Local | PANORAMA

East and South Africa

Community Eco-Credit pilot - incentive for local marine management and opportunity for livelihoods improvement

Tanguy

Nicolas

Community-level ecosystem management institution (active and regularly engaging with the community the community they represent)

Eco-credit/MKUBA groups (formed and trained to issue loans to their member and track their repayment)

Monitoring system for repayments and environmental compliance (established and operational)

East and South Africa

Community Eco-Credit pilot - incentive for local marine management and opportunity for livelihoods improvement

Tanguy

Nicolas

Community-level ecosystem management institution (active and regularly engaging with the community the community they represent)

Eco-credit/MKUBA groups (formed and trained to issue loans to their member and track their repayment)

Monitoring system for repayments and environmental compliance (established and operational)

Key supporting resources for the production of charcoal briquettes towards conserving nature

Retailing Charcoal Briquettes

Use

Farmers. Farmers are the key players in this process for the production of agricultural residues that are used as our raw materials.

Organized transport systems: Raw material sources are always scattered, and they need to be collected and transported to the production facility. This requires consolidating them for easy transportation. There is need for reliable means of transport that have to be used efficiently and effectively

Retail outlets and distribution centers. When briquettes are produced, communities’ members need to be accessing them without any hustles. This requires the recruitment of retailers to stock these products.

Pricing mechanisms. Switching the communities to the new alternative sources of cooking energy requires offering them with reduced price that will attract them. To achieve this, entrepreneurs need to consider minimizing their production costs by analyzing the production process.

Labour intensive. The process of collecting raw materials from farmers is labour intesnsive. Loading and offloading from the trucks also requires labour. Soring of raw materaisl is another area also. Packaging of the product is also labour intensive.

Good rainfall for agricultural residues. Climate changes caused by factors such as deforestation have affected rainfall patterns hence reduced harvests.

Formation of partnerships helps in establishing permanent and reliable sources of raw materials.

Availability of retail outlets that are within the reach of the community members.

Availability of manpower to join the processing of charcoal briquettes which is always regarded as dirty job

To ensure retail outlet coverage, it was learnt that the established sellers of firewood are the best ones to be recruited. They have experience selling firewood and can easily influence their customers to start using charcoal briquettes to save the environment. However, one of the challenges faced is that some retailers see the introduction of charcoal briquettes as a threat to their established business.

Another challenge is that transporters tend to raise their prices once they discover that the waste they are hired to transport are turned into cash. This is where the need for organized transport system matters.

It has been noted that the majority of labour available is from women This provides an opportunity to empower men to do the jobs that would always have been done by men

Implementation

Local

The process of conserving biodiversity through production of Makala charcoal briquettes

Understanding the reasons for forest encroachment: The driving force is the need for firewood. This is caused by the need for cheap sources of cooking energy and the need for employment. To solve these two issues, people resort to cutting down trees for firewood affecting the natural habitat for plants and animals.

Site selection: Consideration is made for site selection that is close to the source of raw materials and the targeted population and building of structures.

Raw Material sourcing. The first step is to consider establishing the potential availability of agricultural waste that can be used in the process of producing the briquettes.

Processing and production This involves sorting and grinding. Then the sorted materials are pressed into briquettes which are then sent for drying and testing to establish durability of the briquettes.

Community involvement: Durability of the briquettes to the community is done through participatory cooking demonstration. Community leaders are invited to explain the benefits.

Biodiversity conservation: When communities become aware of the availability briquettes meeting their cooking and employment needs trees are no longer cut down hence preserving the natural habitats for animals and plants species.

Community awareness is the most important success factor. Other factors include continued availability of the briquettes since any delay to distribute them will lead the community to go back to their old system.

Governments and donor agencies have to come in and support such type of initiatives.

Alternative sources of raw materials. Agricultural residues are seasonal, and this requires collecting huge quantities when they are available or finding substitutes for continued production.

Passion is the driving force. Most of the communities have been rooted in their traditional cultures that forests are the only sources of firewood and income generation. It is hard to convince these people to change. Without passion and commitment, the projects can fail because acceptability takes long.

There is need to offer incentives to the communities such as encouraging them to practice agroforestry business that can be used to conserve rare species of animals and plants that can be used to attract tourists.

One of the challenges is failure to establish partnerships with raw materials suppliers because it becomes hard when the sources are scattered and unorganized.

Implementation

Local

East and South Africa

Transforming low income earning Malawian households from use of forest wood charcoal to use of charcoal briquettes in order to preserve the natural animal habitats and ecosystem

IBRAHIM

MITOLE

The process of conserving biodiversity through production of Makala charcoal briquettes

Key supporting resources for the production of charcoal briquettes towards conserving nature

East and South Africa

Transforming low income earning Malawian households from use of forest wood charcoal to use of charcoal briquettes in order to preserve the natural animal habitats and ecosystem

IBRAHIM

MITOLE

The process of conserving biodiversity through production of Makala charcoal briquettes

Key supporting resources for the production of charcoal briquettes towards conserving nature

West and Central Africa

North Africa

East and South Africa

Caribbean

Central America

South America

Southeast Asia

South Asia

East Asia

East Europe

Waste Flow Diagram

Mira

Nagy

West and Central Africa

North Africa

East and South Africa

Caribbean

Central America

South America

Southeast Asia

South Asia

East Asia

East Europe

Waste Flow Diagram

Mira

Nagy

Financing Tree Nurseries

Installation of solar panels in one of HAF's tree nurseries in Guercif, Morocco.

High Atlas Foundation

HAF tree planting event at a nursery in a local primary school.

High Atlas Foundation

HAF nursery caretaker in Morocco.

High Atlas Foundation

The trees that HAF with community partners grow from seeds in nurseries in Morocco are generators of direct revenue from the a) sale of the trees at a subsidized rate to farmers, cooperatives, associations, and education centers, and b) voluntary and credited carbon offsets that are secured with HAF’s monitoring system of the trees that are transplanted from the nurseries, integrating and maximizing the benefits from remote sensing and ground-truthing with community engagement. The sale of carbon credits, in particular, ensures maximum impact - revenue generated by the trees planted is reinvested directly into the communities that grow the trees.

In 2006, HAF established its first community nursery. Since then, HAF has been lent land without cost by the public agencies. HAF first developed regional agreements for land with the Department of Water and Forests, the Ministries of Education and Youth & Sports, universities, the Moroccan Jewish Community, and cooperatives. They are now extending more land to HAF for nurseries. This is key in allowing HAF to provide trees to farmers at subsidized costs so that they may benefit more fully from the future income of the trees they plant.

By gathering data on social benefits related to trees planted, carbon credits can be sold based on not only the environmental benefits but social impact as well. In addition, trainings in local communities are vital for giving members the tools, resources, and confidence to pursue their goals - which often tend to relate to income generation. However, beyond knowledge and skills-building training, cooperative members need guidance on how to utilize not only already-existing resources but also how to collaborate for shared benefit. Participatory planning meetings allow participants to identify common needs and share experiences. By encouraging members of different cooperatives and commuities within one municipality or province to develop a supportive network through the participatory approach, projects such as tree planting can go further in achieving its objectives.

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