Low-tech solutions tackling climate change in Togo

Not all innovation has to be high-tech - sometimes simple solutions are the best. In Togo and other West African countries, a basic metal chimney welded together from old oil drums is helping to tackle climate change and deforestation.

The device - known as a meule casamancaise or Casamance kiln - has been in limited use for a number of years, but now a major programme is underway to promote its use and advantages. The kiln is faster, more efficient and produces charcoal for cooking using up to half the amount of wood of a traditional charcoal kiln. The resulting high-quality charcoal also burns for longer and produces less smoke - which is good for the health of both people and the environment.

“You don’t need much in the way of materials to build a Casamance kiln,” says Dahouda Lankoande, who trains women how to build and use the kiln. “It’s just a bit of old barrel which allows the air to circulate better and so produce a very high quality charcoal. Compared to the old-style horizontal charcoal mounds, this method is really helping to reduce deforestation.”

The Casamance kiln - named after the region of Senegal where it was first used - is cheap and easy to build. Logs are placed upright, allowing air to flow around the lower levels of the stack. The wood is then covered with a mound of leaves and soil, with a metal chimney placed at one end. Another advantage is that the component parts are easily transportable, meaning charcoal producers can move around.

The training and use of the new kilns is part of the Togo government’s Program to Support the Fight against Climate Change (PALCC), which is supported by the EU’s flagship climate change programme GCCA+. Altogether, around 37,000 tonnes of wood has been saved through PALCC projects. €8.1m has been allocated and nearly 600 green jobs created, of which more than 200 are women.

In Togo, wood is the main energy resource. It’s easily accessible, available and cheap, and used by nearly all households for cooking, which puts huge pressure on the country’s forests. In addition, traditional charcoal burning is hugely inefficient, typically returning just one-tenth of the wood as charcoal.

"More than 74 percent of our households use charcoal as an energy source,” says Yèndar Lamboni, Coordinator of the PALCC project. “Traditional charcoal production simply devours timber resources.”

Key to tackling deforestation is teaching people about the benefits of the Casamance kiln - and women are playing a leading role in adopting the new technology. Brigitte Acakpo-Addra, Executive Director of WEP-TOGO (Women’s Environmental Programme Togo), has joined a group of women from the villages of Gamé-Kodjé and Avedjé in the Maritime region to be being trained to build and use the kilns.

“Women are enthusiastic to participate in the training,” she says. “They contribute a lot to the dynamism and excitement. Women have not been sufficiently involved these activities or in the decision-making processes. Until now, we have not given them the means to better control and manage these issues.”

One of the women, Vicé Mado, holds a lump of charcoal in each hand.

“This is the old charcoal we used to make, and here is the new charcoal we get now from the Casamance kiln. You can tell straight away it is much heavier and better quality - there is no question it is better using the new method,” she says. “I promise that from now on I’ll use what I have been taught,” laughs Dovi Soglo, another trainee. Ami Attitso agrees. “You get far less ash from the new technique. The old stuff was poor quality. It’s great that we have learned this new method!”

Confort Kabissa-Lamboni, a coordinator from the Women’s Development Network for the Savannah Region (REFEDS), helped organise the training.

“Reducing deforestation is really important for preserving biodiversity and cutting emissions,” she explains. “Using the Casamance kiln can reduce the amount of wood used by up to 50 percent - that’s a huge benefit to their families and the health and education of their children.”

A key partner in the roll-out of the Casamance kiln is Appui á la Jeunesse d’Afrique (AJA or ‘Support for African Youth’), a French NGO operating in Togo. EU funding has enabled AJA to train charcoal burners in some of the most over-exploited areas to become more professional and to introduce them to the concept of reforesting for biomass energy. So far, AJA have trained 1500 charcoal producers, together with 50 welders who make the tall chimneys which give the kilns their distinctive appearance. Around 100 cooperatives have been equipped with 500 kilns.

Abotsi Apenyo, a charcoal producer from Agou in Togo’s mountain country, says the new method has changed his life.

“Before, I needed at least three weeks to produce charcoal, but now it only takes four days. Using the same amount of wood, I get twice as many bags of charcoal.”