New report reveals the real cost of a summer BBQ
by ClickGreen staff. Published Mon 10 Aug 2015 10:03
Around 70 per cent of the charcoal used in Europe is imported and Namibia is the UK’s biggest supplier of charcoal. Today campaign group Fern released a report, “Playing with Fire: human misery, environmental destruction and summer BBQs”, showing that in Namibia:
- Trees are being illegally harvested on a vast scale to make charcoal.
- Workers are operating in deplorable conditions. Many of them live in black plastic sheet dwellings without access to running water or toilets.
- They make the charcoal in archaic kilns, which evidence shows cause massive damage to the environment - as well as to the workers’ health.
The reason the UK imports so much of its charcoal - around 90 per cent - is simple: big retailers buy in bulk from countries where production and labour costs are low. A ton of charcoal produced in the UK costs around £1,400 wholesale. The price in Namibia is less than six per cent of that (£76).
Charcoal imports - not just from Namibia but also Nigeria and other major suppliers to the EU – fit a pattern of illegality highlighted by Fern in March, when it published the report, “Stolen Goods: The EU’s complicity in illegal tropical deforestation”.
The evidence showed how European consumption is fuelling the illegal destruction of tropical forests, with the EU importing an estimated EUR six billion worth of agricultural products grown or reared on illegally deforested land in a single year.
Fern has outlined the steps the EU can take to tackle this, including greater scrutiny of supply chains, a broad EU Action Plan on Deforestation and strengthened procurement policies.
With charcoal, specific steps that would ensure its legality include adding it to the list of products falling under the European Timber Regulation (EUTR), which requires all timber and timber products placed on the EU market to be legally sourced.
Fern campaign co-ordinator Saskia Ozinga said: “If charcoal was to come under the EUTR, then, combined with European consumers paying a fairer price for Namibian charcoal, this would support Namibia in putting controls in place to ensure charcoal’s legality and help increase its capacity to enforce its own laws.”
New report reveals the real cost of a summer BBQ > General Analysis > Analysis | Click Green
Playing with Fire
Submitted by Lindsay on Tue, 04/08/2015 - 11:02
Download the press release
Download the full report
Pictures from the report available. Please (c) Mark Olden
(Moreton-in-Marsh) 10 August 2015 - With temperatures soaring across Europe this summer millions have enjoyed barbecues – and will continue to do so until the last drops of warm weather. Yet few are aware of the true cost of the charcoal they fire them with.
Around 70 per cent of the charcoal used in Europe is imported and Namibia is the UK’s biggest supplier of charcoal. Today Fern releases a report, Playing with Fire: human misery, environmental destruction and summer BBQs, showing that in Namibia:
- Trees are being illegally harvested on a vast scale to make charcoal.
- Workers are operating in deplorable conditions. Many of them live in black plastic sheet dwellings without access to running water or toilets.
- They make the charcoal in archaic kilns, which evidence shows cause massive damage to the environment - as well as to the workers’ health.
Playing with Fire | FERN
How Namibian charcoal workers pay a high price for the cheap British barbecue
But many households will be oblivious to the fact that much of the charcoal being used to fire up the grill is produced in Namibia under miserable conditions, a leading forest charity has warned.
The popularity of barbecues has soared in recent years, fuelled by a growing appetite for smoky favourites such as pulled pork and ribs. The UK is now the barbecue capital of Europe, the setting for about 120 million outdoor cooking sessions a year.
But Fern, an NGO that represents forests and the people who live and work in them, wants Britons to think carefully about the charcoal that fuels almost half of barbecues. It has conducted an investigation into the UK’s primary source of barbecue fuel – the Namibian charcoal industry – and discovered that pay, working conditions and environmental considerations are sadly lacking across large swaths of the southern African country.
On a visit to one of the country’s charcoal heartlands, Fern found a landscape populated by thickets of the thorny, twisted “invader” bushes used to make charcoal. The Outjo region, about 250km north of the capital Windhoek, is dotted with rusty steel drums used to make charcoal by burning the bush. Lining the edges of the roads are makeshift dwellings of black plastic sheeting and bits of wood, homes for the charcoal burners.
Only 8 per cent of charcoal producers in Namibia is FSC-certified (Mark Olden)
The Fern investigation found evidence of trees being illegally harvested on a vast scale, with workers typically paid a pittance and living without access to toilets or running water. Many workers are given little or no protective clothing, according to the report, Playing with Fire: Human misery, environmental destruction and summer BBQs. The work is punishing: trees are chopped down, sawn into small pieces and left in the makeshift kilns for a few days. “Although it is tough, we have no other choice. There is no other alternative,” one worker told the researcher who compiled the Fern report.
Britain imports more than 80 per cent of the 60,000 tonnes of charcoal it burns each year, and Namibia is by far the biggest source. Supermarkets and major retail chains only sell charcoal certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) – a process that requires social and environmental inspections. But much of the UK’s barbecue fuel is sold through smaller, independent outlets, many of which stock little or no FSC-certified product, experts say. The wholesale price of charcoal produced in the UK is about £1,400 a tonne, compared with just £76 a tonne in Namibia, making it much cheaper for retailers to buy, even after the cost of transport. The UK imports more of Namibia’s charcoal than any other country, with some estimates suggesting it accounts for half of the total burnt, according to Fern campaign co-ordinator Saskia Ozinga.
