Put. Hardly anyone knows how nontransparent this market really is still for that one tonne of charcoal requires 5 to 10 tons of wood. Normas impact on the environment. Where the wood comes from this often told him and lots of pieces of theres poverty theres deforestation theres deserts professional places. But. Its completely unacceptable that tropical rain forests are being destroyed just to produce cheeta charcoal should be happening its madness and. Nigeria with 186000000 inhabitants its the most populated country in africa this is where most of the charcoal imported to the e. U. Comes from its a huge business not only in nigeria paraguay in south america is another big global player. According to the un over half the trees cut down worldwide are burnt to produce charcoal with severe effects to the climate. Nigerian merchants praise the high quality of charcoal derived from tropical wood its particularly durable and its embers last much longer but these traders dont have to certify where they get their charcoal the wood could be from one of the few sustainable plantations for tropical timber and africa or it could have been illegally logged in the rainforest. Kingsley i can use specializes in export ready to be field with charcoal. Murray. Chins who want to import tropical timber to the e. U. Have to certify its origins the process is strictly regulated but those guidelines dont apply to charcoal. 88 percent of the charcoal used in germany is imported nigeria alone supplies 31000. 00 tons a year but most consumers have no idea what they are using to grill their sausages. Theres still a gemini and council tax the jelly. Where it will form and. Yeah. It doesnt gel her hair. Fill up one container all the still of all 40 feet container. Charcoal from nigeria made in germany made possible because there are no restrictions on importing charcoal made from tropical timber to the e. U. The spoken garden trade fair in cologne this is where the outdoor grilling industry comes together many distributors cant see any problem with charcoal from the tropics the trade association however would rather not comment. Can only view what from france has been fighting against imported tropical charcoal for years he works with the ngo the forest trust t. F. T. They want charcoal to be processed only from sustainably cultivated forests and for consumers to easily see if theyre buying charcoal from native or illegally logged tropical wood there is no transparency. But then watching the way in particular. Because. Some in photo spread them to be produced. But the we are producing one of their tree can create over europe and walk and work on the ball because. If we dont do that it would not be clear also for students. That theres a large although all male member says it is a cure for a cause there are. Distributors who keep importing. This is what the market will force their hand the moment we change the market everyone who wants to carry on as usual will be left no other choice was this awesome i think. By the way. In france t. F. T. Has already managed to change the market most buyers for a large retail chains have come to reject charcoal from tropical forests. Is meeting a belgian who imports african charcoal the man is convinced of his products quality and he even has a seal to prove its been produced responsibly she could understand the concern about tropically source charcoal. For the toilet and what if what you have to realize that there are also sustainably managed tropical forests to solidify if i dont see why these products should be banned or young boy that you cant forget that the charcoal market is helping feed thousands of people in africa with the 5th a dose wed be making things too easy on ourselves if we suddenly decided to just ban everything sourced from nigeria where john will be out of this and he could just be an issue we need to actively deal with the problem itself who the forest fires that that is the kind of the magic. In nigeria its true that many people depend on the charcoal business in places where qualified jobs are hard to come by there they often live in the humblest conditions. People like kobe he and his family make charcoal for a living they travel across the country as nomads and log trees wherever they can in the wild not unsustainable estates. The process is simple enough the wood is stocks covered with dirt and then let. These socalled kilns seal off most oxygen allowing the wood. To burn down slowly in about 11 days its reduced to charcoal 5 i walk past that are strong they found produce. On that box within a month. With only enjoyed the walk to enjoy the world is a hard. Level most times when you come back you were tired. Of always use drugs after coming back from the war in order to regain your strength. For one tonne of charcoal the workers need up to 10 tons of wood most of the energy escapes as acts as heat exhaust leaks from the highlands and the surrounding soil is contaminated with toxins. Forestation is a huge problem in nigeria. A study by the un food and Agriculture Organization found that 410000. 