Date
26 May 2020
This blog was first published on Forests News
Widely considered a nuisance, the shrub is now a sustainable bioenergy option
This initiative will be discussed in the session Sustainable wood-fuel value chains for food security in Sub-Saharan Africa at the upcoming Global Landscapes Forum.
Kenya’s population is rapidly growing and urbanizing, which is driving a soaring demand for charcoal in the country’s main cities. Studies show that charcoal production increased between 1.6 to 2.5 tons a year between 2004 to 2012, while revenues grew from $0.3 to $1.6 billion in the same period.
Most wood used for charcoal production is sourced from trees on farms. It is estimated that around 40 percent of wood fuel, which includes both charcoal and firewood, is unsustainably harvested, causing negative impacts on Kenya’s biodiverse forests.
This situation is aggravated by poor governance that is more prohibiting than enabling.
But a solution is cooking in Baringo County, one of the Kenya’s charcoal production hotspots, located about 200 km northwest of Nairobi.
Mathenge (Prosopis juliflora), a shrub that has long caused nightmares for local communities, is providing an alternative source of wood to produce sustainable charcoal while supporting the livelihoods of rural households in drylands, which happen to be hurt more by the vagaries of climate change.