9046: 9020: braking and breaking the charcoal cycle in Haiti (fw (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Krista White <librisia@earthlink.net>

> The problems of charcoal use in Haiti are immense and the answers will need to be equally so.  No single answer is likely to solve the problem.  The answer of briquetting is certainly not one that I have come up with, I am only passing it along, but I¹m happy to give the band wagon a little push.
>

Can anyone in agricultural academia tell me how viable bamboo is as a charcoal product?  I know that certain strains of bamboo grow incredibly fast, and I wonder if it would be a useful alternative.  It could help with deforestation, but only if bamboo makes good charcoal and would not take over the forests and/or destroy Haitian soil.  Just throwing a thought out ...

Krista White