Green charcoal: Innovation that can save forest cover
Youth from Yele Ber, a briquette-making group, count money from the sales of green charcoal in Amuru District. PHOTO | BEATRICE NAKIBUUKA
What you need to know:
- Globally, deforestation and climate change threaten both livelihoods and the environment. Traditional charcoal production has long been a major driver of forest loss, especially in Africa, worsening carbon emissions.
More than three billion people globally depend on solid fuels, often using inefficient technologies that pose health risks to users. In Africa, firewood and charcoal provide energy for over half of the population.
As Uganda battles deforestation and climate change, the twin threats of environmental degradation and energy insecurity, green charcoal is proving to be a game-changer.
In the last couple of decades, northern Uganda has become a growing hub for commercial charcoal burning and logging, supplying Kampala and neighbouring nations such as Kenya, as well as those as far as the Middle East. This has contributed to Uganda having one of the highest deforestation rates in the world.
From 1990 to 2018, forest cover declined from 24 percent to just nine percent. One of the major hotspots for charcoal production is the Mount Kei Central Forest Reserve, located along the “shea belt.” The former white rhino sanctuary is endowed with endangered tree species, such as shea and Afzelia Africana trees, which are particularly prized by charcoal burners for their high wood density.
Uganda’s deforestation crisis
Research by Gulu University indicates that Amuru and Adjumani districts alone lost about 20 percent of their tree cover between 2014 and 2024 due to charcoal production and refugee settlement expansion.
Data from Global Forest Watch reveals that between 2002 and 2023, Uganda lost 77,100 hectares of humid primary forest, accounting for 7.2 percent of its total tree cover loss. The total area of humid primary forest in Uganda has decreased by 15 percent in this period.
A 2023 report by the Ecosystem-Based Adaptation for Food Security Assembly (EBAFOSA) warns that Uganda could lose all its forests within 40 years if deforestation continues at the current rate.
Crafting a solution
In May 2023, the President issued Executive Order No.3, banning large-scale commercial charcoal production and trade in northern Uganda in an attempt to protect depleting forests.
The order, according to Mr Osborn Geoffrey Oceng, the RDC Amuru District, was welcomed by local leaders in the region who had long condemned indiscriminate tree cutting in response to urban demand for charcoal. However, the ban also meant loss of income and livelihood among those that depended on the business. The prices for charcoal went up, impacting energy access, especially for the urban poor.
Fortunately, two years into the ban, leaders are hoping to find answers to their concerns in an alternative that was least anticipated – charcoal from agricultural waste. On February 27, Gulu University launched a demonstration facility in Pabbo Town, Amuru District, for the production of briquettes from agricultural waste such as rice and groundnut husks.
The facility, which can produce more than 1,000 kilogrammes of carbonated briquettes in a day, and is managed by a local youth group known as Yele Ber, is part of a broader research project looking into the production, marketing and adoption of briquettes produced from agricultural waste, dubbed green charcoal, as an alternative to charcoal from trees and firewood.
The project, Unlocking the Potential of Green Charcoal to Mitigate Climate Change in Northern Uganda (UPCHAIN), involves the designing and fabrication of machines at Gulu University, installing them in the communities for demonstration and application, and studying socio-cultural perceptions about as well as potential environmental benefits from green charcoal.
The four-year Shs6 billion project, launched in May 2022 and funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, is hoped to contribute to climate change mitigation by reducing pressure on trees through the use of agricultural waste as a source of energy for cooking.
It is also hoped to provide employment, especially to those who previously relied on charcoal production for income and livelihood. The project is implemented by Gulu University in collaboration with two Danish universities - Aalborg University and the University of Copenhagen. It is being implemented in Gulu City and the districts of Adjumani and Amuru.
“This project gives hope to children who were affected by the war. The majority of the people here [working at the facility] were born in the internally displaced people’s (IDP) camps. I am happy we [Amuru] are part of this project,” said Michael Lakony, the Amuru District chairman, during the launch of the Pabbo briquette facility.
How briquettes are made
Peter Mwa Okot, a lecturer of Bio systems engineering, said production involves four stages, starting with getting the material, subjecting it to carbonisation in a drum through combustion, reducing the material to small sizes by milling and binding using cassava starch, and the final stage is compression.
Since December last year, more than eight tonnes of briquettes have been produced and sold locally, as well as in Juba, South Sudan and Arua City.
One kilogramme of briquettes is sufficient to cook a meal for one and a half hours, whereas traditional charcoal would require three times that amount. The green charcoal is predicted to stop deforestation, reduce smoke-induced health issues, create employment for the youth and clean the environment.
