Deforestation resulting from increased population pressure on ever-decreasing forest resources is a well-known, critical issue in many parts of the world. Women and children are typically responsible for fuel collection and production, time-consuming activities that take additional time away from opportunities for schooling and income generation, which are both important to reducing youth vulnerability.

Through the Future Fuels program, EcoVentures International (EVI) is exploring enterprise opportunities for women and caregivers in alternative, environmentally-sound fuel production and sales that would reduce the amount of time necessary for fuel collection and production, increase household incomes, and create a healthier indoor environment with cleaner-burning fuels.

The program spurred from working with local partners during the establishment of the Environmental Enterprise Development Initiative (EEDI), a network of organizations focused on utilizing environmental business development to address community issues in Lushoto, Tanzania. A distinct opportunity was located in the sawdust waste generated by the area’s numerous logging mills. Typically, the sawdust is burned in large piles in the open air, but EEDI partners identified it as a raw material for fuel briquette enterprise development.

Fuel briquette enterprise development presented a potentially viable business alternative to charcoal production, a critical factor in local biodiversity and forest cover loss, both of which are natural resource bases critical for stability of the local economy. There are a number of existing technologies of varying scales to convert biomass waste into solid fuels, and EVI worked with its partners to identify an approach that uses low-cost production machinery that would be accessible to low-income women entrepreneurs. By working with women, the primary sellers of charcoal, the program could tap into existing market structures to incentivize natural resource management practices that complement rather than compete with household needs.

In 2007, EVI initiated an action-research program, working with partner organizations in the EEDI and groups of women currently involved in village savings groups, to test the effectiveness of the technology as well as the viability of briquette production as an enterprise by testing markets in different municipalities of Tanzania and Uganda. A next step of the program is to work on market linkage development between producers in rural areas and high-demand municipal end-markets. By developing these market linkages prior to engaging vulnerable women entrepreneurs, risk for the women will be mitigated, ensuring economic advancement and a better quality of life for children and youth in their care.

The program is also active in Tanzania

Megan Hill
megan@eco-ventures.org