Can Africa make charcoal more sustainable?

Rome - Much of Africa is highly dependent on charcoal as a cooking fuel, yet most countries do not have policies in place that would help make the sector more sustainable, according to a new FAO report. The report, entitled Are policies in Africa conducive to sustainability interventions in the charcoal sector?, assesses forestry, environmental and energy policies relevant to the charcoal sector in 31 African countries.

It explains that in sub-Saharan Africa, charcoal and fuelwood can account for up to 90 percent of the primary energy consumption of some countries, and its production is predicted to increase in the foreseeable future.

“In many African countries, charcoal consumption is high, with complex socioeconomic and environmental implications, including for deforestation and forest degradation, and for livelihoods and access to energy,” said FAO Senior Forestry Officer, Sven Walter.

“Greening the value chain is essential to ensure that natural resources are safeguarded while still supplying charcoal to the millions of households who rely on it for cooking and heating. This includes ensuring that the wood used to produce charcoal comes from sustainably managed forests, and promoting effective use of wood residues, efficient charcoal production technologies, and clean cooking solutions.”

The report offers a detailed analysis of how charcoal is represented in the policies of 31 countries and what types of interventions are proposed to improve sustainability of charcoal production and consumption. It also examines which actors are acknowledged as legitimate stakeholders in the sector. The countries, all members of the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100), were scored for their overall conduciveness to sustainability based on 42 criteria.

The report finds that in more than half of the 31 countries assessed do not have policy frameworks that would encourage sustainable interventions in the sector. In other countries, existing policies and regulations tend to be inconsistent and risk creating a confusing and unconducive environment to increase the sustainability of the sector.

The study found that five countries – Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda and Uganda – provide favourable policy frameworks for interventions that would improve sustainability. Such interventions include community forest management for charcoal production and efficient charcoal cookstoves. Malawi has a national strategy specifically targeting charcoal.

The report highlights that country policies often focus on negative narratives about charcoal, charcoal producers and consumers, portraying charcoal as a backward form of energy, producers as drivers of deforestation and consumers as reluctant to transition to alternatives. At the same time, the contribution of charcoal to livelihoods and national economies is often overlooked.

Furthermore, most countries do not link the objectives and aspirations of their charcoal sectors to the achievement of multilateral agreements and goals such as the Sustainable Development Goals.

The energy policies of most countries aim to wean households off charcoal and onto other sources of fuel such as biogas and ethanol, rather than focusing on supporting the charcoal sector to become more sustainable. Those policies that do propose sustainability interventions tend to focus on addressing economic and environmental dimensions of sustainability, with little consideration for the human dimensions such as health, working conditions and quality of life of producers, traders and retailers. 

The study recommends that the countries work to create a policy environment that facilitates, rather than impedes, sustainable practices. It calls on countries to support sustainability improvements in charcoal production and enhance coordination along value chains.

It also calls on countries to develop strategies to regulate cross-border trade of charcoal, which is expected to increase in some countries with declining forest resources.  

Countries should involve all stakeholders in these processes and strategies must be supported with regulations and guidelines, and action plans with finance mechanisms that make them feasible, the report underlines.