Sustainable Fuelwood Agency

My concept for managing the charcoal industry has been in the works for over 10 years now and it is time for it to happen. Over the years of observing the industry and interviewing participants from the charcoal burners in the forest to the many users of the finished product, I realized that the industry can be greatly improved. Not just in the way charcoal is made, but that it was not a sustainable industry. The idea grew to include not only charcoal but also firewood and charcoal briquettes. Thus, the name Sustainable Fuelwood Agency (SFA). Why call it an agency, you may ask? It has some parallels to the Food Reserve Agency. The most important one is the setting of the price for fuelwood across Zambia just like maize and adding an environmental tax to help cover the cost of replacing the trees that are harvested for fuelwood. The fuelwood will be produced by community forests that will be regulated on how much fuelwood they produce each year. The fuelwood will be purchased from the community forests by the SFA once it is delivered to the agency’s depots. Monitoring the paid funds will ensure that the workers are paid as well as all fees and taxes owing. Once the fuelwood and charcoal fines are purchased, they will be taken to an SFA facility where they will be packaged and sent to market in urban areas. The charcoal fines will be sent to the briquette-making facility where the product will be stored and sold on the open market or exported. The Sustainable Fuelwood Act will need to be passed in the Zambian Parliament and the Sustainable Fuelwood Agency will be governed by a Board of Directors.