Focus on charcoal trade

MOGADISHU, 25 October (IRIN) - Swaying unsteadily from side to side, the truck carrying the enormous load of charcoal comes to a halt. Three young gunmen sitting on the mountain of blackened sacks leap off, shouting aggressively, guns raised, until the truck is allowed to go on its way. Set to negotiate the numerous road blocks on the outskirts of the capital - manned by competing clan militia out for a cut in the trade - the truck heads for a rudimentary beach port in Mogadishu where its precious load will be shipped to Saudi Arabia.

This is Somalia's black gold. Charcoal has become big business in a country where, over the last decade, there have been no restrictions or regulations in the absence of a central government. "This is one of the worst things happening in Somalia and we will pay a very high price for desertification in the future," Somali agronomist Abdulkadir Shirwa told IRIN.

Vast areas of bush have been depleted to feed an enormous appetite for charcoal in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States. The Arab states - where restrictions to prevent domestic desertification are strictly in place - have taken full advantage of Somalia's lawless condition. "It's an immoral trade done in the full knowledge of what the consequences are for Somalia", diplomatic sources said.

Apart from charcoal, illegal fishing, hunting, copper-mining and the dumping of industrial waste are all abuses of the environment that have gone unchecked in Somalia for nearly a decade, diplomatic and political sources told IRIN.

Making charcoal:

Charcoal is made by chopping down trees, setting fire to a closely stacked pile of branches and trunks, and covering it with earth so that the amount of oxygen and air is limited. This transforms a process that would otherwise take years to achieve naturally.

Traditionally, the making of charcoal was limited to a small group of cutters who used hand axes and responded to an internal - and very localised - demand. Most Somali households use it for cooking. But since charcoal became a lucrative export trade to the Arab states, businessmen and environmentalists say battery-powered chain saws have been introduced. According to Shirwa, who works for USAid-Famine Early Warning System (FEWS), cutting has spread beyond specialised groups and been taken up by the major clans.

In the absence of government, "there is no documentation of the volumes being exported or the amount of trees being cut down", he said.

Most of the charcoal is made in southern Somalia, between Brava and Kismayo. Much of southern Somalia is typically sparse savannah with few forested areas, apart from around the Sakow area which has large trees. But Jilib near Kismayo and Brava have areas of thick vegetation, some too dense for livestock to pass. More than 80 percent of the trees used for charcoal are types of Acacia.

A trader in Mogadishu told IRIN about his suppliers. "They cut the trees, burn it and bring it on trucks ready for use in Mogadishu... most of it comes from Wanla-wein, Bur Hakaba, and from around Jowhar, Gal jeel country." He said bags of charcoal were bought from the suppliers, which then had to be taken to a port. "A lot of money goes on transportation to the El Mayan port in Mogadishu. The port charges you a fee, then the ones who take it out to the ship charge you a fee. That's after the road blocks, as well. It becomes very expensive by the time we load it."

Nevertheless, the profits are significant. A bag that costs about 35,000 Somali shillings a bag in Somalia (about US $3-4 dollars) sells for about $10 in the Gulf states, said traders. "Normally a ship takes about 70-100,000 bags," a trader told IRIN, which takes about two months to put together.

Purchasing charcoal for export is more expensive for traders during the rainy season, but during the dry season. "You buy a whole truck load and it will be two hundred bags at 3,300 Somali shillings (about US $3-4 dollars)," explained one Mogadishu trader. He said charcoal was sold in "an unusual way" in that it sold by the bag - instead of by weight - and that the price varies according to the weather.

Charcoal wars:

Charcoal only became very profitable as an export trade in 1997 after the death of former Mogadishu faction leader, General Muhammad Farah Aydid. From 1991 to 1996, during which time he exerted control over southern Mogadishu and areas of southern Somalia, General Aydid banned the export of charcoal because of its environmental consequences. After his death in a shoot-out in south Mogadishu, control was passed to his son, Husayn Muhammad Aydid, a former US marine

(see http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/cea/countrystories/somalia/20001006.phtml for interview).

The younger Aydid imposed no such restrictions and his area of control was considerably reduced.

After 1996, some local administrations tried to halt the cutters. In Dusa Mareb, Galgadud, central Somalia, chiefs and clan elders prohibited charcoal cutting in certain areas in 1997; but it led to conflict. "People were caught cutting and shot at, there were deaths, and it started wars", said Shirwa, who was in the region doing research at the time. Negotiations between elders and chiefs were needed to settle and pay 'Al Dia' (blood money).

According to Mogadishu businessmen, charcoal exported from the southern port of Kismayo is of better quality than that shipped out of the rudimentary beach ports in Mogadishu. "The best quality comes from Kismayo for the simple reason it goes from the lorry directly into the ship, from a normal port. Here, we have to dump it into a boat, dump it again into the big ship, and by the time it gets to Saudi Arabia, it is broken down, and in small pieces", one trader told IRIN. With a decade of inter-clan fighting in Mogadishu, the port has been closed and run down.

Kismayo is the major port for charcoal export, and far exceeds what goes out of Mogadishu - although there is no systematic documentation of volume and frequency. Clan control of the Kismayo has been unpredictable since the collapse of central government in 1991, and so not all businessmen can use the port. Charcoal is also shipped out of Bosasso port, in the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland, northeastern Somalia.

There is a wariness among the big traders to talk about the charcoal business, and - like any other black market trade - the Mogadishu charcoal mafia must pay not only in terms of money, but also lives. Militia men and drivers have been shot at the road blocks, and trucks trying to deliver the load to the beach port have sparked off fire-fights and inter-clan conflicts

Desertification:

Most of the main charcoal traders out of Mogadishu take advantage of the shipments to do more business: "when we take the charcoal to the Gulf States we normally don't come back with money, but buy up sugar, flour, or whatever the local market needs," one trader told IRIN.

The highest price will be the long-term effect in desertification; but the traders laugh this off. "I remember as a child watching the cutters chop down trees in my area, and if you go back there now to the same place, the trees are even bigger than they used to be", declared one trader. "There will be no shortage of charcoal."

"Charcoal plays an important role in both the energy and the economies of most African countries....(and)...place a heavy strain on local wood resources. This in turn has severe environmental consequences" warns the Energy Practice Management Office (EPMO), which works in conjunction with the World Bank. In a publication issued in 1995, the EPMO said the demand for charcoal was increasing and warns that international organisations and planners should hope fuel "substitution takes place before wood resources run out".

"I don't think anyone yet grasps just how bad the damage has been in Somalia," Shirwa told IRIN.

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