00 hectares of forest were cut down each year. Not only does that have a major impact on the climate it also leads to erosion and the forming of new deserts. But the forests arent being destroyed just to make charcoal theyre also being cleared for farmland and yet 87 percent of all trees logged in nigeria are used for firewood or charcoal. Harry hoffman is a scientist for years hes been concerned about the charcoal production in africa. Its the only way they can make a living during the dry season towards the end of the dry season before they return to their fields if theres nothing left to pay for school so they go to the forest and cut down trees to make charcoal they can sell on the street even if it is illegal. When they do they risk their fields drying up. Back to germany. Is the wood specialist at the World Wildlife fund today hes brought bags of charcoal to the tune institute in hamburg to once trade restrictions for charcoal and hes backing up his arguments with facts if it were up to him importing illegal timber into the e. U. Would be banned as would the charcoal produced from that. And his colleagues want to see just how much wood from tropical forests these bags contain. Theres a lot of pressure from consumers not just with these products in particular is almost a cultural asset for germans finding a legal wood in their charcoal would leave a bad taste in their mouths thats mistress businesses cant afford that if you realise the few months or years ago this product wouldnt have gained such broad attend. To date importers dont need to show that the wood for their charcoal was legally sourced and any product information on the back doesnt show the country of origin either. Is one of germanys leading specialists in determining what. He can say where the charcoal is can discern which type of wood it was made from even if it gets imprinted on the back. He instantly recognizes some native trees species. Before. Before i put it under the microscope i do appreciate Salmon Nation sometimes i use a magnifying glass to determine what type were dealing with. Ive already dug a bit out from the bottom of the bag and as you can see what makes charcoal so special is that unlike wood its brittle. Could operate creates these clean edges and i can look at those with my magnifying glass. Here for example we have an ash tree. This bag doesnt contain any tropical timber that other bags do. When. You swing by the nearest gas station to pick up a bag of charcoal of course you have no idea how far it has traveled already and what ecological footprint it has left behind. Forests are being cut down in countries like nigeria or in Eastern Europe and sometimes even protected forests are being plundered and that has an immense impact on the ecosystem or biodiversity and on the climate overall we need to act. We care we have 3 cats. Here we have a product that were looking at. You know yes. This is pure charcoal. Here we have a different product with the slogan for the sake of the environment its the c o 2 neutral. Inspects 20 bags of. Sand then had bought in various hardware and Grocery Stores in many cases its evident the wood isnt native. Before just before ive had a look at them under the microscope i cant say for sure these samples definitely have tropical origins kind its not that simple but i can say that the ones ive looked at definitely not from regular wood. So we know for certain that it isnt. Compressed bearcats are especially hard to examine they consist mostly of coal dust and starch but even here the expert is able to find traces of wood. De mint told them that if identifying wood species is called wood anatomy we identify types of wood based on their anatomical structure or model the people have been examining plant structures for 2 or 300 years whats important is to have Reference Material thats what they are and. Thats why the kunin institute of Wood Research stores thousands of samples of various trees. But in my eyes on the structural features we can see here we can definitely say this word is not from a temperate or even boreal region start. That means this charcoal was definitely tropically sourced. 8 of the 20 bags they examined did contain wood from rainforests. That amounts to 40 percent of their samples 5 bags even contained red list species of endangered or restricted blood. The findings are upset ng for your highness tannen of the World Wildlife fund. Nothing this is been a topic for so many years to find such a catastrophic results here in germany was shocking it cant go on like this. Many distributors wont take responsibility for their products origin Sustainable ConservationEnvironmental Protection labor laws none of it matters. The import of course and seduction costs are much much lower than operating a colliery here in germany so that makes it attractive to transporting it over the ocean from nigeria to germany or europe is a fairly small portion of the total cost untie and want to get some cost in the us and. Most germans have no idea that their charcoal is sometimes produced with peoples bare hands and colby would never have guessed that hes talking was used to german sausages for many industrial make use of power from. Make use of its like this before. They also make use of charcoal. Also to people who take it from they find us there but i dont know why they use it for all we use it for them on the ticket system. Koby and his workers get 3. 