[KAMPALA, SciDev.Net] In Uganda’s Kyaka II refugee settlement, once discarded food waste is being put to better use to provide clean cooking fuel for the community — and reduce deforestation.

Every day, refugees at the camp produce several tonnes of eco-friendly cooking briquettes from scraps such as maize cobs, banana peels, and sawdust as part of the Live in Green project, founded by Congolese refugee Solomon Bhaghabhonerano.

The waste-to-energy enterprise also manages tree nurseries and manufactures cookstoves for the resource-constrained community, tackling deforestation and reducing household costs.

It has become an important source of employment for many of the displaced people living at the camp, who help with waste collection and processing.

Uganda hosts over 1.7 million refugees, mostly women and children fleeing conflicts in neighbouring countries. The settlements they inhabit are vulnerable to extreme heat and flooding due to climate change.

Bhaghabhonerano arrived at Kyaka II 25 years ago, aged six years old. He witnessed forested land turn into degraded terrain as refugee populations cleared trees for fuel and farming.

“Back then, it was a forest. You feared walking too far because of wild animals,” Bhaghabhonerano recalls.

“Our parents cleared the land for farming, but as more refugees arrived, trees were cut for firewood and charcoal. The land got degraded, the soil lost nutrients, and the forest disappeared.”

Live in Green’s approach impressed climate experts at a London-based climate solutions charity.

“What really blew me away was the scale at which they’re operating,” said Isona Shibata, head of international programmes at the charity Ashden, which works to accelerate climate innovation.

“They have a waste recovery and resource centre where they’re able to produce a few tonnes of briquettes each day,” she added.

In June, Ashden awarded £270,000 in grants to 18 refugee-led enterprises across Kenya, Uganda, and Ethiopia. Live in Green received £25,000 to scale up operations and refine cookstove designs for international markets.

“With programmes like Ashden’s, we’re signaling to donors that refugee entrepreneurs deserve serious investment in the clean energy transition,” Shibata said.

Many refugee-led innovations are seeking to tackle climate change and energy poverty. But access to capital remains the biggest challenge.

“This grant is a game-changer,” said Bhaghabhonerano. “We’re using it to improve our designs and scale production, even for international markets.”

In 2016, the Congolese refugee launched a tree nursery project in the settlement. But it soon became clear that planting trees alone wasn’t enough.

“People were still cutting down the trees we planted because firewood was still the only option,” he said.

In 2021, Live in Green shifted its focus to producing briquettes. “Some people resisted at first. They said they were expensive and hard to light,” said Bhaghabhonerano.

They improved the design to make the briquettes easier to ignite and longer-burning. As a result, uptake began to grow.

“Now, people embrace it. You can cook beans with just a few briquettes, and they burn for hours,” Bhaghabhonerano added.

Amina, a refugee living in Kyaka II, says she prefers using briquettes because her monthly stipends have reduced and she needs to manage the family’s money wisely. “They’re clean, and they cook for longer,” she adds.

According to Cecilia Nalwadda, a principal research officer at the Uganda National Academy of Sciences, the innovation deserves support for saving trees and promoting clean energy — but she urges caution.

“The issue of taking compost for clean energy might remove nutrients from the soil,” she told SciDev.Net.

“There should be a balance between clean energy and sustaining soil nutrition.”

Live in Green says it takes a holistic approach, managing reforestation plots and converting organic waste, collected by waste collectors and recycling agents throughout Kyaka II, into briquettes.

Shibata said: “[It is] a very whole-systems approach to addressing both deforestation and clean cooking — something that is holistic and beneficial to everybody in the community.”

This article was produced by SciDev.Net’s Sub-Saharan Africa desk.