LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-Malawi minister of Forestry and Natural Resources Nancy Tembo says time has come for government to consider implementing different strategies from stakeholders aimed at safeguarding the environment.
The minister was speaking during a meeting with a delegation from Infinity Energy Solutions – a company which is into Carbonised Briquettes production, a compressed block of combustible biomass material.
She observes that briquettes area better alternative to charcoal and that can help in forest conservation.
“Malawi government has different policies and guidelines that just need to be implemented in order to safeguard our forests, I believe if we can work together people will surely be able to appreciate the need to take care of the environment especially trees,” she said.
The Chief Executive Officer for Infinity Energy Solutions Malumbo Kalua said the company wants to be part of the solution to provide alternative source of energy at the same time protect the environment.
“Malawians need to be given an alternative source of power, the use of charcoal is retrogressive as far as environmental promotion is concerned,” he said.
According to Kalua, there is need for government to limit certain markets like hotels,restaurants and poultry farming from using charcoal citing as an example of poultry farming which requires about 910,000 of bags of charcoal a year for brooding chicks.
During the meeting Kalua made a presentation which, among others, indicated that briquettes apart from being an alternative energy source can also help create job opportunities, promote forest conservation and bring charcoal industry into formal economy.
He, however, said access to finance, high cost of equipment and public perception of briquettes are some of the challenges they are currently meeting.