Read at : IRIN
TIMOR-LESTE: High hopes for bio-briquettes
DILI, 3 November 2009 (IRIN) – Bio-briquettes, a cheap and environmentally friendly fuel, could have the twin benefit of mitigating unemployment and deforestation in Timor-Leste – two significant problems in one of Asia’s poorest nations.
“We’re increasing our capacity for our future,” said Mateus Tame, one of a group of young workers learning the art of briquette production in Dili, the capital, who was busy turning gallons of mush into neat stacks of what looked like cardboard doughnuts.
“It’s difficult for young people to find jobs. We are a new country,” the 20-year-old said.
Since formal independence in 2002, Timor-Leste’s post-occupation generation has struggled to find work. While most of the population of 1.1 million is engaged in subsistence farming, unemployment in urban Dili peaks at about 40 percent among the youth, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Widespread unemployment contributed to the crisis in 2006 when more than 150,000 people were displaced.
According to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, the violence was the result of political rivalries dating back to the independence struggle up to 1999; divisions between “easterners” and “westerners”; as well as chronic poverty and a large and disempowered youth population.
Today about 40 percent of the population live below the poverty line of US$1 a day, according to the UN.
Timor-Leste remains one of the poorest countries in AsiaWith bio-briquette production, three people can make about 750 briquettes a day, sold for 2 cents apiece, with the potential for workers to make about $4-5 a day.
Environmental benefits
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