00 for each bag of charcoal even in nigeria thats not a lot of money but the supply chain in africa is more transporters sorters distributors Everyone Wants to turn a profit the jobs are highly sought after. Jobs provided out a body of work out of 0. 60 south what shop will be checking to see is one of the few jobs that actually brings jobs down to the rural areas to the local woman to people who otherwise they have no education have nothing to fall back to have not their. Fault. And here is the lesson theres really no major industry here cried a call me this is a boss. That also wanted to work because theres a lot out there. And the sector is growing. Just one study estimates the market could be worth up to 12000000000. 00 by 2030 with 12000000. 00 people working at it thats a shadow market most of the money made in that sector will stay with the powerful distributors solution had paid. The money isnt made in nigeria its made in europe. Over here we have the products were ready to ship to places like poland this is ready what about the continent. We should get out. In 2015 alone exports from nigeria to poland grew by 51 percent. But im biased from africa most times there repackage and then sell to walk. On trees for land is a very big call it by a lot of things around markets. The charcoal is shipped to europe in containers the t. F. T. Organization has seen to it that less nigerian charcoal is imported to france but exports to poland are on the rise here conservationists say charcoal from tropical wood is simply repackaged and distributed throughout europe. P. L. D. V what continues his search in poland. More on that up forces to occur. We are here to see if this factory really does produce charcoal look at all solve the we want to know if all the wood was locally sourced and processed with us. Excuses on our previous visits to poland. We learned that some only pretend to be producers. Actually imports charcoal repackage it and then sell it. And then they claim it was produced here in their factory. Today can only be and his colleagues are visiting europes largest charcoal producer once the company geese gowned has 3 factories that produce 15 percent of all the charcoal consumed e. U. Wide. And that aging director is guiding a tour through the facilities. The conservationists want to find out if all the charcoal is truly produced here in poland or if its mixed with charcoal from tropical woods. For. The most important clue is a look in the Business Books hes interested in the amounts of charcoal and wood coming and going is he so far hes been acting on behalf of french chains that have committed themselves to offer only sustainable charcoal. And that the forest trust checks that no tropicals would find its way into the backs of. Their biggest difficulty is figuring out how many tons of wood the Company Needs to produce one ton of charcoal. Based on the method employed the amounts can vary greatly. Now its pioli vs job to estimate how efficiently the plant works and compare the wood purchases with the charcoal sales competition in this sector is fierce as is the temptation to cheat with illegal african charcoal. When the countries keep production costs down and Companies Manage to buy raw material from dubious sources they can earn higher Profit Margins on the import and trade in london by import of their model for data. To me its. Just. While importers pay very little for their raw material european producers must dig deep into their pockets for the wood. Producers traders everyone looks to cut corners to make sure that i can make those prashad auctions that are forced onto them by the market by consumers and unfortunately often leads to the cheapest would be illegal would getting into the system. The largest producer in Europe States that its wood is purchased from native forests thats a big cost factor. Theres lots of ward whats important is that the water is actually from this region cultivated sustainably and so that it can be labelled as responsibly produced a charcoal. Native wood from responsible forestry that means the amount of wood that can be logged is limited to how much can regrow. European foresters have known this principle for centuries thats how they responded to the massive clearing of forests in the early 18th century they call it sustainability through the idea of gold from this region. This particular place. For 5 to make sure the charcoal is as sustainable as the managing director said it was their next appointment is with the forester again checks the production books and the woods origin. To make sure the forests are large enough to supply the amount of wood the manufacture needs are your off he takes careful note of the numbers of hectares the age of the trees and the amount of wood extracted. From the 4 as they plant or in the not for all way. Plants he hasnt found a bug in the system yet but he keeps asking the manufacturers. Quality manager and the forester both take all his questions. Unlike in africa the amount of woodland in the e. U. Was growing. In poland it went from 8800000 hectares in 1990 to 9400000 hectares in 2015 that only works with truly sustainable methods. Is very pleased with what hes seen here. They have a forest cultivation plan set up for 10 years to fill with a registry for