{"id":21554,"date":"2022-06-20T15:48:22","date_gmt":"2022-06-20T15:48:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/charcoal-on-pedals-a-long-suffering-income-that-threatens-mozambique"},"modified":"2022-06-20T16:12:25","modified_gmt":"2022-06-20T16:12:25","slug":"charcoal-on-pedals-a-long-suffering-income-that-threatens-mozambique","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/charcoal-on-pedals-a-long-suffering-income-that-threatens-mozambique","title":{"rendered":"Charcoal on pedals \u2013 a long-suffering income that threatens Mozambique"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Mozambique. <\/strong><\/span>Vasco Zacarias, 24, cycles 540 kilometres a week hauling 500 kilograms of charcoal in central Mozambique. His route is three times longer now than when he started in the business in 2016.<\/p>\n

There are fewer and fewer forests and they are further and further away, he says. \u201cWe are carrying the charcoal a long way now,\u201d he tells Lusa in Chimoio, the provincial capital of Manica province, in central Mozambique.<\/p>\n

He has just arrived, sweating, in the city after seven hours riding a basic bicycle over rough roads.<\/p>\n

The distance grew so much that, in 2018, Vasco Zacarias had to create an intermediate point at his home in Mucorodzi to divide in half the route from the ovens where the wood is transformed into charcoal to the final consumer.<\/p>\n

The business earns him 250 meticais (just over three euros) for each sack of charcoal sold, money with which he pays for food, health and education expenses.<\/p>\n

The massive demand for wood as fuel is among the activities that exert great pressure on forests, causing historic deforestation, according to the National Sustainable Development Fund (FNDS), one of several entities that have raised awareness of the problem.<\/p>\n

A 2020 study by the non-governmental organisation Observat\u00f3rio do Meio Rural (OMR) highlighted in particular the risks of deforestation in Manica province, alongside Nampula and Zamb\u00e9zia, the most populous in the country.<\/p>\n

Unlike the other charcoal worker, Alexandre Artur, he produces and sells his own charcoal, but the effort expended does not pay off due to the distances he now travels and the time the business consumes.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrees? There are no longer any nearby, so people are going very far to cut [them] and make charcoal,\u201d he tells Lusa, explaining that he now has to wake up at three in the morning and cycle for six hours whenever there is charcoal to bring to Chimoio.<\/p>\n

Along the way, he says, he faces the danger of attacks and animal bites in the woods and robbers on the roads.<\/p>\n

There are people who take \u201cup to three days to get here with charcoal\u201d, says another charcoal worker, Pedro Augusto, adding, \u201cthe trees are visibly dying\u201d.<\/p>\n

Environmentalist Eug\u00e9nio Fumane describes deforestation in Manica as a \u201cserious problem\u201d which is getting worse because of the pressure on forests exerted by charcoal workers.<\/p>\n

Fumane says the government must \u201cdesign good policies\u201d to tackle deforestation and undertake sustainable reforestation actions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf cities adopt other sources [of fuel] to prepare their meals,\u201d namely with \u201cthe government encouraging the use of cooking gas in the kitchen and reducing the cost of electricity, I think we will be able to reduce the problem,\u201d says Fumane, who is also project manager of the F\u00f3rum Terra [Earth Forum] in Manica.<\/p>\n

To survive, Fumane continues, charcoal workers cutting down fruit trees, especially mango trees, for charcoal production, putting orchard production at risk, a detail he uses to once again warn about the need for \u201cserious reforestation policies\u201d.<\/p>\n

Manuel Ant\u00f3nio, another environmentalist, this time from the Micaia Foundation, tells Lusa that, in his opinion, Mozambique has suffered severe damage from cyclones because of levels of deforestation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe trees also serve as windbreaks. Cutting down these trees means we will suffer: the wind will strike at infrastructure,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n

A project by the Micaia Foundation is helping rural communities in Sussundenga to protect trees by placing beehives on the trees to earn income from producing honey instead of selling charcoal.<\/p>\n

Marketing is also part of the Sussundenga project, with the honey being sold to a supermarket chain.<\/p>\n

But in the north of the province, alternatives like these never touch the life of Vasco Zacarias and his beat-up bicycle, and the charcoal worker maintains his weary routine.<\/p>\n

\u201cI load up three times a week \u2013 on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The other days, I go to the forest,\u201d he says as he counts the money from the sale of the first sack of charcoal of the day, shortly after arriving in Chimoio.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not always like that,\u201d he tells Lusa, with the smile of someone who still expects profitable days from his business of charcoal on pedals.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Mozambique<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Mozambique. Vasco Zacarias, 24, cycles 540 kilometres a week hauling 500 kilograms of charcoal in central Mozambique. His route is three times longer now than when he started in the business in 2016. There are fewer and fewer forests and they are further and further away, he says. \u201cWe are carrying the charcoal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":21553,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,8,16],"tags":[233,281,283],"class_list":["post-21554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","category-homepage-english","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-mozambique","tag-mozambique"],"yoast_head":"\nCharcoal on pedals \u2013 a long-suffering income that threatens Mozambique - Mozambique<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Vasco Zacarias, 24, cycles 540 kilometres a week hauling 500 kilograms of charcoal in central Mozambique. 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