Though new offences and penalties under the Forestry Act impose a maximum fine of K10 million and 20 years imprisonment, the law appears not to deter the use of illegal charcoal and firewood.

With close to 500 people arrested by August 2022 for violating the new law and 26 vehicles impounded and forfeited to government, it appears there is no turning back for government.

A woman uses charcoal as a source of energy for
cooking after after a power blackout

Interestingly, the likes of Violet Malimbasa, 48, who lives in Mbayani, Blantyre, are not only ignorant of the offences and penalties, but cannot also survive without breaking the law.

Every day, she spends about K1 500 on charcoal for cooking and heating.

Malimbasa, who doesn’t know that she is contravening the law, says she uses illegal charcoal because it is affordable and accessible.

Following the government’s move to issue stiffer penalties on those banking on illegal charcoal, people are now forced to use clean alternative sources of energy–which are not readily available–and if found, they are very expensive, something a common man cannot afford.

New law criminalises production and trading of illegal charcoal

So, with over 80 percent of households using illegal charcoal and firewood as primary sources of energy, Malawians are caught between a rock and a hard place with the new law because alternatives which include licensed charcoal, briquettes, sustainable charcoal pellets, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and electricity are way beyond the majority.

Malimbasa says she has never seen briquettes or pellets. She does not know where to find the licensed charcoal; hence, she says it is difficult to bank on other alternatives apart from illegal charcoal and firewood.

She says: “You talk of electricity? I cannot afford it. It is expensive and, in this area, only one person uses electricity for cooking at times.

“I have heard of gas, but I don’t have details. Perhaps it is because I have never seen a person using gas. On legal charcoal or firewood, I have never seen one selling it.”

Even without cheap alternatives, government has moved on to enforce its June 2020 Forestry Act which aims at punishing people like Malimbasa.

For instance, the new Act states that knowingly receiving illegally produced charcoal will attract a K5 million fine and 10 years imprisonment.

Possession or trafficking or selling round wood is punishable by a fine of K10 million and 20 years imprisonment. Production, possession, trafficking or selling charcoal without a permit is punishable by a fine of K5 million and 10 years imprisonment.

In cities, the use of illegal charcoal has increased from 44 percent in 2011 to 76 percent in 2018, and this trend is expected to worsen, according to a Modern Cooking for Healthy Forests in Malawi (MCHF) report, and with the cost of living skyrocketing, the figure is likely to increase.

Ministry of Natural Resources and Climate Change spokesperson Frank Nkondetseni said 419 people have so far been arrested for forest crimes such as illegal charcoal production and trading, encroachment and illegal cutting of trees.

Said Nkondetsani: “The Act also empowers courts to forfeit to government vehicles and other assets used to ferry illegal charcoal and a total of 26 vehicles were impounded and forfeited to vehicles have been reverted to the owners following successful appeal to the courts.” the government. However, five

Commenting on the penalties, lawyer Khumbo Soko said it is not automatic that those found in the wrong will be fined K5 million or jailed for 10 plus years.

“So, it’s a balancing act. You’re trying to look at aggravating factors, mitigating circumstances of the offence. The court will look at those factors, if the convict is a first time offender. So, all those things will have a bearing, the court will have discretion,” he said.

Our findings show that despite the government imposing stiffer penalties on people using illegal charcoal or firewood, it has done little to make clean alternatives accessible to Malawians.

Environmental rights activist and MW2063 environmental sustainability champion Matthews Malata thinks the battle against deforestation cannot be won if the country does not act differently.

He said Malawi has several important policy documents which offer concrete steps toward rescuing Malawi from energy poverty and dependence on illegal charcoal and yet little has been done.

“The biggest setback is that most of these policies are gathering dust in offices. We have everything to fix the energy problem in a way that doesn’t harm people or the environment,” said Malata.

The country’s performance on clean alternative

Electricity

Electricity is the most obvious alternative, but has a penetration rate of 2.0 percent nationally as a source of energy for cooking. This penetration rate is indicative of electricity’s price and availability.

According to MCHF, more than 80 percent of Malawi’s total primary energy supply comes from biomass. Approximately 11 percent of people are connected to the grid, but only 2 percent cook on electricity.

Available electricity falls well short of present demand and has become decreasingly reliable over the past five years as evidenced by power disruptions, frequent and often long periods of load shedding.

