GVI Kenya

So everyone knows about the problems related to unregulated, inefficient and illegal charcoal burning.  It’s very easy for one to sit back and point the finger at the people conducting these activities, labeling them criminals.  The real issue however, is slightly more complex than that.

We have been conducting research in Shimoni forest for over three years, and have been working with the community group Friends of Shimoni Forest for two and a half years.  Through all of this we have had a lot of experience with the issue of charcoal burning, and have countless meetings (both organized and impromptu) with the charcoal burners themselves.  What we’ve found in the majority of cases, is that these people do not want to be charcoal burning any more than we do.  The difference being, we have the luxury of choice.

The result of a charcoal pit 

The vast majority of people in this area are living below the poverty line, and are desperately poor.  They have families to feed and school fees to pay for, and they don’t have any choice.  They know charcoal burning is illegal, and they know it does huge damage to the forest.  Most of them would muc rather be doing something else, but if it comes down to feeding their families – it’s not even a choice.  We have been asked by so may of them to find them alternatives, to offer them a choice.  And if a choice was offered, they would happily give it up.

An earth-mound kiln ready to light 

So that’s our mission.  The solution to the problem is clear: find an alternative to charcoal burning.  One thing we need to remember is that everyone in the entire area (and most of the country) use charcoal to cook.  So not only do we need to find an alternative income for the burners themselves, but we need to find a charcoal replacement otherwise we will have only solved half of the problem.
The obvious way around this is combine the alternative livelihoods with the production of alternative, forest friendly charcoal!

To the internet!  I will be back in the next day or two with what I’ve found…