Mangrove Charcoal Prized in Japan

And now we bring you an interesting story from Malaysia, where a local charcoal making industry is booming. The prized mangrove charcoal is in high demand in Japan. Lets take a look.
STORY:
Hundreds of kilns are turning mangrove trees into charcoal in the Northern Malaysian state of Perak.

This small town of Kuala Sepetang, is half a world away from Japan.

But Japanese households use this Malaysian charcoal as a natural odorizer for tea-making, purifying water, and barbecuing.

Demand is so high that this small industry makes sales of over eight hundred thousand U.S dollars a month.

To make this special charcoal, mangrove trees are baked at high temperatures inside kilns for up to a month. This lengthy process removes all water from the logs.




Then the chunks of smoking charcoal are harvested by local workers.

[Mahteh Mah, Charcoal Harvester]: (female, bahasa)
"I wanted to work some where else but I was turned down because my age is catching up, so I had no choice but to work here until I'm not able to work anylonger."

[Low Kim Boy, Charcoal Harvester]: (female, Mandarin)
"It's OK. It is not easy to get work elsewhere, so I feel this job is alright."

Many of the workers believe the charcoal to have medicinal properties. They seem to remain healthy despite working in smoky conditions.

A charcoal kiln owner seems to be of that opinion himself.

[Ho Chan Teck, Charcoal Kiln Owner]: (male, Mandarin)
"I live here and so far I have not seen or heard of cancer or other diseases and rarely do I hear of these things happening."

But nature experts are worried that illegal and over-logging of the prized mangrove trees will cause damage to the local environment.

[Niel Nirmala Ariyapala, Nature Activist]: (male, English)
"Animals or wildlife or naturally occurring species there, displaced or disturbed are killed by the logging activities. Definitely any kind of logging will have an impact on forest."

And so Nirmala hopes a balance between the local charcoal industry and the care for its mangroves will be met soon.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• ntd
• mangrove charcoal prize
• japan
• malaysia
• kilns
• perak
• Kuala Sepetang

[MrThahey]

it doesn't remove just the water, it also removes volatiles