Refugees from the Central African Republic are helping ease tensions with local residents over scarce firewood. They are also preserving forests in the process. They are using new energy saving stoves that burn briquettes made from clay and sawdust.
Thirty-year-old Hamadou from the Central African Republic stokes the fire of her clay stove. It’s a change from the open wood fire she was used to and easier than spending hours searching for wood far from the refugee camp where she lives in eastern Cameroon.
“When you go out to find firewood, you walk far, it takes many hours, and you have to carry the wood on your head when going back. When you return back you are tired. With briquettes we do not use as much effort, it is clean and we do not get dirty when cooking. You don’t need to go to the bush, you can find briquettes right here,” Hamadou told CGTN Africa.
Population at the camp has swelled as thousands of refugees fleeing violence in the CAR arrive. Using energy saving stoves that use briquettes is helping to ease tensions between refugees and locals over increasingly scarce wood in the area. Now, local residents have also embraced the stoves.
“I thank the project, I am satisfied now,” said Mariam Mohamed, an Mbile resident.
“Before, when we went to the bush, there were fights between local residents and the refugees when we found the refugees in the fields. Today, there are no fights. You go to the field, you come back and find briquettes at home. No more going into the bush to look for wood.”
The briquettes are made with clay and sawdust from local saw mills. Now, nearly 70 percent of Mbile’s population no longer searches for wood in the bush.
About one hectare of forest is cut down per person per year for charcoal & firewood in Cameroon and these stoves will undoubtedly help pushing these numbers down.
