Chinese experts commence 14-day training on bamboo fuel in Uganda

KAMPALA, UGANDA | Xinhua | A team of visiting Chinese experts on Sunday began a 14-day training session with Ugandan farmers and industry players on the production and utilization of bamboo charcoal.

Chinese Ambassador to Uganda Zhang Lizhong, who launched the session in the Uganda capital of Kampala, said education and green development are important parts of cooperation between the two countries.

As the bamboo industry has become one of the important green industries that ensure sustainable development, Zhang expressed the hope that during the training session, participants would learn and share views on the use of bamboo in charcoal processing technology.

“Bamboo culture has an important position in China, symbolizing resilience, modesty, and high morals. I hope this will also become the characteristics of our relationship, featuring resilience, mutual respect, self-reliance, and sticking to principles,” Zhang said.

Wu Tonggui, vice director-general of the China National Bamboo Research Center (CNBRC), who headed the team of experts, said bamboo is widely acknowledged as a renewable, eco-friendly resource with huge social, economic, and ecological benefits.

“By raising the public awareness and sharing bamboo and wood charcoal processing and utilization techniques, this training provides a good opportunity for all the participants to appreciate the features of bamboo and forestry sector and to unleash its huge potential,” he said.

“Let’s work together to explore the new mode of China-Uganda cooperation in the bamboo and forestry industry, and jointly pursue the objectives of the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda,” he added.

Margaret Adata, acting commissioner of the Forest Sector Support Department under the Ugandan Ministry of Water and Environment, said Uganda’s energy structure remains heavily reliant on traditional biomass.

Adata said 2021 data show that biomass energy (primarily firewood and charcoal) accounts for 87 percent of national final energy consumption, with charcoal being the dominant cooking fuel in urban areas.

This over-dependence has led to severe forest degradation issues, said Adata. “To address this ecological and energy crisis, Uganda is actively developing its bamboo charcoal industry. Compared with traditional timber, bamboo demonstrates remarkable advantages: it requires only 3 to 5 years to reach harvest maturity and adapts to diverse climatic and soil conditions.”

Florence Munaba, secretary general of the Uganda Bamboo Association (UBA), a group representing bamboo producers, described the training as the beginning of a new chapter toward value addition and sustainable use of bamboo resources for energy purposes.

Walter Mwebaze, a representative of the trainees, said the wood in the forests is being threatened for charcoal production, leading to deforestation and loss of biodiversity. “There is a need to explore bamboo biomass as an alternative to wood biomass in the development of the charcoal industry.”

Participants in the launch event include government officials, researchers, and bamboo farmers. The training will consist of classroom lectures and on-site visits.

The training, organized by the CNBRC and the UBA, aims to strengthen South-South cooperation to combat global climate change and strike a balance between natural resource conservation and economic development.

According to the Ugandan Ministry of Water and Environment, the government has established a national bamboo strategy aimed at cultivating 300,000 hectares of bamboo on private land by 2029. This is complemented by the establishment of a bamboo processing industrial chain that spans multiple sectors, from furniture manufacturing to biofuel production.■