However, there are many Malawians who have applied to be connected to the national grid, but have been waiting for years. Information sourced from Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) shows that 118 249 people who have applied are yet to be connected. This is due to Escom’s failure to mobilise equipment.

Government had, under the National Energy Policy of 2003, planned to increase the number of people with access to electricity from 4 percent to 10 percent of the population by 2010, 30 percent by 2020 and 40 percent by 2050.

Today, Malawi is one of the least electrified countries globally at just 11 percent—with 42 percent of the urban population having access and just four percent of rural dwellers connected.

Those few that are connected are in darkness daily as only 312MW is being generated following the 130 (megawatts) MW loss at Kapichira. Malawi requires about 1 000 MW.

Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG)

According to National Statistical Office (NSO) data, reliance on LPG as the primary cooking fuel for urban households is around 0.02 percent.

The drop follows the accessibility and charges one would spend. Afrox Malawi Limited sells a 6kg gas cylinder at K107 400 each while refilling it is at K16 360, an amount few can afford. A rural man needs to spend more when accessing gas since it is not readily available in rural areas.

Still, some private companies supply gas but at a higher amount. For example, a 5kg cylinder is going at K70 000 and 6kg one at K110 000.

Mera spokesperson Fitina Khonje said government removed VAT on gas and cylinders but people will be required to pay duty on some gas equipment. She said Mera has written the government to consider removing duty on gas equipment.

Khonje said the country is importing gas from South Africa and other countries; hence, the prices are affected by the performance of the Malawi kwacha.

Briquettes and pellets

Government has released licences to produce briquettes and pellets but Raiply Malawi Limited is the only major company and figures of how many are using the two are yet to be released.

However, our visit to Raiply offices in Mzimba discovered that the company has reached its optimum in producing both briquettes and pellets.

Raiply public relations officer Dalitso Chimwala admitted that they are unable to meet national demand as their daily production is only 24 tonnes.

Chimwala said Raiply is not supplying to rural people but to urban populations where they charge K3 800 per 50kg bag of briquettes and pellets.

Licensed charcoal

Government has only issued eight licences to companies and organisations to produce sustainable charcoal.

One company, the government is banking on, is Kawandawa Hills Plantations in Mzimba.

When this journalist visited the company, he discovered that it has only 40 kilns to produce charcoal and in August they produced about 57 000kg which is little compared to national demand.

Kawandama charcoal production manager Chikumbutso Felix Mpinganjira said they are supplying Mzimba and Lilongwe while in Blantyre it is Shoprite selling their charcoal, a thing that is making people fail to access their product

Despite that, the licensed charcoal is expensive compared to the illegal one. For instance, a 5kg packet is selling at K3 000 in Shoprite.

At Trade Fair in Blantyre, this journalist encountered another company that was licensed to produce charcoal. This company is selling it at K520 per kg. That is K26 000 per 50 kg bag.

Illegal charcoal/firewood

As it stands, Malawians are left with illegal charcoal for cooking and heating which is cheap and available.

According to latest reports from the Department of Forestry, 76.4 percent of Malawians use charcoal while 12.1 percent use firewood, bringing the total to 88.5 percent. In rural areas, 1.4 percent of people use electricity, 81.7 percent use firewood while 14.3 percent use charcoal for heating and cooking.

This is a clear indication that Malawians will still bank on illegal means of cooking and heating unless clean energy alternatives are available and affordable to a common man.

Nkondetseni said the government has put in place strategies to ensure that charcoal remains part of the energy mix in the foreseeable future.

Parliamentary Committee on Natural Resources and Climate Change chairperson Welani Chilenga says he does not see Malawi winning this fight.

He blames the Ministry of Finance for failing Malawians, arguing that the Ministry of Natural Resources is not getting enough monetary support.

“The Ministry of Finance is to be blamed for deforestation in the country. I will give examples and one is the useless levy on LPG which the Finance Ministry should have scrapped off to support the Natural Resources Ministry. And there are taxes attached to gas stoves when they are imported into the country so that these gas stoves should be affordable to Malawians. As we speak, a gas stove is at K107 000 and how many Malawians can buy it?” wondered Chilenga.

He continued: “Another example, we introduced a carbon tax levy. The Ministry of Finance is just after collecting money at the expense of natural resources in this country.”

Chilenga said his committee suggested a deliberate policy like in Uganda and other countries to make gas affordable.

“In those countries, the government buys gas stoves and gives them for free and someone is just asked to fill those cylinders,” he added.

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