KAMPALA, UGANDA – After completing her degree in Chemistry majoring in natural products, Angela Mbabazi did not sit home to look for a job, a common practice for many Ugandan graduates.
She devised means of creating employment and transforming rural societies from peasants  to productive and innovative people.
Mbabazi, 26, has made a name in a Ugandan rural village by turning dry maize cobs, banana leaves, and bean pods, cassava sticks among others into green charcoal. This is in measure to ensure reduction in cutting trees for firewood or charcoal.
“Uganda and the world lose millions of tonnes of trees to wood fuel for household, commercial and industrial purposes.
“The number increases year after year due to population pressure. It’s prudent that new sources of energy are developed,” said Mbabazi while showing East African Business Week how she has transformed villagers in Kyampisi about 70km north east of Kampala city with the use of Green Charcoal.
Green Charcoal is made from all wastes, ranging from dry maize cobs, banana leaves, pass pallum, bean pods, and cassava sticks, and any other waste.
The process involves burning the wastes in a locally made burner referred to as a carboniser, which is later taken through a binding process using cassava starch, clay or silicate extracted from rice husks and other materials. They are passed through molds that determine its shape and size.
From the carboniser, according to Mbabazi, the wastes are harvested from the burner machine while sprinkling it with water to cool down. The cooled waste, termed as bio char is put on to a locally made grinding machine, which turns the bio char into powder.
“It is then mingled with soil, clay, cassava starch or silicate extracted from rice husks to make green charcoal,” she says.
She notes that it requires only four pieces of green charcoal to cook a meal that can be consumed by more than 10  people.
The National Forestry Authority, Uganda government forest management body projects that Uganda may import firewood by 2015, if alternative energy sources are not developed or fully utilized to reduce the cutting down of trees.
“It is already being felt because one time the cost of a charcoal over shot that of gas and firewood is becoming scarce and expensive,” adds Mbabazi.
Mbabazi, under the Rural Initiative for Development and Environment Management (RIDEM) project, believe that if many people are taught how to make green charcoal, their dependence on wood fuels will tremendously go down, hence a reduction in deforestation.
“This project is good for us. After learning, we make green charcoal which we sell at Ush1000 ($0.4) per bundle,” says Mr. Abdul Kayima a resident of Kyampisi village adding that “Even their women who used to spend some time gossiping” have utilized the project and time to do green charcoal to add/earn some money.
About 20 residents of Kyampisi village have taken up the green charcoal project, which they make and sell to fellow residents. Other green charcoal is transported and sold to urban residents and supermarkets. Mbabazi takes residents through a two month intensive training in how to make green charcoal, which skills they pass on to fellow residents.
“This is aimed at economically empowering the local community to make a living while preserving the environment,” she stresses.

NAPECA ;
The CEC Council has established a new grant program, the North American Partnership for Environmental Community Action (NAPECA) to support communities in their efforts to address environmental problems locally.

From The Climate Foundation;
Converting Municipal Solid Waste to Biochar in North America
http://www.cec.org/Page.asp?PageID=751&SiteNodeID=1084

Who the The Climate Foundation is;
http://www.climatefoundation.org/who-we-are-b

I really like this Foundation because they focus on two of my avocations; StrawBale Construction & Biochar;
http://www.climatefoundation.org/what-we-do-b/straw-retrofitting-education
In addition to the “reinvent the toilet” challenge; Stanford Gates RTTC Project

Home, Health, Energy & Climate………..the four horsemen of Sustainability :)

Monday, February 06, 2012, 07:00pm – 09:00pm Biogas Cook Stoves and the Earth Healing Potential of Biochar On Monday, February 6th, Quimper Grange will host engineer and technology enthusiast, Francesco Tortorici. He will be talking about a revolutionary clean burning cook stove that can use anything from small twigs to peanut shells or even straw for fuel and he will also speak about biochar, the carbonaceous material formed by burning these fuels. Micro-gasifier stoves, as they are called, separate the generation of combustible gases from their subsequent combustion to create cooking heat. Heat is produced from burning gasses and vastly reduces emissions compared to conventional wood burning. Attendees will be given simple instructions on how to build a small efficient biogas stove from found materials and will see a demonstration of its use boiling water. Additionally they will learn about experiments being done locally using biochar as a soil amendment for growing organic crops, and will learn how biochar not only improves garden soil but can sequester carbon for up to a thousand years. Biogas stoves are a valuable addition to an emergency preparedness kit. Francesco‘s interest in appropriate technologies led him to attend the ETHOS (Engineers in Technical and Humanitarian Opportunities of Service) conference in Kirkland last year and through that experience he now works with several NGOs in the northwest that are focusing on promoting clean cook stoves. What Francesco finds most exciting about micro-gasifier stoves is that they are simple to build, easy to use, and can begin to address the issues of poor indoor air quality caused by cooking over open fires which is done by perhaps a third of the world’s population. The program starts at 7:30 pm and is preceded by a potluck dessert/fingerfood social half-hour from 7pm to 7:30pm. Suggested donation: $5-$10. For further information contact: Marla Streator at 385-6924. Location : Quimper Grange, 1219 Corona Street, Port Townsend, WA 98368 Contact : Charlotte Goldman, 360-385-3455, chargold@earthlink.net Event Sponsor : Quimper Grange Website: http://www.quimpergrange.blogspot.com

