Chad Charcoal Ban Enflames Public

By Celeste Hicks
BBC News, N'Djamena
January 27.2009

Environmentalists through the UN or the EU have bribed or threatened the Government of Chad to Ban the burning of Charcoal that was used in that nation to cook food, in order to save the planet. Here the insanity of such policy can be seen. Chad is a country without a lot of trees so wood is not available. Without fire the people would be forced to eat raw meat, dried beans dried rice, they can not make bread, or even flat corn tortillas. Environmentalists care nothing for this or any other people, they view man as a predatory beast that needs to be taken down.

Families are being forced to burn furniture, cow dung, rubbish and roots of plants in order to cook. Since the clampdown was announced - officially in order to help the environment - charcoal has become almost impossible to find.

"I'm using wild products which I've harvested, such as palm fruits," said Nangali Helene, who lives in the capital N'Djamena. (Here a woman is using food to cook food)

But they make us ill - they don't burn properly and they give off a horrid smoke and smell. Last night we started burning the beams from the roof of our outhouse."

The price of a small bundle of dead wood has shot up from a few hundred CFA francs to 5,000F CFA ($12; £8). (A fortune to the poor in Chad, Here in Alaska nobody would pay 12.00 for a small bundle of sticks, who in this nation of poor people has the money for a small bundle of sticks that costs 10-20 times the price of what they are cooking?)

Feelings are running high in the city, with the main opposition coalition organising a peaceful mass action over the next few days.

Desertification threat

"We want people to bang on their empty cooking pots every morning to show solidarity for one another," said Saleh Kebzabo, from the Coalition of Parties for the Defence of the Constitution.

For the moment, street demonstrations are out of the question - a planned rally by women was called off last week when they were denied permission. Women who did show up claimed they were intimidated by a heavy police presence.

The government says the ban is to deal with an "extraordinary" threat of desertification in Chad, which straddles the Sahel, the semi-arid region bordering the Sahara.

At the forefront of climate change, the environment ministry says more than 60% of Chad's natural tree cover has been lost due to indiscriminate cutting of trees for charcoal.

"Chadians must be aware of this problem," said Environment Minister Ali Souleiman Dabye.

"If we don't do something soon, we will wake up one day and there will be no trees. Then what will people burn?" (What are they going to burn now? Cow dung, furniture, out houses, and food?)

Unrealistic

But although many people say they understand the need to protect the environment, it is the speed with which the ban has come into effect that has caused such anger.

Late last year, police began seizing trucks carrying charcoal, saying they were illegal.

Several trucks and their contents were set on fire on the outskirts of N'Djamena, but the government denies responsibility for the destruction.

Within weeks prices rocketed and then charcoal disappeared from the market.

The alternatives proposed by the government may seem unrealistic to the average Chadian.

"It's only in the last 10 years that Chadians have become reliant on charcoal, they can soon learn to adapt to something else," said the environment minister, keenly expounding the virtues of gas.

But 95% of people do not have gas appliances, and even those that do have to travel to Cameroon to find canisters.

Rumours abound in the local media of women setting themselves on fire because they do not know how to use gas properly.

A deal recently signed between the government and a Nigerian businessman to start cooking gas deliveries (Can one imagine a single company from Nigeria delivering gas throughout the nation of Chad? The resources to do that would be astronomical as they would not only have to have the propane trucks, but the tanks on site to fill with gas and the metering equipment to sell the gas. It would take years for a single company to be able to service a entire country like Chad, what will happen is gas will be delivered to the capital and to a few other cities, and then through sales and profit the company would slowly begin to expand around the cities and eventually to the outlying areas.) is too little too late for Marie Larlem, co-ordinator of the Chadian Association for the Promotion of Fundamental Liberty.

"We understand the need to protect the environment but we find it bizarre that the measures are so brutal and so sudden - no-one was given any warning.

"Why didn't they do this earlier? Our people have been through enough".

Chad's government says there are no plans to relax the ban.

Because there are tens of millions of dollars no doubt tied to their banning the use of charcoal.

This is an example of oppressive law,

If Israel was able to plant Six million trees, then the Government of Chad could do so. In Israel they put under the trees in desert regions a hose that drips a little water. The tree gets started, the roots go down and the hose is then shut off as the tree now can maintain itself.

For charcoal they could grow a poplar reserve as they grow fast.

Here in Fairbanks Alaska someone brought in single cottonwood tree, they are a giant weed they propagate by their roots, and they send out tens of thousands of seedlings that look like snow every year per every tree so that in Fairbanks and vicinity they grow everywhere. So much so that they have to be mowed along the sides of highways, mowed along streets, moved in properties all through the area. The wood of these are good for burning and they grow fast as well. Bring half a dozen Cottonwoods over to Chad and there will be cottonwoods springing up everywhere in just two – three years.