You and Robina come from the school of thought that "enviroment" in this case forests or trees should not be "touched". I half expected you guys would really engage some thinking into this but it's usual knee-jerk reaction from urban elite tree huggers.
Charcoal is big business in Africa and Kenya. It probably the most traded commodity. Majority of people depend on firewood and charcoal to cook their githeri. I don't know the % but anything upto 90% is possible. The way forward for Ngilu and others is not a blanket ban of charcoal. It find sustainable way for charcoal business to thrive. If you plant trees or have trees in your farm - and there is market for charcoal - go ahead-
cut the trees - and - make some money - and that will be incentive to plant more trees or leave the land for trees to grow.In our place - there is huge market for firewood that is to process tea (nearly all companies dumped expensive electricity & coal for firewood) - and people have incentive to grow trees!
Forests & trees should and will be used by humans - they just need to be used sustainably
Ngilu is just going to condemn many of his people to poverty.Finding alternative livelihood for folks is no joke. There is nothing she'll achieve climate wise. She should be working to make kitui the leading producer of charcoal - by building modern kilns and producing briquettes (that has global demand) - and encouraging people to engage in agro-forestry. Remove charcoal - and what do they honestly have - the desertification is global cyclical phenomenan way bigger than Ngilu to handle...humans didn't make the ice age
![smiley :)](https://nipate.net/Smileys/fantasticsmileys/smiley3.gif)
these things are bigger than us.