Biomass fuels slow deforestation in Mali

In a tiny office in Bamako, the capital of Mali, stoves and biomass briquettes are ready for delivery. Local entrepreneur Oumar Diallo founded Yirimex in 2006 to produce and deliver biomass fuels as an alternative to charcoal and firewood.

The briquettes are made of natural resources, but only use forest and farm residue – such as dry leaves or dead trees – for production, in an attempt to tackle deforestation.

According to the Malian Agency for the Development of Domestic Energy and Rural Electrification, 98 percent of the country’s domestic energy comes from charcoal and firewood.

That has big implications for a country losing more than 100,000 hectares of forest each year, said Adama Siendou, marketing manager at Yirimex. 

So far the company has provided 10,000 households with access to clean cooking kits and technologies, primarily in big Malian cities. It aims to increase that number to 36,000 in the next few years.

The Union of Mali bakeries - which are big energy consumers - and Yirimex signed a contract for the delivery of 315 tons of fuel briquettes to 300 bakeries in Bamako. “A bakery needs 1 ton of firewood daily. That equals 140kg of fuel briquettes,” Siendou said. 

Since the commercialisation of the briquettes began in November 2015, 10 bakeries have committed to using them regularly. Yirimex aims to save at least 25,000 hectares of forests per year if Bamako’s 500 bakeries shift to the briquettes.

But despite efforts to promote alternatives to firewood and charcoal, bakers have limited access to biomass fuels. There are only two distribution places in the capital, and more than 200 bakeries are located in other parts of the country.  

Ousmane Doumbia, a Bamako-based baker, explained that “many bakeries are still using firewood for now because they ignore biomass fuels even exist.”

“We mostly use firewood because our only alternative is electricity. And electricity is expensive,” he added.

Diallo said Yirimex plans to build a series of productions units across the country, to boost the production of briquettes and potentially reap further benefits. “I see this project as a job opportunity for thousands of youngsters – especially in rural areas – who can make a living by collecting residues from farms and forests,” he said.

TRAINING COMMUNITIES

Dansira Dembélé, communications lead at International Relief and Develpoment Mali, explained that similar resilience initiatives are happening as part of the Building Resilience to Climate Extremes and Disasters (BRACED) programme. These include Malian women learning to build and use clean cooking kits and technologies in their communities.

“These are existing technologies that are not all well known to the majority of the population. We teach women how to use them to reinforce their resilience to climate extremes,” Dembelé said.

The project provides women with a solar cooking kit, a stove and a thermos basket preserving food temperature. They are then trusted to teach these techniques to at least 30 women in their communities.

“The technologies used are adapted to the environmental reality of each region. That explains why in regions mostly producing rice we use stoves adapted to the residues of that crop,” said Dembelé.

Diallo added: “Women are the most interested in the briquettes because they don’t produce smoke nor do they risk exploding, like gas.”