Mogadishu, (insidesmalia.org) - the removal of the trees in Somalia is steadily increasing, following demographic trends, which are reversing the traditional Somali way of life, as well as other social crisis.

Rural people’s common energy is the firewood while urban people use charcoal and almost Mogadishu’s charcoal supply comes mainly from the south.

During the recent fighting in Mogadishu incalculable number of trees were removed by the people who fled to those hedge plant places and replaced it with make shift huts made of the wood extracted from the trees.

Biomass fuels- mainly firewood and charcoal, the smoky and inefficient fuels  of the poor account for 80% of the country’s total energy consumption

“Foreign demand for charcoal especially the Gulf countries puts unprecedented pressure on locally limited wood resources” said Mohamed Ali Soyaan, a Somali environmentalist based in Mogadishu who criticized larger Somali groups who had replaced the small groups traditionally cut trees for making charcoal with axes.

“Now, sophisticated machines are used to remove more trees“ Mohamed said

During the last few years, cutting trees to produce charcoal for export to the Gulf States has become a big business with considerable profits.  In order optimize the operation, local businessmen introduced new technology – a battery- powered chain straws for cutting trees down, burn and brought in by trucks for export from major ports such as kismayo, and Bosaso .

Traders earn about a million US Dollars per ship and more than 80% of the trees used for charcoal are types of Acacia, the most dominant species said, IRIN,

To stem deforestation in Somalia would need partnership between global communities to educate, finance and provide alternative energy sources to cook food.

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