Two weeks ago, we kicked off the Estufa Finca Training program by cooking a great big pot of soup on the stoves with members from 18 BriBri households. All the participants came to ACOMUITA, the association of indigenous women’s chocolate, for the day to learn how to use the stoves and to save the biochar. Throughout the training we discussed issues of respiratory illnesses, deforestation, carbon sequestration, and the delicious flavor of foods cooked over a wood fire. We practiced cooking on the stoves and had a great time making lunch together.

Among the group are  two wonderful BriBri women that will be the facilitators and promoters of the stove training program. Throughout the project, they will work in communities in the BriBri Indigenous Reservation to teach families how to use the stoves and to use the biochar that the stoves produce. We have been working hard together to get them ready to lead trainings for families. And they are already excelling.

One morning we were running late on our way to work with the promoters. When we arrived, they already had the stove lit and were making hot chocolate with cacao processed right there by the women’s association. On top of that, they were showing the association’s cook how to use the stove so she could make lunch on the Estufa Finca instead of on the gas stove. We had a delicious lunch of rice, chicken and plantains, all cooked on the stove and with biochar to show for it.

Photo Credit: Brian Cisneros

Journal of Sustainable Human Development

• Universal Declaration of Human Rights, United Nations, 1948
• Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development: Our Common Future, United Nations, 1987
• Millennium Development Goals, United Nations, 2000
• The Earth Charter, Earth Charter Initiative, 2005
• The Stockholm Memorandum: Tipping the Scales towards Sustainability, Nobel Laureates, May 2011
• The Laxenburg Declaration on Population and Sustainable Development, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, October 2011
• Towards reforming the international financial and monetary systems in the context of a global public authority, Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Vatican City, October 2011
• The World Is Revolting Against the Neo-liberal Economic and Business Model: A Call to Action, Globalization for the Common Good Inititiative, November 2011
• Global citizen movements such as Widening Circle and Occupy Together (see the Signs of the Times video by Jessica Lehrman, Grist, 26 November 2011)

• A pattern of increasingly collaborative work (research, reflection, resolve) by all global citizens: “However sustainability is defined, one thing is true: the vital need for human society to address its challenges will end up transforming the ways we all work, live, and compete. It will have extraordinary implications for organizations and the people who lead them—work processes, organizational models, competitive strategies, and leadership methods are all going to be affected…” MIT Sustainability Initiative
• A pattern of gradual but radical dismantling of all exclusivist practices and policies. This will entail deconstructing the complex web of gender-related exclusions that we have inherited from the patriarchal system of male domination that emerged during the agricultural revolution (circa 10,000-5,000 BCE) and continues to corrupt the original “unity in diversity” of men and women in both society and religion.

• A pattern of gradual but radical renunciation of all forms of violence: physical, cultural, psychological, ethnic, sexual, economic, political, religious, … Peace is inclusivist. Violence is exclusivist. Violence, in one form or another, must be used to enforce exclusions. Violence is the greatest obstacle to integral human development. Therefore, violence-triggering exclusions are also an obstacle. All people of good will need to experience the power of all-inclusive nonviolence.

We hope that you are enjoying this holiday season with friends and family. Here in Costa Rica, we are busy preparing for holiday celebrations too. We made brownies last night to put in the Christmas stockings of the workers at the APPTA cacao association!

