Abstract:
- With erratic climate crippling agriculture, hundreds of rural Liberians are turning to charcoal for survival—fueling deforestation and placing the nation’s local weather objectives in danger.
- Mangroves and old-growth forests below risk as weak enforcement and lack of knowledge imply charcoal is essentially invisible in nationwide local weather planning.
- Clear vitality efforts stall, as a result of price, damaged gear, and lack of market entry, forcing communities again to tree reducing and deepening poverty.
By Aria Deemie, local weather and setting reporter with New Narratives
SENJEH DISTRICT, Bomi County, Liberia — Sweat beads on Charles McGill’s forehead as he lifts a cutlass and slams it right into a log, the forest crackling with noon warmth. At 89, he must be resting. As an alternative, he’s serving to gas Liberia’s booming charcoal commerce, one of many few methods folks right here survive.
“There’s no diamond work right here, no gold work,” stated McGill, a retired soldier. “The one diamond work now we have is that this coal. Everyone on this city is making coal.”
With farming failing below local weather stress, hundreds of Liberians are turning to charcoal manufacturing to outlive — a shift specialists say is accelerating forest loss and undermining local weather commitments. A 2019 World Financial institution report estimated greater than 14,000 folks had been straight concerned in charcoal manufacturing, supporting practically 28,000 full-time jobs. At the moment greater than eight in each ten rural Liberians lived under the nationwide poverty line. Whereas newer information just isn’t obtainable, economists suppose it possible poverty has worsened since then within the wake of the Covid pandemic and the rising impacts of local weather change on subsistence farming.
In a 2024 FrontPage/New Narratives survey of 300 farmers all stated farming had turn into unviable in recent times due to unpredictable rainfall and elevated temperatures. Increasingly more of them have informed reporters that they’re turning to charcoal manufacturing to interchange misplaced farms.
Whereas progress has been made in lowering dependence on wooden for fuels in different African international locations, in Liberia it’s nonetheless excessive. Charcoal stays the first cooking gas for 52 p.c of households; and one other 45 p.c depend on firewood, census data present.
Mangroves Additionally Underneath Menace
Winston Benda Henries, director of conservation group SAMFU, stated the risk extends properly past inland woodlands. “It’s not solely within the terrestrial areas however within the coastal areas too, the place we’re working with communities to cease the harvesting of mangroves,” he stated.
In some coastal cities, he stated, residents imagine charcoal made out of mangroves burns longer and warmer than that made out of inland wooden, making it extra fascinating.
These traits have renewed fears for Liberia’s forests — each inland and alongside the coast.
Between 2002 and 2023, the nation misplaced about 347,000 hectares of humid major forest — roughly 15 p.c of its tree cowl, in accordance with Global Forest Watch. This determine doesn’t absolutely seize mangrove loss, which can also be vital. Specialists say if deforestation continues unchecked in each terrestrial and coastal areas, Liberia’s ecosystems might face collapse with extreme penalties for the nation and its folks.
Biodiversity loss happens when forests and ecosystems are degraded or destroyed—primarily via deforestation, unlawful mining, logging, agriculture, and wildlife searching—resulting in the decline or extinction of native species. As habitats shrink or are polluted, animals lose meals and breeding grounds, whereas plant species are uprooted or changed, weakening the ecosystems that help each folks and nature. Forests can rapidly turn into grasslands.
Enhance in Charcoal Manufacturing Threatens Liberia’s Local weather Commitments
Liberia has a regulation requiring business charcoal producers to register their operations 30 days earlier than beginning. However in response to inquiries from FrontPage Africa/New Narratives, the Forestry Improvement Authority admitted it has “no centralized database” to trace who’s licensed and who isn’t.
Personal landowners making charcoal for family use don’t want a license, however business producers face fines of $50 to $1,000. Nonetheless, the FDA stated nobody has ever been prosecuted.
The lack of Liberia’s forest would additionally threaten international efforts to combat local weather change. One of many world’s largest remaining previous development forests, it’s key to the nation’s local weather commitments below the worldwide Paris Settlement. In its up to date Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), Liberia pledged to scale back economy-wide greenhouse gasoline emissions by 64 p.c by 2030, with land use and forest degradation listed as main contributors.
Specialists say that objective is unlikely to be met with out severe reforms — and with out recognizing the total impression of charcoal. “Even within the vitality element of the NDC, they don’t take into account charcoal,” stated Henries. “They simply say forest degradation as an entire physique.”
In an announcement the Forestry Improvement Authority stated that it’s going to change that. “We collaborate with communities and the Liberia Charcoal Union to advertise sustainable practices,” the company stated. “We additionally plan to amend the regulation to handle local weather change and forest loss.”
However Henries stated the Company’s understanding of charcoal’s local weather impression is flawed.
“The FDA says charcoal isn’t inflicting sufficient emissions to be a priority — however how do they know after they don’t acquire subject information?” he stated. “You possibly can’t sit at checkpoints and say you will have forest information. You have to go to the sphere.”
