Large swathes of Ruhoi forest reserve in eastern Tanzania now lay bare, the ground in some sections dry and scorched, covered with stumps and brittle and fallen trees. The forest is being cut down at an alarming rate to meet the growing demand for charcoal in the nearby city of Dar es Salaam.
As a result of high gas prices, about 90% of Tanzanian households now use charcoal or firewood to cook, which is fuelling rapid deforestation across the country.
Between 2015 and 2020, the country lost almost 470,000 hectares (1.16m acres) of forest a year, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. The situation mirrors what is happening across much of Africa, where wood collection and charcoal production account for nearly half of the continent’s forest degradation.
Deforestation is contributing to the climate crisis, says Saidi Mayoga, an army reserve officer who patrols Ruhoi’s 79,000-hectare reserve. “We’ve had a real problem with the heat and there’s very little rain.”
For many loggers, however, environmental concerns take a back seat to more immediate economic needs. Almost 45% of Tanzanians live on about $2 (£1.70) a day.
“If I clear all the trees over here,” says Muharram Bakari, an illegal logger, pointing to the edges of the reserve, “I’ll just have to find another forest where I can harvest [them].”
Bakari lives in a makeshift wooden house in the middle of the forest and works illegally. The area surrounding his hut has been almost fully cleared, evidence that he’s been there for a while. After chopping down the trees, he neatly piles up the logs, ready for burning into charcoal.
Bakari and others like him rely on the charcoal trade to get by. It’s gruelling work. Loggers can spend up to six hours a day felling trees or burning charcoal, which is not good for their health. Many people say they would opt out of the trade if they had another way to make a living. Bakari complains of chest pains from carrying heavy wooden logs, and his hands are lined with blisters from the trees’ rough bark.
Moshi Mohammed Muba, 50, is also a charcoal trader. Once the logs have been burned, she fills bags to the brim, tying them tightly so they don’t come loose on the hours-long journey to Dar es Salaam, the country’s commercial capital. Muba has no choice but to work in scorching heat as there is very little shade now that so many trees have gone.
“It’s not an easy thing to cut trees,” says Muba. “Could you do this at 50 years old?” she asks, adding: “We do it as a means of survival.”
Loggers can earn about 8,500 Tanzanian shillings (£3) for a large bag of charcoal from brokers, who then sell it to wholesalers at a profit. But it’s the wholesalers who make the most money. They can sell the bag for up to 82,000 shillings in Dar es Salaam: almost 10 times the price it was bought for.
As well as supporting families, the charcoal trade provides the government with a significant income stream. Local leaders say this is one of the biggest barriers to conservation efforts.
According to government sources, the Tanzania Forest Services Agency makes about 11,300 shillings from the sale of a bag of charcoal. In 2019, earnings from the forestry sector – which includes trade in charcoal, firewood, logs, poles, honey, seeds and seedlings – contributed about 3% to GDP, with charcoal accounting for 44% of that figure. As such, the government gives out permits to loggers and has set targets on the number of bags each area of the country needs to produce each year.
“We are being told on the one hand, that we need to meet certain thresholds of charcoal production, and on the other, to protect the forests,” says Mayoga.
There are few checks by local or central government on how many trees are felled. Industry experts say the illegal charcoal trade is being enabled by corrupt and poorly managed checkpoints.
Sixbert Mwanga, the executive director of Climate Action Network Tanzania, says: “If someone has a permit to harvest five tonnes, there is no mechanism to crosscheck whether that person has harvested five tonnes or 25, especially at the source.”
The government attempted to ban charcoal production and trade in 2006, in an effort to reduce deforestation, but failed. World Bank reports showed that it only limited government revenue from licensed production and did little to stop the illegal trade.
However, the country’s leaders are now exploring ways to address the issue at its roots, by reducing the country’s dependency on biomass fuels. In November, at a clean cooking summit, Tanzania’s president, Samia Suluhu Hassan, directed the Ministry of Energy to develop a national strategy to increase coverage of clean energy over the next 10 years.
The president also told schools and hospitals with more than 300 employees, which use large amounts of biomass fuels, to stop using wood within a year. Beyond environmental concerns, biomass fuels also have serious health and social impacts. More than 33,000 Tanzanians die prematurely every year from household air pollution caused by cooking with charcoal and firewood. Women, who do most housework, are disproportionately affected. Government reports also show that women and girls often face physical and sexual violence when out gathering firewood.
“We are seeing the necessity for intervention now, given the trends,” says the energy minister, January Makamba, adding that his ministry and the forestry department will need to better coordinate their work to find alternative sources of income – which won’t be easy.
“It’s also a political choice to admit that this large proportion of the population is disempowered,” he says.
