This publication presents the key findings from a preliminary assessment of the policies of African countries relevant to charcoal value chains. The main objective of this study is to assess the extent to which national energy and environmental policies and strategies in Africa have the potential to provide enabling conditions …
Tanzania on Tuesday announced a new program aimed at transforming some of its key forests into being highly protected to save the east African nation from turning into desert. The move is aimed at strengthening conservation of forests that are are overwhelmed with wantonly tree felling for timber and fuel …
Rwanda targets to decrease the use of charcoal and fire wood by 2018, in an effort to help protect the country's forest cover and avert disastrous effects of climate change, Rwanda Environment Management Authority (REMA) has said. Coletha Ruhamya, director general, REMA told reporters on Wednesday that local technology initiatives …
Free distribution of a technology can be an effective development policy instrument if its adoption is socially inefficient and hampered by affordability constraints. Improved cookstoves may be such a case: they generate high environmental and public health returns, but adoption is generally low. Based on a randomized controlled trial in …
Greening the wood energy sector holds a vast potential for reducing global greenhouse gas emissions and improving rural livelihoods, FAO said on the occasion of the UN's International Day of Forests. Up to seven percent of global greenhouse gas emissions caused by humans come from the production and use of …
The approach of the study contains the brief literature review on the industrial consumption and production of charcoal in India. Based on this and the pre-set objectives, the study problems were formulated. The report further identifies the 32 international criteria and blends it with the existing questionnaires available in the …
To conduct the analysis, the UFZ researchers used standardised data from the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR- PEN project), based on surveys of village communities in 233 representatively selected villages in tropical regions of Africa, Asia and South America between 2005 and 2010. The interviewees were inhabitants from mostly …
Kenya has committed to restore 5.1 million hectares of degraded forest lands in a response to the Bonn challenge under the 2015 Paris agreement, a senior official said Friday. Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources Cabinet Secretary Judi Wakhungu told a forest forum in Nairobi that Kenya Forest Service (KFS) …
In order to minimize the enormous amount of air pollution generated by unregulated West Bank charcoal kilns, Israeli and Palestinian authorities are establishing a modern production factory in the northern West Bank. Construction of the plant, which is expected to be complete in two weeks, will lead to a more …
This working paper presents findings and insights from a study of stove users in Kenya, providing insights on successful marketing strategies, in particular how behaviour change techniques and good after-sales relationships can help stove implementers to exploit social multiplier effects. Improved cookstoves promise benefits for human health, deforestation, climate change …
As crop straw and firewood are generated as by-products of food production systems, they are perceived to be sustainable energy sources that do not threaten food security by Chinese government for a long time. However, the time spent on collecting straw and firewood may create a burden on rural household, …
This protocol was developed and subsequently tested in 2012–2015 by Nordic test and research institutes, with Danish Technological Institute as project manager. This protocol describes a potential standardized procedure for measurements of BC (Black Carbon) in terms of both EC (Elemental Carbon) and OC (Organic Carbon) from residential wood burning …
Zanzibar — Despite on-going awareness campaign to protect Zanzibar from environmental degradation, fuelled by fast growing development programmes, the islands are still grappling with deforestation at an alarming rate, according to environmentalists. Deforestation is one of the detrimental factors of environmental degradation, as trees are giving way to farming, fuel …
Climate change, sustainably managed renewable raw materials and energy from biomass are some of the major challenges facing mankind in the 21st century. Globally, wood is the most important locally available renewable energy source for the human population. In Africa, fuelwood and charcoal production is the dominant use of woody …
Replacing traditional cooking fires and stoves in the developing world with "cleaner" stoves is a potential strategy to reduce household air pollution that worsens climate change and is a leading global killer. A new study by researchers from the University of British Columbia, University of Washington and elsewhere -- which …
A FAO-UNHCR handbook offers a new tool for helping displaced people access fuel for cooking food while reducing environmental damage and conflicts with local communities. At the end of 2015, over 65 million people worldwide were displaced as a result of persecution, conflict, generalised violence or human rights violations, many …
When Julien Andrianiana started selling charcoal 14 years ago, he was just one of a few dealers around. Most households in Toliara, a coastal city in southwestern Madagascar, still used firewood for cooking. As the city’s population doubled, business became so brisk that he managed to send two of his …
Researchers used the city of Sao Paolo in Brazil as a case study. Pizza shops and steakhouses using charcoal or wood burners can produce significant emissions and damage the environment in major cities, according to a new study in Brazil led by an Indian-origin scientist. Researchers used the city of …
Integrates climate change concerns and promotes private investment and role in forestry The government has made public its draft National Forest Policy, to replace the one crafted in 1988. Incorporating consequences of climate change but entirely ignoring one of the three forest related laws, the Forest Rights Act, the policy …
This paper presents findings from studies in Cambodia and Kenya commissioned by SNV Netherlands Development Organisation to understand the impact of health messaging on the purchase of clean cookstoves. The Cambodia study took an action research approach to test the effects of positive and negative health messaging, as well as …
Women in India who cook using fuels such as wood, crop residues and dried dung instead of cleaner fuels are more likely to have visually impairing nuclear cataracts¹, according to a new study published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives. The study, the largest of its kind, was conducted by …
