When charcoal is more than just heat

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Well, no. There is one project, addressing those issues and trying to make a difference. Meet the Tanzanian Forest Conservation Group (TFCG) members Rashidi, Mohammed and Amos.

Outside Ulaya Mbuyuni, a small village close to Kilosa in Morogoro District, Mohammed Titima follows the arrow on his GPS-device. He is searching for one of the four points defining the plot, where he and his colleagues are supposed to cut the trees next to produce their charcoal. The black device beeps. And Mohammed Titima signs the corner with red colour. “Ok. Next point,“ he murmurs and stumbles through the wood, the eyes fixed on the display, looking for the next point. Some fifty metres from the first point, the device beeps again. Titima found the second corner, signs it with red colour and goes ahead, to the third and finally to the fourth point. Each plot has the size of 50 x 50 metres and was defined by the project-managers in the beginning. Athuman Lugendo is one of them, responsible for the forests in 16 village-communities. “Ulaya Mbuyuni has 1,776 plots, Half of the plots are used to produce charcoal,“ he explains. Within the next 20 years, Titima would define and mark the corners of the remaining plots, as he and his community already harvested some 148 plots over the past four years, 37 plots each year. As the men are supposed to cut the trees at a height of 30 cm of their stems, it would allow the trees to recover quickly and become the same it was before. Titima is the chairman of the village’s Charcoal Producers Association. He is one of 16 chairpersons; they all together manage in 16 villages some 46,000 hectares of forests and reach a total of 22,000 people. Not with solar energy, not with agricultural production, but with charcoal.

When charcoal is more than just heat

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