is another blip on the donor radar...

Its not the kind of solution but the way in which it is embedded: Who does that and how and what is the 'incentive chain' for all concerned. While we can facilitate teh growth of a self sustaining small producer network, it has to be engineered in such a way as to ensure local ownership and incentive from the outset.. And after all that is market tested,  an umbrella campaign is essesntial to create national awareness Thats where the donor and government can really kick in to assist..  
 
 For anybody who is really into this isue, I oudl say that the demise is all very real and if you are into geometric progressions, very immanent. 

Richard
www.legacyfound.org
Dar es Salaam, Tz.


On Nov 23, 2010, at 8:46 PM, Crispin Pemberton-Pigott wrote:

> Dear Richard and All
> 
> The charcoal business around Dar really got a boost when Uganda attacked
> Tanzania in the last days of Idi Amin. There was a limited capacity to
> produce paraffin and diesel. Production of paraffin was basically shut down
> to provide fuel for the diesel needed by the military. The result was a
> nation-wide paraffin shortage.
> 
> Dar Es Salaam was soon having trouble cooking. People went back to charcoal
> en masse and the footprint of deforestation expanded suddenly and rapidly.
> Wood was also used more as the charcoal price went up. Crematoria in Dar
> which use large piles of wood had to hire armed guards to protect their
> supplies in order to remain open. It was an 'interesting time'.
> 
> What needs to happen in East Africa is afforestation and reforestation
> projects of the type seen in Swaziland and Niger, Rwanda and South Africa.
> I think Ethiopia is in the same boat. I met people in Addis Ababa who
> remember thick forests around the city when they were young. No more.
> Malawi is denuded - the view from the air going into Lilongwe is shocking.
> 
> The supply of biomass to the charcoal stoves is a sustainable possibility
> but it is not being addressed appropriately. There is for example, save in
> Swaziland, no 'security of supply' clause in the national energy policy
> document that deals specifically with access to biofuels for the poor who
> need them. Security of supply always refers to oil products, as if more than
> 70% of the population did not use wood. If someone knows about a national
> energy policy that includes biomass for the poor I would like to hear about
> it to add to the collection of successes.
> 
> I see several places for mass intervention: replanting and sustainable
> forest management, improved charcoal production methods (+80%), the capture
> of production waste for briquetting (+50%), the capture of transport and
> vending waste for briquetting (+25%) and the use of improved stoves, pots
> and cooking techniques (+50%). The combination would more than triple the
> amount of food cooked per ton of trees.
> 
> Transported wood is relatively expensive even in pellet form so the energy
> concentrated fuels will continue to be more widely traded. We should learn
> to cope with this reality. And as you say, Richard, local is where it will
> be solved.
> 
> Regards
> Crispin in Singapore
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> 
> Of course you have disparate efforts here and there but they are no where
> near even a blip on the radar screen.  Numbers of trees aside,  it's not
> about just planting at this late stage, I'm afraid. The plan for planting
> and management of same-- all has to be indigenously driven on a self
> sustaining  and readily replicated basis. That and not the tree, or even the
> act of planting per se,  is the vernacular I'm talking about.
> Richard
> 
> 
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