each logging so. And that way they know exactly how much wood theyre allowed to take from each plant do dismiss means traceability right back to where it was felled and we know theyve been cultivating sustainably for years. Disorder here for example is 60 years of supply of. Wood for guilt free charcoal and thanks to traditional forestry guidelines modern technology and careful documentation this forest will continue supplying as much wood as it does today for centuries to come. Is that its that supports that theres plenty of wood right here in poland that you dont need to buy it in africa. That out there is enough deciduous trees to cover the demand for charcoal thats an old. Hopes to someday find charcoal in supermarkets that is only produced from sustainable what but in europe there arent many sustainable manufactures like this one in poland and companies that produce charcoal and electricity i think exception to the rule and so he sets off for france. One of the most modern charcoal factories in the world is here in the champagne eurasia. The region is also home to vast deciduous forests and yet france still imports most of his charcoal. This manufacturer wants to prove that producing charcoal in france can in fact be profitable. What it lacks in size the business makes up for in innovation. The french Government Supports it with subsidies. The managing directors were even invited to the World Climate conference in bonn in 2017 to talk about eco friendly chuckle production at home and in developing countries. That offer this word here comes from the forest barges of sun. Thanks to modern technology they only need 2 and a half tons of wood. For each ton of charcoal they produce that means they can preserve 40 percent of the wood in comparison the earth mounds in africa only have an efficiency rate of about 10 percent interest meaning their kilns require 4 times the amount of wood. But. They offered to help if i knew it but if. The charcoal is dried in huge baskets with the excess heat given off during production. Or someone was just set up on a cup of ice here is proof that were able to make renewable charcoal just so all it takes is Sustainable Forestry and todays technology. That using this method we can produce charcoal electricity and heat 3 products at once from one single resource for celtic i also pointed this out why its what makes this product competitive and profitable in your art of what business is. This science provides 10000 homes with steady electricity. The tropical charcoal producers can only dream of having such a modern plant. The home built by world wide fall where experiencing the deforestation of several 1000000 hectares each year or this is all that is so much and so relevant that it makes up about 15 percent of manmade Carbon Emissions in the sun by tate. Satellite images reveal that 30 percent of africas Oldest National park has already been destroyed the cause of the longer National Park is very old and has been particularly affected by people illegally extracting wood to produce charcoal. Thats a stone. The National Park lies in the eastern part of the democratic repub. The charcoal produced here isnt exploited 97 percent of the people in the region use it for cooking and heating the areas surrounding the National Park have already been cleared. According to the World Wildlife fund 90 percent of the trees felled here are used to produce charcoal. Over 4 years ago this whole area was full of trees and now 4 years later all the trees have been cut down and not only that even the roots have been pulled out of the ground. The World Wildlife fund foresters are shocked. The demand for charcoal is so high in this region that even digging up and charming tree roots is worth the effort. 3000000000 people on the planet cook with word and its not just cooking used for he tends to its essential to them and theres no way of replacing it thats not. Producing wood sustainably requires space space they dont have the population and africa will quadruple by the end of the century capacity limits are often exceeded now. One big problem is the lack of infrastructure only 3 percent of the People Living in the huge city of goma and its surrounding villages have access to electricity cooking with gas would be easier healthier and more eco friendly but charcoal is often the only source of energy they have. People need to be certain that theyll have gas when they need it otherwise they cant cook its a crucial source of energy for many people and it will be for a long time to come. The last 10 years have seen huge forest areas vanish the w w f workers are certain the ongoing political conflicts in the region are contributing to the deforestation here. And this all used to be forest monkeys lived here now there arent any looked. To save the National Park the w w f workers want to turn around their charcoal market and are reaching out to all parties involved even the transporters they ride their bikes 30 kilometers to the next city community. She gives. Them a lot of of this a lot of specifics and love here they say it costs 20. 00 and in goma it costs 23. 