Using wood to make charcoal is a resource incentive endeavor that devastates the environment by releasing greenhouse gases and eradicating forests. It takes 10 tons of raw wood to produce only one ton of wood charcoal, and when the charcoal is burned, the greenhouse gases released into the environment just from Africa will total 6.7 billion tons by 2050. It is the main source of fuel for cooking food for 70 percent of the population in sub-Saharan Africa and using the forest in this manner is resulting in the deforestation of areas equivalent to the size of Switzerland every year.
Bamboo is a biomass grass which grows naturally across Africa, making up more than 2.75 million hectares or four percent of the forests in the continent. It regrows very fast after it has been harvested, because it is a grass it can grow up to three feet in one day in ideal conditions and once it is has matured it can be harvested every year for the life of the tree. Trees, on the other hand, are gone once they have been cut down, taking decades to grow and centuries to replace the forests that continue to be wiped out every day.
In order to slow and eventually stop what is taking place, the European Union, China and the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan (INBAR) are combining their efforts to substitute bamboo for forest wood so it can be used for charcoal and firewood. With offices in Ethiopia and Ghana, INBAR has been pushing both countries to start using bamboo. Ghana has been slow to adopt this initiative because the country still has large forests, but Ethiopia has moved forward because their forests are practically all gone.
The effect of cutting forest wood not only has detrimental local consequences, but it affects the global environment and economy. Changing weather conditions in one region affects different parts of the world, which in turn affects agricultural output, resulting in higher food prices. Moreover, most of the cooking using firewood and charcoal is done indoors, which results in the death of around two million people a year. Unlike charcoal, bamboo burns more cleanly and efficiently.
Nanking Forestry University and Wenzhao Bamboo Charcoal Co. are lending their efforts by providing their expertise in producing charcoal and briquette production using local resource and materials.
Using firewood and charcoal has had a devastating effect in Ethiopia. The country was covered by trees in 35 percent of its land less than a century ago, but by 2000 that number stood at only three percent. Even with massive tree planting campaigns it will be some time before the forests are back. The solution lies in finding alternative source of fuel for the people in Africa, because if the forests keep disappearing the effect will continue to be global.
Edited by Ryan Sartor