While charcoal is highly sought after in Europe and North America, Namibia is making a name for itself in this international market as a producer country. However, no forests are cut down to produce this charcoal, but mainly thorny bushes which have become a plague for the country.
After Mongolia, Namibia is the most sparsely populated country in the world: 2.8 million people are spread over an area more than twice the size of Germany. Farms are a characteristic feature of the Namibian landscape, and farmers are mainly engaged in livestock farming on vast expanses with holdings of up to 15,000 hectares.
This agricultural culture is a legacy of the colonial era, and allowed the country to feed the population without food imports for many years, a rarity among African countries. Wildlife has always been respected: the fences surrounding the farms are specially built so that wild animals can cross them: leopards, giraffes, antelopes, lions...
But these animals, already often endangered, are becoming increasingly rare in the wild. On the one hand because of hunting tourists and poachers, but also because of the changing landscape. Climate change is causing years to become drier and drier, with much shorter rainy seasons. Animals on farms but also wild animals have difficulty finding food. Bushes and shrubs with long sharp thorns have appeared, drawing on the water table and preventing the animals from moving and feeding, which cause many farmers to abandon their farms.
Yet these invasive bushes are a sustainable solution for these farmers. Turning them into charcoal helps to solve some of the ecological and economic problems by recreating the vast plains of Namibia, providing work for many Namibians, while meeting the demand of the European countries.
Working methods and mentalities have changed and many young farmers who convert their farms to produce charcoal decided very early on to have their farms FSC certified, to show their responsibility and offer better conditions to their workers. They are usually helped by commercial companies to finance new tools and accommodation.
Although they are often on the verge of bankruptcy, some small traditional farmers are still reluctant to produce charcoal on their land because they consider themselves in their tribal tradition as cattle herders. But the last two very dry years have changed the minds of more and more farmers, and FSC certification has now become a prerequisite for meeting social and environmental standards, producing high quality charcoal and thus having a secure outlet for the sale of charcoal.
Workers learn not to harvest protected plant species and not to destroy wildlife habitats such as bird nests or termite mounds. They must also ensure that a variety of different plants are left on the land. Owners of FSC-certified operations shall provide adequate permanent housing, fresh water supply and functional sanitation facilities, as well as appropriate protective equipment for workers.
Find out more about Namibian charcoal in the videos made by FSC Germany here :
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLa2IAmKIQrqRea6JSni01x66ZmmZug-lm