The majority of African households will continue depending on traditional fuels to meet their daily energy needs for many decades to come.
As living standards rise and urban areas expand, households and small-scale industries in many developing countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, are using charcoal more for cooking compared to other sources of energy such as electricity, kerosene, and gas. Undoubtedly, with elevated levels of poverty, inaccessibility by most households to other reliable and affordable commercial energy forms is not likely to change soon.
Studies indicate that in most developing countries, charcoal is mainly used in urban areas and its use is estimated to increase at six per cent a year, which incidentally is proportional to the rate of urbanisation.
This back-to-basics approach to energy production has also grown from a simple cooking method to a source of power and economic empowerment. It has contributed to the economy by providing incomes and employment for men, women, and children at the community level and saves foreign exchange that would otherwise be used to import cooking fuel. There is no doubt, therefore, that the charcoal trade will expand in the near future. It will continue to be the main and, in some cases, the only source of energy for millions of people in sub-Saharan Africa for a long time.
The current demand for charcoal use is becoming a much larger part of the wood fuels total in Africa. As in other parts of the region, charcoal demand in Kenya is high among urban households.
In sub-Saharan Africa, over 72 per cent of urban and 98 per cent of rural households use fuelwood for energy. Studies indicate the consumption of charcoal in the East and South African region is high. Kenya consumes 1.6 and 2.4 million tonnes of charcoal annually, with a per capita consumption of 156kg and 152kg for urban and rural areas, respectively.
However, despite the socioeconomic benefits of charcoal production, it has become a big threat to biodiversity because it targets specific preferred species found in natural forests and woodlands, most of which are poorly managed, leading to unsustainable harvesting. For instance, in drier areas, where the recovering capacity is lower, unplanned, and unmanaged charcoal production accelerates the processes that lead to desertification, hence affecting the ecosystem.
The absence of reforestation hastens desertification and land degradation. It is even worrying that most of the charcoal producers use inefficient carbonization processing, leading to wastage of wood and greenhouse gas emissions.
According to the European Space Agency, approximately 25-35 per cent of climate-change greenhouse gas emissions come from biomass burning, a situation that can be supported by the latest Kenya Greenhouse Gas Inventory report. These are mainly the seasonal fires intentionally set to clear land for new pastures and agriculture.
With the rising costs of fossil fuels, accelerating impacts of climate change and significant shortfalls in meeting energy access goals calls for a re-examination of the potential that charcoal holds as a modern, renewable fuel contributing to low carbon development pathway.
In a bid to curb the damage caused by unplanned charcoal production, most countries have imposed restrictions on the production and transportation of charcoal. This has not been sufficient at meeting their objectives.
We have several legislations on charcoal in Kenya including the Environmental Management and Coordination Act of 1999, the Energy Act of 2019, the Traffic Act of 2010, the Forest (Charcoal) Regulations of 2009 under the Forest Act (2005) and the Forest (Conservation and Management) Act, 2016.
Some counties, particularly those in drier regions such as Kitui, Turkana, Machakos, Taita Taveta, Kajiado, Baringo, and Isiolo have put in place some legislation to regulate charcoal production. Kitui, through a gazette notice on January 16, 2018 banned the sale and transportation of charcoal. Despite the ban, National Environmental Complaints Committee still receives complaints regarding illegal charcoal production in the county.
A holistic approach is urgently needed to address the charcoal production and utilisation in the country. The government needs to come up with sustainable measures, supportive policies, and regulations to support sustainable production and utilisation of charcoal. For example, the provision of tax incentives to private companies to commercialise charcoal production or even establishment of forests specifically for charcoal production.
By strengthening charcoal producer associations, farmers can be encouraged to establish woodlots and on-farm forestry using appropriate tree and shrub species for charcoal production. They can also upscale innovative technologies and utilisation techniques, including the improved technologies such as making fuel briquettes for charcoal waste use.
Dr. John Chumo is the committee secretary, National Environmental Complaints Committee; while Naomi Kemei is a development communications practitioner
