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FAO / INTERNATIONAL DAY OF FORESTS
STORY: FAO / INTERNATIONAL DAY OF FORESTS
TRT: 02:44
SOURCE: FAO
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / ANUAK / NATS
DATELINE: 17 MARCH 2017, ROME, ITALY / FEBRUARY 2017 - JEWI VILLAGE, NEAR GAMBELLA, ETHIOPIA / FILE
RECENT - ZAMBIA
1. Various aerial shots, forest
2. Various shots, burned fields
17 MARCH 2017, ROME, ITALY
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Eva Muller, Director, Forestry Policy and Resources Division, FAO Forestry Department:
“Charcoal is an important source of energy especially in developing countries and especially in urban areas. The way charcoal is produced at the moment is not sustainable because a lot of it is produced from existing forest areas and there is no replenishment afterwards which means that the wood is extracted converted to charcoal but it’s not replanted.”
RECENT - ZAMBIA
4. Wide shot, bags of charcoal
5. Close up, bag of charcoal
6. Various shots, smouldering trees during charcoal production
17 MARCH 2017, ROME, ITALY
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Eva Muller, Director, Forestry Policy and Resources Division, FAO Forestry Department:
“In the conversion process from the wood to the charcoal, the kilns that are currently used in many countries have a very, very low efficiency rate. And there is simple technology out there to make them much more efficient and also means that would require much less wood to produce the same amount of charcoal. And then on the consumption side, improved stoves for charcoal use will also reduce the amount of charcoal needed to cook a meal.”
FEBRUARY 2017 - JEWI VILLAGE, NEAR GAMBELLA, ETHIOPIA
8. Various shots, Anygo Okal setting fire to cook with an improved stove
9. Various shots, Anygo Okal stirring food inside pot
10. SOUNDBITE (Anuak) Anygo Okal, Villager:
“There were snakes and other wild animals, the people around the area we used to go would insult us, so we stopped going there.”
11. Close up, stove fire
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Yimeslal Tefera, Improved cooking stoves director, Ethiopia Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change:
“When we are supplying these improved cooking stoves, the women can be easily engaged in schools, they would save their own time, therefore better livelihood would be adopted when we are bringing these improved stoves technology.”
13. Wide shot, woman picking up wood branches
Up to seven percent of global greenhouse gas emissions caused by humans come from the production and use of fuelwood and charcoal. This happens largely due to unsustainable forest management and inefficient charcoal manufacture and fuelwood combustion, according to a new FAO report published today (21 Mar).
Forests hold a critical energy source for communities across the globe. Their wood provides 40 percent of today’s global renewable energy supply.
Much of the current production of wood fuel is unsustainable, contributing significantly to forest degradation and climate change.
Greening wood energy is key to mitigate climate change and improve rural livelihoods. Efficient charcoal manufacture and use can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Eva Muller, Director, Forestry Policy and Resources Division, FAO Forestry Department, said “charcoal is an important source of energy especially in developing countries and especially in urban areas. The way charcoal is produced at the moment is not sustainable because a lot of it is produced from existing forest areas and there is no replenishment afterwards which means that the wood is extracted converted to charcoal but it’s not replanted.”
When charcoal is produced, using inefficient technologies and unsustainable resources, the emission of greenhouse gas can be as high as 9 kg carbon dioxide equivalent per 1 kg charcoal produced.
Muller said that “in the conversion process from the wood to the charcoal, the kilns that are currently used in many countries have a very, very low efficiency rate. And there is simple technology out there to make them much more efficient and also means that would require much less wood to produce the same amount of charcoal. And then on the consumption side, improved stoves for charcoal use will also reduce the amount of charcoal needed to cook a meal.”
Better technologies for energy conversion and improved stoves can help to mitigate climate change.
For many households in developing countries, forests are indispensable. Some three billion people rely on wood for cooking using simple fires or stoves.
It is often women who bear the brunt of this responsibility. More than 700 million women worldwide are engaged in wood collection, production or trade.
In western Ethiopia, near the border of war-torn South Sudan, Anygo Okal must prepare food for her family of 18 people, three times a day.
To do this, she must hunt for firewood in the woods outside her village. As she and her fellow villagers have steadily used up the supply of nearby forests, she has been forced to venture further and further afield. Twice a week, Anygo walks more than an hour each way, hauling home about 50 kilograms of firewood.
She said “there were snakes and other wild animals, the people around the area we used to go would insult us, so we stopped going there.”
Yimeslal Tefera, Improved Cooking Stoves Director at Ethiopia’s Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change said “when we are supplying these improved cooking stoves, the women can be easily engaged in schools, they would save their own time, therefore better livelihood would be adopted when we are bringing these improved stoves technology.”
Traditional cooking methods make inefficient use of this precious commodity, leading to overuse and degradation of the forests.
Improved cook stoves, which concentrate the heat and reduce the smoke of burning wood, offer an alternative for communities to sustainably use their forest resources.
These cook stoves require 40 to 60 percent less wood, allowing women to fetch less wood, less often, freeing their time for other pursuits.
The United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 21 March the International Day of Forests (IDF) in 2012.
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