Charcoal production threatens forests

Pick almost any stretch of road in rural Malawi and at some point you come across bulging sacks of charcoal and neat stacks of firewood for sale. It is a cottage industry that provides one of the few opportunities for poor households to make a little money, but is also environmentally unsustainable, and in the long term impoverishes everyone. "Charcoal production is a very serious issue, and is one of the major causes of deforestation in Malawi," director of the government's forestry department, Kenneth Nyasulu, told IRIN. "The damage to trees is causing soil erosion, which in turn causes food insecurity because the fertile soil is lost." Only about four percent of the 12 million Malawians have access to electricity; for the rest, heating water and cooking is usually done with firewood or charcoal in a brazier. Charcoal production is estimated to be worth around US $8 million annually, and the government reckons that 50,000 hectares of indigenous forests are cut down each year. Although this allows people to earn a little money, "there is need for them to use the natural resources in a sustainable manner", said Nyasulu. Recognising the lack of moneymaking alternatives in rural areas, the Wildlife and Environmental Society of Malawi (WESM), with funding from GTZ, a German development agency, has over the past four years worked with communities to develop income-generating projects. Juice from the fruit of the monkey bread tree, bee-keeping, chicken rearing and vegetable gardens have all proved successful in the southern district of Mwanza, a major charcoal producing area. But WESM director Daulos Mauambeta stressed that the key to putting a stop to the unsustainable exploitation of forests is to raise people's standard of living. "The livelihoods of the approximately 240 million of the world's poor that live in forested areas of developing countries depend on the protection and, in many cases, the rehabilitation of these forests," a UN Food and Agriculture Organisation statement said this week. "The loss of forests also means the loss of biodiversity," noted Nyasulu. Acknowledging the growing problem of deforestation, President Bingu wa Mutharika inaugurated a national tree-planting month on Wednesday, and urged Malawians not to fell trees indiscriminately, "because doing so will lead this country into a disaster".