About half of the people living on the planet use wood or charcoal for their daily cooking and heating needs.
In Latin America, Asia, and especially in Africa, scientists are growing more and more concerned about the impact that unsustainable charcoal production and consumption is having on the environment, climate change, public health, and poverty alleviation.
This is why, on June 15th The Charcoal Project co-organized a symposium and workshop in Arusha, Tanzania, on the topic of Sustainable Charcoal.
The event was part of week-long gathering of the world’s top tropical biologists, ecologists, and other conservationist.
Although the symposium was titled: The Role of Charcoal in Climate Change and Poverty Alleviation Initiatives, the participating scientists touched on an array of issues.
We begin this two-week series with Charcoal Production & Use: World Country Statistics & Global Trends, a presentation by symposium co-organizer, Adrian Ghilardi from Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, and Florian Steierer, Head of Wood Energy at FAO. Their paper draws attention to the lack of reliable woodfuel and charcoal data from a country and global perspective.
Editors Note: All the papers presented at the symposium, beginning with this one, will be published in 2012 in a special edition of Energy for Sustainable Development. The Symposium & Workshop would not have been possible without the generous support of SDC (Swiss Agency for Development & Cooperation), Center for International Forestry Research (Cifor), and FAO (Food & Agriculture Organization).
Next: Environmental Impacts of Charcoal Production in Tropical Ecosystems of the World, by Emmanuel Chidumayo, PhD.
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