Kenya has an annual wood fuel deficit of 20 million tonnes, forcing communities that rely on this source of energy for cooking to poach wood from forests, or use animal and crop residues. This degrades the country’s few remaining forests – Kenya has less than two percent of its land area under forest. The use of manure for energy further denies the country’s poor soils vital sources of nutrient replenishment.

Kenya’s charcoal industry is valued at USD450 million (KSh32 billion) and some 22,000 people. The soaring demand for wood fuel and its resultant high prices are driving the sector into a vicious circle of unsustainable growth. Clear-cutting of forests and woodlands for charcoal burning is common.

Charcoal burning techniques currently in use in the country are however highly wasteful. It uses tonnes of wood of which only 12 percent is recovered as charcoal. The rest, a whopping 88 percent, is burnt down to ashes.

Africa Harvest mobilises community youth and women groups, and national NGOs, to increase the supply of multi-purpose trees and shrubs on-farm. The objective is to ensure resource-poor farmers across the country have an affordable source of energy nearby and do not have to resort in plundering the country’s few forests.

By the end of the project, Africa Harvest had:-

• Facilitated establishment of more than 200 tree nurseries in 15 districts of Kenya
• Equipped 15 tree entrepreneurs with skills vital for successful business management, best practices in tree nursery management, and available credit options
• Trained community members on how to collect, store and successful propagate local tree seeds in nurseries

Africa Harvest also created awareness on, and disseminated more efficient charcoal burning technologies. The organisation helped the charcoal industry to identify and use trees that are suited for energy production. By the end of 2008, Africa harvest trained 21 charcoal burners, drawn from eight districts in Kenya, on more efficient methods of producing charcoal.

Africa Harvest also promoted the energy-saving ceramic jiko linking farmers up with the jiko producers. Communities were also taught simple techniques of drying wood that would enable them get more energy value from firewood.