Combatting climate change, protecting the enviornment, saving wood

In the past, man adapted his shelter to the locally available resources and to local conditions.

In the past 30 years this has changed. As people settled in towns and villages, they began to build house that consumed more wood, especially in building the roof. Thanks to man’s over consumption of trees, quickly, tree cover disappeared in many part of the Sahel, to be replaced by desert. Over the past 30 years the region has seen massive destruction of forests as a result of over-consumption. Some species have gone completely. People have to travel further to find wood for building, and pay more for it.

The amount of wood used in construction is one major problem, as nearly all traditional types of shelter use timber and branches in the construction.

A typical house with a flat roof measuring 31m² uses:

• At least  56 linear metres of beams
• 12 m³ of branches , equivalent to 8 cartloads of wood

Woodless construction and associated activities such as improved pottery production contribute to saving wood and through this, help protect the environment of the Sahel Region of West Africa.