Forest restoration, sustainable charcoal and empowered women in Côte d’Ivoire

Home Sustainable Development Goals Forest restoration, sustainable charcoal and empowered women in Côte d’Ivoire

2021/03/08

Women from the MALEBI women’s association carry woodfuel harvested in the Ahua gazetted forest, Côte d’Ivoire. Photo: MALEBI

A small grant from ITTO in 2009 provided the stimulus for MALEBI, a women’s association in Côte d’Ivoire, to improve charcoal production using efficient, eco-friendly techniques, in the process increasing the standard of living in the local community and raising awareness of the importance of forest conservation.

Given the success of the first grant, the MALEBI women’s association undertook a larger ITTO project in 2016 to restore a 100-hectare area in the nearby Ahua gazetted forest to ensure a continuous supply of wood for charcoal production.
 
It is estimated that nearly three-quarters of households in Côte d’Ivoire use wood charcoal or firewood to meet their daily energy needs, and demand is increasing. The Ahua gazetted forest supplies wood for charcoal to meet the cooking and heating needs of the citizens of nearby Dimbokro and Abidjan, and the charcoal business is a significant employer of women and youth.

The MALEBI women are involved in the charcoal business, but they were alarmed at the degraded state of their forest. The ITTO project enabled them to restore a degraded area using species such as kassod (Cassia siamea), samba (Triplochiton scleroxylon) and teak (Tectona grandis), and they are also growing cash crops. The aim is to reconcile the short-term subsistence needs of their families for food and woodfuel with the medium- to long-term need to rehabilitate the forest.
 
The MALEBI women’s association achieved a shift in local attitudes towards forests, in which communities become forest caretakers. In part, this was achieved by building local capacity in seedling production, nursery establishment, forest plantation establishment and maintenance, and agroforestry. The project has considerable potential for replication elsewhere in Côte d’Ivoire and beyond.

Related links

Related SDGs
Women now have a source of income—the sale of charcoal—they use in raising their families.

The MALEBI women reforested a 100-hectare area using acacia, samba and teak. They planted cassava among the young trees because of its nutritional qualities and economic potential.
Women from MALEBI have shifted attitudes towards gender equality and community forestry. In 2017, the Prime Minister of Côte d’Ivoire awarded MALEBI—through the ITTO project—a National Award of Excellence for Best Advocate of Community Development. This is an enormous source of pride for the MALEBI women.
MALEBI improved its charcoal production using metal furnaces and efficient, eco-friendly techniques. They realized that the viability of charcoal production ultimately requires sustainable forest management and decided to reforest to ensure the availability of the forest resource.
Women from MALEBI have developed a wide range of skills, such as those required to set up and manage a forest nursery, restore a forest, implement agroforestry, produce charcoal using eco-friendly techniques, and manage successful organizations and businesses.
MALEBI’s success has triggered gender mainstreaming and promotion in Côte d’Ivoire’s forest sector, previously almost exclusively the preserve of men.
Thanks to their forest restoration efforts, the women of MALEBI have secured a sustainable supply of wood for their charcoal production enterprise, helped meet demand for bioenergy and reduced pressure on natural forests.
The MALEBI women are committed to sustainable forest management, and they want to spread the benefits. They are now teaching women in nearby villages how to reforest and restore their forest resources, thus helping mitigate climate change through forest growth and by sustainably producing bioenergy with low net greenhouse-gas emissions.
The MALEBI women were concerned about the degraded state of their forest and realized that the viability of charcoal production ultimately requires sustainable forest management. The association decided to reforest to ensure the ongoing availability of the forest resource.