A plant where charcoal is processed from trees near Windhoek (John Olden)
“Yet consumers are oblivious to the conditions it’s produced under, with the widespread illegal harvesting of trees, and many workers living in the sort of atrocious conditions we’re more used to seeing on our TV screens beamed in from a makeshift refugee camp in a disaster zone,” she said.
FSC-certification goes some way to addressing the problems of worker exploitation in Namibia, but charcoal produced under extremely harsh circumstances is still widely used in the UK.
“Whatever guarantees of sustainability FSC does give, it’s undermined by the large amount of non-FSC charcoal entering the EU, including the UK,” Ms Ozinga said. She pointed out that only 8 per cent of charcoal producers in Namibia were FSC-certified, meaning there was nowhere near enough of it to meet demand. “Major supermarkets require that their charcoal is FSC-certified. Many other retailers and restaurants do not. They should be made aware of the human and environmental cost of what they are selling,” she added.
Jim Bettle at one of the UK producers, the Dorset Charcoal Company, is also concerned about the prevalence of non-certified product in the UK market. “It is only relatively recently that certain retailers have been stocking FSC charcoal but it is far from the norm,” he said. “Any inspection of imported charcoal bags on garage forecourts is unlikely to find the FSC logo.”
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The Namibian Forestry Department could not be reached for comment. However, the Namibian government is known to be concerned about conditions in the charcoal industry. Last year the Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Welfare, Alpheus Muheua, told the Namibian Sun that charcoal workers continued to toil under horrible conditions, being paid starvation wages and not being recognised as employees. He said he was working on an agreement to address the issues as part of a process that began in 2003, when his ministry began to investigate the issue.
Campaigners say overhauling the Namibian charcoal industry is a huge task. However, Fern says one simple change could make a huge difference. At the moment, EU Timber Regulation (EUTR) requires that all timber and most timber products sold in Europe must be legally and sustainably sourced. But charcoal is not included. Tweaking the law to make it a criminal offence to import illegally sourced charcoal from Namibia would be a great start, Fern said.
How to hold an ethical BBQ
When it comes to barbecue charcoal there is one step – and one step only – that consumers can take to be ethical: buy fuel that has been certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), an NGO charged with ensuring woodlands are managed sustainably and which assesses working conditions and environmental concerns.
Inevitably, there have been complaints that the FSC’s oversight isn’t as rigorous as it could be, but even critics overwhelmingly agree that it is far better to buy charcoal which has the FSC logo on its packaging than the, typically cheaper, product without it.
Supermarkets and the major retailers sell only FSC products – but the smaller retailers are much less rigorous, so consumers should scour the packaging to see if the FSC logo is there. If it isn’t, you shouldn’t buy it and you should tell the shopkeeper why you’re going elsewhere.
How Namibian charcoal workers pay a high price for the cheap British barbecue - News - Food and Drink - The Independent
FOREST UNDER ATTACK!
Thursday, June 11, 2015 - 08:00
ONE of the biggest scandals and neglect of duty by environmental, health and forestry officials has been uncovered under the thick cloud of smoke permanently covering thousands of hectares of the Namibian landscape in the pristine Ugab ravine and the Vingerklip landmarks in the Otjiwarongo, Khorixas and Outjo triangle.
In an astonishing turn of events an Informanté investigation was stonewalled, with officials revealing that they received an order from the Minister of Environmental Affairs, Pohamba Shifeta, banning any response into the ongoing illegal operations, with the knowledge of senior officials of the forestry directorate.
It can now be revealed that the operation spun out of control a year ago when the initial 50 licensed charcoal producers in the area increased uncontrollably to nearly 600 who operate under the most deplorable conditions and health threats. The uncontrollable charcoal industry is not only causing pollution in the area, but has become a cover for poaching in the Etosha Conservancy and the possibility exists that some of the poaching in the area could be linked to the uncontrolled camps and movement of charcoal producers.
Rare and old trees such as Tamboti but mainly Mopani trees in the area are being decimated in contravention of Forestry Act of 2012.
As an illustration, in a rush to maximise profit with no regard to the environment, one producer sent out about one metric tonne of CO2 into the atmosphere in order to produce the same amount of charcoal, exacerbating deforestation and polluting the air.
Informanté can reveal that an average production per kiln in a four (4) day cycle is about 300kg of charcoal, which adds up to 2 100kg of charcoal per month just from one kiln. Astonishingly, one producer deploys between 50 and 150 kilns, exceeding the allowable harvest of 500 cubic metres of wood per year on a farm in accordance with the Forest Act 2012. This means each producer cuts some 6 000 tonnes of raw wood while harvesting is usually calculated in cubic metres. The annual production per producer could be more than 250 000 metric tonnes of charcoal.
Some producers have moved on to the third or fourth farm after decimating all trees. The most affected area are the Ugab ravine and the Outjo district where old mopane trees have been felled without any control from the Directorate of Forestry offices in Otjiwarongo, Outjo and Khorixas. Farmers in the area are putting the blame at the doorstep of Forestry officials who are apparently lax in enforcing the law, or simply ignoring agreements that are reached between the interested parties. In the midst of this controversy and destruction, King Josia Shikongo Taapopi of Uukwaluudhi in the North has also condemned the uncontrollable felling of trees in the protected forest in his traditional district.
CHARCOAL WHIP CRACKS | Informante
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