By: Francis Npong
West African woodlands are shrinking at an alarming rate due to population pressure. Forest resources, such as wood fuel, provide a source of energy and subsistence for a larger percentage of this population.
Tree felling for commercial charcoal production, animal grazing, and bush burning, combined with farming, urban growth, and construction, are all contributing to forest depletion, resulting in biodiversity and livelihood losses.
These activities exacerbate forest degradation and contribute to rising temperatures, particularly in areas where unregulated logging is taking place. As a result of these, several portions of the forest have been reduced to semi-desert and wasteland, amplifying the impact of climate change on lives and livelihoods, especially among the forest-dependent population.
Innovative solutions that give alternate livelihoods, income and energy are required to enable the forest to regrow.
A number of interventions have been suggested. One such example is the development and commercialization of wood waste briquettes with significantly higher energy content.
Not only does this effort have the ability to rescue the forest, but it also has the capacity to provide alternative living and income to a bigger population.
Eric Nartey, a circular economist, has been working on converting wood waste into significantly greater energy briquettes, which is a praiseworthy undertaking that has the potential to avert additional forest degradation.
Nartey’s research on wood waste briquette, which he conducted as part of IWMI‘s CapVal initiative, has proven to be economically and livelihood feasible.
Briquettes made from wood waste for domestic and industrial heating will generate jobs, revenue, and energy while also allowing for proper forest resource management.
The commercialization of this research has the potential to reduce the depletion of forest resources.
Can wood waste briquette technology become forest resources governance game changer?
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