00 and it was elected since we asked them if they produce the charcoal themselves but they just buy it to resell it and its less shit. The destruction of the wrong a National Park is immense the region is one of the most densely populated in all of africa and the conflict in neighboring rwanda have only made matters worse countless refugees are seeking shelter and using charcoal for cooking. The World Wildlife fund in goma is very engaged in the topic of chocolate. Chip and his team hope for a lasting peace in order to save the National Park. Visual and city since 1906 this region has gone through a lot of unrest depleted before that there were the looting wars from 1902 onwards is here and then came the 1st liberation more in 1906 that forced many to flee to fishing all that had an impact on the environment but this went on for them. In goma the number of residents has nearly doubled in the last 7 years. Especially due to the many refugees who have come. Only 11 kilometers separate the city from the National Park so its no wonder that 80 percent of the charcoal used here is illegally sourced from virunga. Like in most places in africa the charcoal business here is also a shadow market. The dealers buy their charcoal in villages and then sell it here. But enough that i got the price range depends on how old the tree was that used to make the charcoal you know what i was told from young trees cost 20. 00 u. S. Dollars so. The older the trade the more energy it supplies and the higher the price. Tag it might be our. Retailers prefer a cheaper softer charcoal because they can sell it in small portions i knew some households by the Higher Quality tougher charcoal and i personally delivered to the wholesale dealers. Just as in europe here too it makes a difference where the wood for charcoal is from but its also just as important to reduce the charcoal consumption. The men and women of goma stove are contributing to just that with direction from the w w f they conducted several tests and studies that helped them develop a particularly Energy Efficient of and it only uses half as much charcoal as a traditional oven. Under the Metal Plating is a clay core that is baked the 1st time the oven is used. The 1st use should be for something that needs to be cooked for a long time thats the case for most things called regularly here such as beans samba a corn fufu sodas i didnt mind that long 1st use bakes the clay cole as. Possible that. The demand for efficient cooking is huge go musto has produced and sold more than 80000 other and since 2009. Theyve even delivered their product to the capital kinshasa. That. We produce a lot we used to make 7 ceramic inserts a day now its 3035 even 150. This customer just bought her 2nd goal must of the savings have made a noticeable difference in her household budget. The oven manufacturers Smart Marketing water over straight away. Some households were uncertain about how they would cut their coal consumption in half it was that we asked them how much they used with their traditional styles a bit theyd answered 2 bags so we told them to go and buy 2 that and when they do we give them our started as a credit and tell them to use it and pay us at the end of the month to use it then by the end of the month they realize they still have one bag of charcoal left. And what you now call is that a mark on the. One bag less a month each family can save one and i have tons of charcoal over the 2 year Life Expectancy of a stove and its affordable the cost can easily be paid off in a month. At the end of the month families are left with more money. With efficient cookers its possible to drastically reduce per capita charcoal consumption. Sustainable charcoal production on the other hand is more difficult outside of the National Park hardly any trees are left and inside armed rebel groups from rwanda had a tight grip on charcoal production should they wouldnt dream of giving up this critical source of income. Down lives in a small village on the edge of ruin go National Park he still clearly remembers when the rwandan rebels came into his village and turned everything upside down ever. But they invaded the park and cut down all the trees. Since then the environment has been out of balance is to kill to mean we dont have any rivers or streams here in these woods and in the dry periods it become longer. In the reciprocal engine well thats when we decided we need to plant trees and some decay for little me and restarted looking for partners who would help us and use their Little Museum for listeners should look at it but it was there was a call for us if the regime. Became their trusted World Wildlife fund partner hes a forester and knows what it takes to create a plantation. To live if hes sick in foot. Certainly sleeve you need to keep a close eye on the seedlings live plants so they reproduce at the right time. You full mystery must be planted at the beginning of the rainy season or do be the last as will be proved. You missed your window even by just a few days of the love your plantation might not survive in the opposite of. The w w f support plantations across the region with their eco project. Knows the people here well and understands that close contact with local chieftains and mayors is just as important as a trainer 3. Is also an advocate. On the hills this will help us fight erosion. Of the. Water there flows down the slopes and