{Studies show that in the next 20 years charcoal will still be a major source of cooking energy in Rwanda.}
Dr. Adrie Mukashema, the DDG of Forestry and Nature Conservation at Rwanda Natural Resources Authority, states “In Rwanda, Biomass energy is the major source of Energy since it provides about 86% of cooking Energy and about 26% of that is charcoal”. However, the Department of Forestry Management said Rwanda looses about 50% of Charcoal Energy because of poor production. Rwanda still practices Traditional methods of charcoal production.
Although Rwanda tries to improve its way of producing charcoal, there’s still a need for further improvement.
During an initial consultation meeting that was held in Kigali earlier this week, investors from Netherlands presented a project entitled “NOTS Blue Charcoal Business Model” where the Rwandan Government, Charcoal producers and NOTS will collaborate to make charcoal production sustainable.
Bart Hartman, Chief Entrepreneur of NOTS explains to IGHE that “This model consists of four elements which includes; using efficient ovens where only 50% of the woods to produce charcoal is used compared to the traditional way of producing charcoal, the second element is growing new trees, third element is growing food trees, a food crop between the trees and last element is the distribution of seeds”.
Further, Hartman stated “we have tested this methodology for the last three years in Mali and the results were good. Now, we are ready to roll it out to other countries. Subsequently, we met with the Rwanda Minister of Agriculture when she visited the Netherlands and we talked about this methodology and then she asked us to come to Rwanda to discuss whether this methodology could also be introduced in Rwanda”.
The Ministry of Infrastructure projected that many Rwandans will be using other forms of energy sources, including: pit, Methane Gas as opposed to Charcoal. On this note, Hartman was asked whether he was hopeful of the project,
he responded “I am very hopeful this project will succeed in Rwanda because we launched this project in Mali four years ago due to political stability which recently changed. But I am convinced it will be a success here in Rwanda and that’s why I am very happy to be at this meeting to further discuss with Rwandan authority how we can implement this project”.
He added that according to studies many people will indeed continue to use charcoal for the next 20 years and Rwanda is among the countries that will be using charcoal.
During an address to investors, Dr. Adrie Mukashema stated that we can all be farmers if this model works well for us- this model has potential, however, he suggests that the model be modified to satisfy our local context.
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