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Of all the environmental problems threatening the earth, some authorities say, that deforestation is the most serious one especially in Africa, where charcoal and wood are used for cooking causing heavy deforestation.
In Nigeria e.g. approximately 10 % of all forests disappear yearly. In most of East African countries 5 % of the forests are cut annually, in Tanzania about 3 %. But these are conclusions for wood covered areas, which don’t include the Savannah. There humans and goats are reducing trees and shrubs, resulting in erosion, degradation and desertification. Referring to ALL AFRICA the DEFORRESTATION and DESERTIFICATION there is LARGER than what happens presently in the AMAZON REGION.
In addition there is a very strong growth of the population in most of the African countries. Charcoal production is mainly done by peasants in rural areas to increase their income from farming which is below the subsistence level affected by the climate change.
Dry charcoal is mostly used for cooking in towns to avoid smoke. But the production of 1 ton of charcoal requires 10 – 12 tons of wood. A savannah ecosystem produces on the average only 35 tons of wood per ha.! A city like Daressalaam uses 600 000 up to 800 000 tons of charcoal per year ( World Bank Report ), which equals to all wood of 140 000 – 150 000 ha savannah yearly. Due to intensive rainfall and climate change soil erosion is increasing rapidly and farming becomes more and more difficult or impossible and in the consequence people are forced to migrate. Most African people are used to cook on charcoal or wood, which are the cheapest fuel compared than LPG if available….
Alternately we have to look at a new technology of fuel reducing cooking stoves , the highly efficient PANDA cookers produced by ALLGREEN ENERGY NV from Kinrooi in Belgium. Those cookers require only 10 % of wood needed to cook on a three-stone fireplace. When replacing charcoal cookers, then referring to the wood required BEFOR KILN will be reduced to only 3 up to 5 % !!!
All are designed to be used indoors in kitchens because they are equipped with chimneys to lead the smoke out. and avoid affecting eyes and breathing organs of the cooking staff members.
When replacing a wood fired 160 liters barrel cooker on three stones , as being used in country side schools, by a wood fired PANDA-stove with pot-capacity of 100 liters, then the savings will be annually about 0,8 ha of light African forest, in cases of charcoal fired school kitchen like used in the towns , the effect is annually about 2,0 ha avoid from clear cut.
Also remarkable is the reduction of the CO²-emmission which is highly demanded for protection of our climate.
In the entire history of mankind never before has the whole earth been threatened by the combined movement of deforestation, soil erosion, desertification, extinction of plant and animal species, atmospheric ozon depletion , air pollution, global warming, dying oceans and an exploding human population with a huge migration in the consequence..