destroys our fields. Look if you. Live in tears houses down. The advantages are already visible after just a few years the w w f was successful now 103 nurseries 13000 hectares of plantations and 9000 farmers have joined the project. Geoff a village chief is also convinced of the advantages ever since the project began hes been working to persuade the 6700 families in his tribe to plant trees in order to secure the villages future. Income akala plantations they told us a different way to cut down trees and build. The sticks you would do for that way we can produce Higher Quality charcoal that we can sell in goma for a higher price thats again. I am pretty. Certain we have charcoal we can cook without sounds. In that we can sound. Good and that will pay for our childrens education and for medical treatment and also for food. Today hes showing others how to plant trees to protect the fertile soil from erosion and landslides. In 5 years these little saplings have become fully grown trees perfect for producing charcoal. When theyre ready for harvesting they provide a clean legal alternative to trees from the National Park. We can say the varying the National Park if we plant more trees said the end of the same time we reduce our consumption our use of charcoal. Improving methods of recall making have doubled the amount of charcoal we can produce. Become by now with our improved stowed zyklon and were saving on both ends with this month a little on them on the one hand were improving charcoal yields of weather while on the other or using less charcoal. The of the soup 1st so basically were raising supply and lowering demand or diminish their months but yes the charcoal makers have learned that drying the wood for 2 months before charring it is more effective for. This dense pile will be covered with dirt later and set on fire then to lation shafts to light the pile and a chimney made of old barrels will double the amount of charcoal this kiln can produce for in addition the quality will be much higher if for. 15 percent of the charcoal used in goma is sourced from the w w f c eco makana project the long term goal is to raise that to 30 percent. The farmers have already begun to notice a positive effect on the environment that were going to be there ever since the project started weve noticed an awkward trend reverses out of all the times were planting used to be messed up as we risk losing our crops thanks to the plantations we planted with the become a color project weve seen the ecosystem restore itself. That is good. We can now go back to planting based on the old calendar dont. But 30 percent is all this plantation can cover and wouldnt leave enough room for farming the project has helped slow down the destruction of the National Park but it cant stop it altogether further Solutions Still need to be developed and new Energy Sources tapped into. Back to france the charcoal pioneers are working on making their method more attractive for developing countries. Lower wood requirements reliable electricity and quality charcoal together these 3 things might be able to save the verona National Park. The charcoal visionaries and. Are convinced that all it would take is enough political will to reach a sustainable solution for africas charcoal problem. Without the correct circumstances however they dont want to introduce their method. Of. Plantation programs are a necessary condition for setting up a factory like aus in africa. May have a growing share jewels supported by the government all local groups would make that absolutely possible. One particular advantage is that they not only have charcoal but electricity to. Other shops in an explicit sounded. To many people in africa charcoal is a necessary Energy Source in europe its central to the grill culture. Efficient production and Sustainable Forestry can make charcoal a renewable resource only the combined efforts of governments businesses and consumers can stop the destruction of our tropical forests. Cleaning lady by day. Celebrated d. J. At a popular. Arena is 57 years old and her playlist has almost exclusively electronic tracks how did it all start 4 years ago she tells her story on. Cutting through the noise. Floor i come from people are known for being tough but fair new york and a lot of people tell it like it it take all of the concrete jungle to melt some of the city that never sleeps its this energy that makes it feel like old but amid the hustle its important to listen and Pay Attention because its not just the loudest voices who need to be heard we all have a story to tell i see it as my job as a journalist to go beyond the i. Now im basing your above my work takes me around the world but my it seems for me in the state to tell the important stories behind the headlines what is the heart of the story why does it matter who will it impact the bankruptcy focus if you want us. To cut through the noise to get to the truth. By david kelly and i wanted to double. The boat. This is big news coming from russia say that he retaliate for germany expense 2 of its diplomats mr gates is believed the killing of this not a full my chechen commando was treated by russia. He says he discussed the killing with gushing president Vladimir Putin when they meet next week