Estufa Finca Community Installation

Our project is off to a rolling start in the Talamanca region.  In collaboration with CATIE, The Center for Tropical Agriculture Research and Education, we have been helping graduate student Juliano Hojah da Silva apply biochar in farms for his research on how biochar can help improve cocoa production. At APPTA, Association of Small Producers of Talamanca, we have kicked off biochar production for use as an organic fertilizer in cocoa seedlings with larger kilns. And yesterday we did our first Talamanca community stove installation at the Indigenous Women’s Association ACOMUITA in the community of Shiroles. We are excited to see this project take off into the new year!

Juliano Hojah da Silva applying biochar to cocoa farms

Give the gift of BioChar this Christmas. Any donations to SeaChar will help us put biochar into the Costa Rican soils and are tax deductable. Donations this year could help to improve cacao production in the Talamanca region and in turn improve the chocolate you might buy for Christmas next year!

There are only 8 days left in the  2011 Global Giving Winter Challenge to support SeaChar!

Check out our project page at: http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/biochar-cook-stoves-save-lives-and-trees/

Share this link with as many friends and contacts as possible. Help us reinvent fire!

Blessings,

SeaChar.Org

Our project partners at ACOMUITA (Association of Women of Talamanca) and at APPTA (Association of Small Producers of Talamanca) have recommended Amubri, an Indigenous BriBri community, as a wonderful place to begin the Estufa Finca Project. So we decided to pay a visit to this beautiful town today.

To get there, we hopped on a bus and then transferred to another bus up a dirt road. Before continuing our journey, we stopped at ACOMUITA to try some of their delicious organic artisan chocolate! We then crossed the river in a motorized dug-out canoe and then caught a ride down another dirt road in a banana transport truck.

When we crossed the river the sun was blaring down, so striking we knew we must be getting as much vitamin D as we get in a whole summer in Seattle. By the time we made it to Amubri, dark menacing rain clouds were approaching, and sure enough, it poured. We were fortunate enough to have timed the rainfall with our lunch at a quaint little restaurant in Amubri.

With a population of about 2,000 people, Amubri has a health center, a police station, a high school, a cultural center, a church and a children’s nutrition center.  Most families produce cacao, banana, and plantain for sale and other crops for personal consumption.

Some families can afford to cook with propane, but almost every family has a traditional fogón, or open fire for cooking. The Costa Rican government has funded a program to support affordable cement houses for families. Although many families now live in these modern cement houses, the majority still have a traditional wood and thatch house next door that serves as the kitchen and the location for the fogón.

Even in our brief visit, it became apparent what a wonderful, organized, and welcoming community Amubri is. There is a need for the Estufa Finca technology and a community eager to gain access to this clean energy. We can’t wait to begin working together with the families of Amubri!

SeaChar.Org is announcing a turning point in our relationship with our longtime Estufa Finca-Costa Rica partners: APORTES. For two years we have worked together to create a biochar cook-stove project which would be run by and for the coffee growers and Panamanian Ngobe coffee picker community. On Saturday December 3rd, APORTES organizer Carolina Abraca Calderon and a team of the Ngobe stove promoters cooked and demonstrated to a group of approximately 60 community members and coffee farmers, how to operate a stove and save the biochar. At the request of APORTES, this event marks the transition of our joint project to a wholly APORTES run project.   We are gratified that the stoves, which we have developed and shared with this community are proving to be effective. We wish Arturo Segura and Carolina Calderon the best of luck with the implementation of their 100 biochar cook-stove pilot project, with the International Organization for Migration. We know they will continue to improve these stovesand move this project into the future.  We look forward to hearing updates on their progress.
At the same time SeaChar will continue to share these important ideas with other partners in Costa Rica, the United States and other communities around the  world. Please follow these developments at the SeaChar.Org website and FaceBook page.

Hola,
It’s been a week since Erick installed Miriam’s stove so I walked to her home this afternoon to see how she was doing. The road into her finca is pretty rough but the scenery is gorgeous, so I really enjoyed the walk. We talked for a while about the event next Saturday and she agreed to help out SeaChar and APORTES by cooking and explaining to the attendees how to load, light and cook on their APORTES produced Estufa Finca stoves.

I asked her opinion about the stove and she said, “Sí, me gusta. Es más rápido. Mi problema es que nuestra madera es demasiado húmeda.” I asked if she was collecting the biochar and she showed me her bag–about 1/3 full. So, one bag in 3 weeks. I think she’ll use the stove more when the rain stops and the wood dries out. So, possibly one bag every 2 weeks.

I wish you all could have been there–it was a very cool experience seeing all our work over the last year turn into a bag of charcoal, just like we planned.

Saludos,
Tom Ternes
Santos-Project Manager