Lilongwe, Malawi … Forests are defined by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization as: “Land spanning more than 0.5 hectares (1.23 acres) with trees higher than 5 meters (16.4 feet) and a canopy cover with 10 percent, or with trees able to reach these thresholds. Globally, about 30% of world’s land falls into this category.”
Deforestation, however, is reducing this total at an alarming rate. An estimated 420 million hectors of forest worldwide has been lost since 1990. In the most recent five-year period (2015–2020), the annual rate of deforestation was estimated at 10 million hectors. Africa had the highest annual rate of net forest loss in 2010–2020, at 3.9 million hectors, and between 1972 and 1990, Malawi lost nearly 40% of its forest cover. A total of fifteen percent of the forest and woodland was lost from 1990 and 2005 alone. The country has just 3% of the forested land.
Over 80% of Malawians are smallholder farmers. They depend on the forests for fuel and other farming activities. Shifting cultivation has been a leading driver of tree cover loss. In addition to cutting down trees to meet basic household needs, such as burning for food preparation, trees are also used as biomass which currently fuels over 89% of Malawi’s energy supply. Only 14% of the population has access to electricity which is the alternative source of energy supply as of 2022.
To address the alarming challenge of deforestation, the Malawi Project and Action for Progress are working to develop sustainable solutions, and alternative sources that will help the people in rural areas reduce dependence on firewood as source of fuel. The introduction of fire logs made with shredded paper and empty tissue rolls is believed to be a sustainable way to deal with the challenge.
In the pilot project, referred to as UBit (You Burn It), fire logs made of empty toilet paper rolls, and packed with shredded paper soaked in candle wax, were used to cook Malawi’s staple food – nsima. With five pieces of these “fire logs” nsima was cooked. It fully eliminated the use of wood. The food was cooked in 20 minutes and offered several benefits. First was the reduction of tree cutting. This saved trees, as well as the time to find and cut the limbs, and it reduced smoke and air pollination.
“So boom!! It seemed almost magical as we cooked the Nsima in exactly 20 minutes,” reports Lezina Danken a member of the staff at Action for Progress. She continued the report, “With the long burn of five logs we not only cooked the nsima, but we were also able to cook additional dishes that would help to complete a meal.”
“Having completed these tests we can confidently say, they are much better than firewood or charcoal,” observes Danken. “They are easier to use and make cooking much faster. This is indeed a solution to conserving the environment and deforestation. This project, when scaled up, will reduce the number of trees destroyed each day.”
Plans call for a final test in village areas where the village women will evaluate the opportunities afforded by the UBiT program, and report if villages will move to the new system and away from the historic patterns of the past.