[Stoves] Forestry and fuel

[Crispin Pemberton-Pigott]

Dear Teddy

 

Samer has been investigating the realities behind certain memes about stoves
and the fact is that certain narrow aspects of a total situation echo better
in an empty chamber so the context, or a lot of it, is removed to highlight
what people want heard most.  Unfortunately these things have a habit of
getting away on their own as 'memes' and evolve in their own way, whether
wanted or unwanted.

 

'Deforestation' is a popular catchall - how can anyone be in favour of
deforestation!?! So it is a hook on which other arguments can be hung.
"Get'm to agree about deforestation then slip in our plea for funds."  You
know.

 

The fact is there are areas, large ones, where deforestation is not a
problem but when planning projects in them, one is forced to mention it
because 'it is the thing to do'. There are other areas which are seriously
damaged. One of the principal causes of deforestation in the East is the
drive for production of 'biofuels' from bio-oils.  The Singapore smog in
2013 was directly caused by this (subsidised) biofuel industry's rapacious
destruction of virgin jungle in Indonesia, an industry funded and supported
by European and Chinese anti-CO2 interests (and robber barons of course).

 

Some point to commercial logging (for any product) as the cause. Well,
charcoal is a commercial product - a processed biomass that is produced
commercially. Once business gets involved they can scale up the cutting.
Areas affected by charcoal for domestic use are around Maputo, Lubumbashi
and Lusaka which have road networks that make trips of 600 km viable. Dakar
is another. The thing that surprises me most is the effort made to demonise
charcoal biofuel instead of spending that energy on increasing the available
resource as Rwanda has done, making charcoal 'just another crop' that people
grow and sell.  Charcoal does not have to be smoky or destructive or evil.
And it is not necessary to make it in a stove though it can be. It can be
made efficiently on a commercial basis. There is no reason to waste energy
of any kind. However energy conservation takes place in a realistic context.

 

Individuals and groups persist in tweaking their arguments to favour their
particular version of reality or technology or stove. I don't mind that they
do it, but I don't hand over the Deed to the Ranch just because they say so.


 

Regards

Crispin

 

 

Dear Samer, 


Thanks for sharing, but if indeed this is fully the case, I wonder why the
reduction of deforestation features so heavily on most cookstove marketing
pitches. (even mine sometimes!)    

 

Further interesting reading that somewhat supports this is a very good
presentation done by ICRAF recently, that is aptly titled, "What Happened to
the Charcoal Crisis"
http://www.slideshare.net/agroforestry/miyuki-iiyamaicrafcharcoal-review2013


 

It is a very good systematic review of many other woodfuel papers in East
Africa. It seems to be that on farm woodfuel is becoming more and more of
income generating wood energy source.


All the best, 


Teddy 

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