NAIROBI NEWS- Kenyan
companies are starting to produce paper from sugarcane waste in a move
environmentalists hope will reduce illegal logging, reverse deforestation and
help slow the effects of climate change. Illegal logging
has had a dramatic effect on Kenya’s forest cover, damaging local communities
and their livelihoods, disturbing natural habitats and contributing to global
warming.
But the use of
bagasse - the fibrous matter left over after sugarcane has been crushed and the
sugar extracted - in papermaking will help protect forests as well as provide
jobs and opportunities for many in western Kenya, sugar makers and
environmentalists say.
Countries like
India, Mexico, the United States and Australia already use bagasse to make
paper. In Kenya, production began on March 10 and is still on a small scale.
But as one of sub-Saharan Africa’s largest sugarcane producers, Kenya hopes the
industry will grow to a large scale.
“We’ll be producing
paper and selling it but at the same time we are helping the community preserve
the tropical forests in this part of the country,” said Raju Chatte of Kibot
Sugar and Allied Industries Limited, a western Kenyan company that has invested
more than $14 million to start producing paper from sugarcane waste.
“We aim to buy
more than 480,000 tonnes of sugarcane waste from farmers and individuals each
year. In the past, most of the sugarcane waste ended up as waste in trash bins
of major towns that have factories,” he said at a recent event in Nairobi.
Kibot plans to
partner with other organisations in its papermaking venture. Webuye Paper
Company, a paper producer that a few years ago was on the verge of bankruptcy,
has also begun making paper from cheap sugarcane waste.
KEEPING
LOGGERS AT BAY
The National
Environment Management Authority, Kenya’s main environmental body, has licensed
papermaking from bagasse, a move experts have welcomed.
“If you look at
how many people cut down trees and sell the wood to factories, the incidences
of this will reduce drastically in western Kenya,” said Patrick Ojera,
professor of economics and business strategy at Maseno University in Kakamega,
in Kenya’s Western province.
Ojera’s department
is partnering with the university’s science research department to study the
impact of the new initiative later this year.
“The Kakamega
tropical rain forest - the only tropical forest in Kenya and one of the most
important (forests) in Kenya - will be preserved and illegal loggers will be
kept at bay,” Ojera predicted in an interview.
Kakamega plays an
important environmental role in Kenya, as rainfall in the forest provides water
for many Kenyan homes. The forest is also home to a variety of important
African hardwood and softwood trees such as Elgon teak, red white stinkwoods,
croton and Aniageria altisima. Splendid orchids sit amongst the
branches of the larger trees.
The forest is made
up of five rain forest islands with water in between and covers more than 334
square kilometres - but the forest has been shrinking, partly due to
illegal logging.
“In the past four
years, the forest has lost more than a third of its forest cover. Now that is
set to change,” Ojera said. “What would happen to the climate if all the
furniture and paper you’re using comes from a tropical rain forest?”
FROM
ILLEGAL TO LEGAL LOGGING
Although paper
production from bagasse is in its early stages, illegal logging is already on
the decline, according to local authorities.
Illegal logging in
Kakamega rainforest has reduced by almost half since March this year, said Eric
Kiraithe, a spokesman from the Kenyan police, although he could not give exact
figures.
More effective
policing of the area is one reason for the decline in illegal logging but many
local farmers and residents are also now collecting bagasse instead of cutting
trees illegally, and are harvesting bamboo.
Ojera and his
university are doing extensive research on sugarcane waste, including a project
to discover if Kenya can produce waterproof paper from bagasse. Waterproof
paper has been produced in countries like Australia but it has never been
commercialised.
“Climate change
and illegal logging are very closely related and the first treeless paper
production factories are already operational in western Kenya. It is a good
effort but we still have a long way to go,” added Ojera.
Farmers or
entrepreneurs can earn as much as $2 per kilo of bagasse sold to paper
factories. An average farmer can sell up to several hundred kilos of bagasse
during the six-month sugarcane-harvesting period.
“I am happy my
sugarcane waste does not have to go in the bin. At least I can make a few
hundred dollars with just a few kilos,” said Mundia Mundia, a sugarcane farmer
from Kenya’s Western province.
Western Kenya
produces more paper than any other part of the country and is the biggest
producer in East Africa. The global economic crisis pushed many paper producing
companies close to bankruptcy, though many have recovered, and the use of
sugarcane waste could help revive other struggling companies.
Kenya is so far
the only country in eastern and central Africa that is producing paper from
bagasse and it has plans to expand the industry. Kenya exports paper to Uganda,
Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, South Sudan and Zambia, and Kenyan paper companies
have set up offices in most of those countries.
Gitonga Njeru
is a science journalist based in Nairobi.