He additionally warned that Liberia’s “precedence forests” — areas with the best biodiversity and carbon storage — are more and more in danger. “Even when I’m producing the charcoal from a precedence forest, how will you be capable of know?” he stated. “You don’t know from the [charcoal] bag.”
Small-Scale Producers Undercut By Middlemen
The commerce, he stated, runs within the shadows. Small-scale producers do the toughest work for the least return, whereas middlemen take the earnings. “As a result of they need to feed their households, they settle for no matter little involves them,” Henries stated. “And people financing it dictate the value.”
Caught on this vacuum, producers are left with few choices — regardless of the well being and environmental toll.
McGill has watched costs rise, from cents many years in the past to about 400 Liberian {dollars} (roughly $2) per bag immediately, however costs for meals and necessities have additionally risen.
“That 400 {dollars} — what can it do??” he requested. “I acquired my grandchildren, my kids, my oldma… that cash I share into three: one for meals, one for college, one for getting small tablets [medicines].”
McGill just isn’t alone. Norah, a single mom and borrower with BRAC, a world microfinance group, turned to charcoal after falling into debt. “I credited $LD25,000. Each Wednesday, I’ve to pay some again. Proper now, solely right here within the bush I can get help,” she stated. “That’s why I put myself right here.”
For others, like Jallah Kollie, charcoal was not a primary alternative, however a fallback when all else failed. He as soon as bought footwear on the town. “A few of us don’t need to steal and get damage,” he stated. “I used to be promoting slippers. However I couldn’t afford to restock, so I got here to the bush.”
Donor-Backed Clear Prepare dinner Range Tasks Face Boundaries
Emmanuel Yarkpawolo, government director of the Environmental Safety Company, stated the federal government is working to scale back charcoal’s toll by selling cooking that makes use of much less or no charcoal. “We’ve been coaching girls to make environment friendly cookstoves,” he stated, referring to applications in Bong and Nimba counties. “These stoves use just a little little bit of coal and do a number of cooking.”
However Yarkpawolo acknowledged that the $US20 price per range is out of attain for a lot of. “It’s arduous at first, however over time, you lower your expenses,” he stated. “Nonetheless, EPA can solely present tips and coaching. We are able to’t help everybody individually.”
That hole between coverage and actuality is seen in Decrease Montserrado’s Todee District, the place a bunch of ladies tried to pivot to a extra sustainable mannequin, making charcoal from palm kernel shells as an alternative of bushes. The undertaking provided cleaner gas and higher earnings. However it collapsed earlier than it might take off.
“The machine broke down earlier than we completed coaching,” stated Esther Sigbae, 51. “We had been making dense black briquettes — cleaner and longer-burning than conventional charcoal — however now they sit unsold.”
With out repairs or entry to patrons, the ladies returned to reducing bushes.
“No one’s shopping for,” Ms. Sigbae stated. “So we constructed an oven once more and began burning wooden.”
She now helps eight kids — 4 of her personal and 4 left behind by her late sister. With no refrigeration, instruments, or transport, most of her greens rot earlier than they’ll attain Monrovia’s markets.
Every lady had contributed simply $LD100 — lower than 50 cents — primarily to purchase meals to remain sturdy after farming and charcoal work. However even that small quantity sparked plawor, a fuss. “For those who give your share,” Sigbae defined, “what is going to your kids eat at dwelling?”
“We dig with our palms. No instruments,” she added. “We thought this might assist us stand on our personal.”
Now, they’re asking for extra than simply funding; they need coaching, market entry, and gear repairs. “We don’t need to simply burn bush anymore,” she stated. “We need to study after which train our mates. However proper now, we’re simply caught.”
Seed Venture Affords Hope
For producers like McGill and Kollie, agriculture nonetheless affords hope. In October, the Ministry of Agriculture launched Seeds4Liberia, a four-year, EU-funded undertaking geared toward bettering seed high quality and entry nationwide. Officers say it’s going to sort out long-standing points — delayed seed deliveries, uncertified inputs, and weak distribution networks ,whereas bolstering nationwide meals safety
However belief is skinny.
“They at all times come after the season,” stated McGill. “What good is rice seed when the rain has handed?”
Kollie recalled getting ready his subject close to Radio Bomi in useless. “We cleared the sphere anticipating rice seed from the ministry. It by no means got here,” he stated. “Cassava sticks got here in June as an alternative of March. What is going to develop?”
Different international locations present what’s doable. In Sierra Leone, donor-backed applications have helped rural households shift to liquefied petroleum gasoline for cooking, reducing indoor air pollution and creating jobs, particularly for ladies.
In Ghana’s Ashanti area, girls’s cooperatives produce clear briquettes from farm waste. The briquettes burn longer and with much less smoke, and the ladies earn extra. Their success relied on coaching, gear, and assured patrons.
Specialists insisted Liberia’s producers say they might do the identical, if given the prospect.
“In the event that they actually need us to cease burning coal, they’ve to offer us one other method to dwell,” stated McGill. “Till then, we’ll hold going into the forest. We now have no alternative.”
This story was a collaboration with New Narratives. Funding was offered by the American Jewish World Service. The donor had no say within the story’s content material.
