Unsustainable charcoal consumption is a big problem Sub-Saharan Africa and it is increasing every year. As a result, forest cover in East and West Africa is dwindling with adverse Climate Change impacts (draught, floods, etc.). Over half of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals are adversely affected by traditional charcoal consumption.
The Charcoal Project has a plan to tackle the problem and our plan involves empowering women, planting trees, developing in new technologies, investing in promising entrepreneurs, and advocating for improved policies.
This presentation explains what we plan to do to tackle unsustainable charcoal consumption and how we plan to do it.
Thank you for supporting The Charcoal Project as we launch our second decade of work in this field!
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For ten years I’ve been adapting Gambian nitrogen fixing maize to temperate zone conditions. This maize develops colonies of nitrogen fixing bacteria on brace roots that come out of the stalk going up 6-7 joints from the ground. As a result it grows huge and sturdy stalks up to 15 feet high containing a good bit of biomass, with few inputs. It is being grown more and more around the world as a subsistence crop. However in many places the biomass in the stalks isn’t utilized but is only burned off for disposal, creating aerosol and gas pollution and returning the CO2 it absorbed to the atmosphere. If MIT people want to familiarize themselves with this crop I am doing the adaptation trials in Belchertown Ma. just south of Amherst.