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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-CA link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>Dear Teddy<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>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.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>‘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…<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>The fact is there are areas, large ones, where deforestation is not a problem but when planning projects in them, one is <i>forced</i> 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-CO<sub>2</sub> interests (and robber barons of course).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>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.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>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. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>Regards<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>Crispin<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal>Dear Samer, <o:p></o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal><br>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!) <o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>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" <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/agroforestry/miyuki-iiyamaicrafcharcoal-review2013">http://www.slideshare.net/agroforestry/miyuki-iiyamaicrafcharcoal-review2013</a> <o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>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.<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><br>All the best, <o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><br>Teddy <o:p></o:p></p></div></div></div></body></html>