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Fueling the development of alternative energy sources in mali
| Project | Location | Funding Level | Funding Period |
| ALCD Charcoal Briquettes Project | Bamako, Mali | $227,000 | FY 2004-2008 |
Mali is more than twice the size of Texas, but the Sahara Desert dominates its vast northern regions, and most of the country’s 12 million citizens live within a narrow, drought-prone savannah belt stretched along the country’s southern frontiers.
In this context, careful natural resource management is essential to prevent deforestation and accelerated desertification. Most Malians still rely on wood-based charcoal as their primary source of cooking fuel, however, and charcoal production consumes an estimated 54 million tons of national forest reserves every year.
In an effort to help Malian entrepreneurs develop sustainable low-cost fuel alternatives, ADF is providing the Association for the Fight Against Desertification (ALCD) with capital to expand its production of charcoal briquettes made from agricultural by-products – primarily cotton and sorrel stalks - and water hyacinth, an invasive plant species that has overrun many sections of the Niger River in recent years.
ALCD began as a reforestation initiative led by members of a youth group based in the administrative district of Kayes near Mali’s borders with Mauritania and Senegal. In the early 1990s, the young volunteers planted a new tree line between the town of Kayes and sections of the Sahara that were encroaching on the grasslands of the northern Sahel.
Recognizing a direct link between deforestation and Mali’s overwhelming reliance on wood-based cooking fuel, ALCD secured support from a Canadian NGO in 1996 to develop an environmentally friendly fuel alternative fashioned from a composite of molasses and unprocessed agricultural material. This idea was drawn from an initiative in Thailand that had used carbonized rice stalks to produce high-quality cooking briquettes.
ALCD established relationships with rural cotton growing families to secure a steady supply of cotton stalks and provide women entrepreneurs with carbonizing machines for processing stalks into charcoal dust. These efforts gave ALCD a reliable supply base for its new product and provided small-scale producers with new income streams from sales of a commodity that formerly had no economic value.
The Association will use ADF funds to rehabilitate its production system, build two new warehouses for storing processed briquettes and unprocessed raw materials, and install electricity, water, and telephone connections at its facility. The Association will also purchase new equipment to enhance output, including:
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Two half-ton scales for weighing materials,
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A hammer mill for pulverizing plant matter,
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Six carbonizing machines,
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And two binding machines.
The new carbonizing machines will allow ALCD to expand its rural supply base and provide up to 50 women with full-time employment. The scales, binding machines, and hammer mill will allow ALCD to expand its production of energy-efficient briquettes that burn without harmful chemical residues.
The project will also provide ALCD with funds to purchase a 10-ton truck and motorcycles. These vehicles will help the Association improve its acquisition of raw materials and increase product distribution across the capital city of Bamako and its eastern suburbs. The Association sells its charcoal in 50-kilogram wrapped bundles and one-kilogram packets that are delivered directly to roadside coffee sellers, food sellers and individual families.
To improve its market niche and build consumer loyalty, ALCD will launch a concerted branding effort through a television and radio advertising campaign that stresses the environmentally friendly qualities of its trademark Jakele (“Fight Drought”) brand. The campaign will also stress the superior quality and low cost of Jakele briquettes, which burn significantly longer than standard charcoal and are 25 percent cheaper per unit than wood-based products.
ADF’s Mali partner organization, AED-Sahel will provide ACLD staff with training in marketing, business management, financial management and accounting, personnel management, and quality assurance.
The goal of the five-year project is to increase ALCD’s annual sales fifteen times and produce a substantial increase in profits. ALCD will also invest in expanding the number of its full-time employees to 20 and increasing employee salaries to an average of US $823, a figure four times greater than Mali’s current per capita income level of US $296.