U.S. Trade Mission to Namibia Visits CCF & Bishblok Factory in Otjiwarongo
The US Trade Mission delegates at the CCF
The Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) and its Bush Project today were visited by a U.S. trade mission to Namibia coordinated by the Namibian Ministry of Trade and Industry. The goal of the mission was to provide U.S. business people with the opportunity to meet and network with their Namibian counterparts as well as government officials, to encourage and facilitate U.S. business involvement in Namibia.
CCF’s Bush Project restores bush-encroached farmland and wildlife habitat by converting invasive, habitat-destroying bush into Bushblok, a clean-burning fuel log. Trade mission delegates visited the Bush Project factory in Otjiwarongo, where CCF Bush’s general manager Dr. Bruce Brewer and CCF ecologist Matti Nghikembua explained how clearing invasive bush helps restore Namibian savannah to its original state and improve the habitat for both the cheetah and its prey. The factory has been in production since 2002 and produces 4-5 tons of Bushblok heating logs per day while providing employment to local people.
Delegates then moved on to the CCF Research and Education Centre, which is situated 44 km outside Otjiwarongo, where CCF director Dr. Laurie Marker and staff briefed the group on CCF’s conservation programmes and gave the group a tour of the Centre’s genetics laboratory, veterinary clinic and museum devoted to the cheetah. Delegates also had the opportunity to watch the feeding of some of the more than 50 non-releasable cheetahs that are being cared for at CCF.
Following the visit to CCF, delegates moved on to the North of Namibia for further meetings and seminars.
CCF’s Bush Project restores bush-encroached farmland and wildlife habitat by converting invasive, habitat-destroying bush into Bushblok, a clean-burning fuel log. Trade mission delegates visited the Bush Project factory in Otjiwarongo, where CCF Bush’s general manager Dr. Bruce Brewer and CCF ecologist Matti Nghikembua explained how clearing invasive bush helps restore Namibian savannah to its original state and improve the habitat for both the cheetah and its prey. The factory has been in production since 2002 and produces 4-5 tons of Bushblok heating logs per day while providing employment to local people.
Delegates then moved on to the CCF Research and Education Centre, which is situated 44 km outside Otjiwarongo, where CCF director Dr. Laurie Marker and staff briefed the group on CCF’s conservation programmes and gave the group a tour of the Centre’s genetics laboratory, veterinary clinic and museum devoted to the cheetah. Delegates also had the opportunity to watch the feeding of some of the more than 50 non-releasable cheetahs that are being cared for at CCF.
Following the visit to CCF, delegates moved on to the North of Namibia for further meetings and seminars.
EDITOR'S NOTES:
CCF
The Cheetah Conservation Fund, celebrating 20 years in helping to save the wild cheetah, is a Namibian non-profit trust dedicated to the long-term survival of the cheetah and its ecosystems.
CCF Bush
Cheetah Conservation Fund PO Box 1755, Otjiwarongo, Namibia Tel: +264 (0) 67 306225 Fax: +264 (0) 67 306247 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.cheetah.org CCF Bush (Pty) Ltd. P.O. Box 769 Otjiwarongo Ph: +264 (0) 304806 Fax: +264 (0) 304430 e-mail: [email protected] Website: www.bushblok.com
CCF
The Cheetah Conservation Fund, celebrating 20 years in helping to save the wild cheetah, is a Namibian non-profit trust dedicated to the long-term survival of the cheetah and its ecosystems.
- Since 1990, the organisation has developed education and conservation programmes based on its bio-medical cheetah research studies, published scientific research papers and has presented educational programmes to more than 350,000 outreach school learners, donated over 350 livestock guarding dogs to commercial and communal farmers as part of the CCF innovative non-lethal livestock management programme, and has established a cheetah genome resource bank of cheetah sperm, tissue and blood samples.
- CCF’s Integrated Livestock, Wildlife, and Predator Management courses, along with the Cheetah Conservation Biology courses, are making great strides toward the appropriate training of wildlife professionals and agricultural extension officers in the cheetah’s remaining range-countries, as well as for the cheetah’s worldwide conservation.
- Research into cheetah biology and ecology has greatly increased our understanding of the fastest land animal and education programmes for schools and the farming community help change public attitudes to allow predator and humans to co-exist. However, despite the many successes of CCF programmes, the cheetah is still Africa’s most endangered big cat with ~10,000 cheetahs remaining.
CCF Bush
- CCF Bush (Pty) Ltd. manufactures wood fuel briquettes – marketed as Bushblok - as a pilot project to explore a strategy to improve habitat for cheetah by removal of thickened bush and is creating a viable market for biomass products derived in environmentally and socially appropriate means, harvesting and processing invader thornbush and manufacturing extruded wood briquettes
- Twenty Namibians are employed either within the processing plant in Otjiwarongo or in harvest and chipping operations. Long-term monitoring of biodiversity measures is in place on experimental harvest plots. All harvest sites are located on CCF properties.
- The production process is simple: the bush is manually harvested (by axe and panga) in the field and left to dry for at least 4 weeks. The dried bush is chipped by a self-powered wood drum chipper and the chips are transported to the processing plant by truck. At the processing plant the chips are hammermilled to 8mm size, further dried by hot-air (when necessary), and fed into extrusion presses. The heat and pressure of the extrusion process bonds the material into a log stream, there is no need for additive binders. The log stream is cut into individual logs and banded and wrapped for sale.
- Bushblok briquettes are Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified and exported to Europe and South Africa
- In Namibia, Bushblok can be purchased at the following outlets:
- Ark Trading, 6 Ridvan Avenue, Pionierspark, Windhoek
- Bushwhackers, 32 Rhino St, Windhoek & Modern Living Lifestyle Centre in Swakopmund
- Embassy Liquor Store, 46 Berg St., Klein Windhoek
- G’s Discount Liquor, 11 Bloekom St., Suiderhof, Windhoek
- Pupkewitz Megabuild, Mandume Ndemufayo St., Windhoek
- Soltec, 51 Marconi Street, Southern Industrial, Windhoek
- Wecke & Voigts National Wholesale, Jeppe St., Northern Ind., Windhoek
- Schaefer’s Bottlestore, Otjiwarongo
- Theo’s Superspar, Otjiwarongo
Cheetah Conservation Fund PO Box 1755, Otjiwarongo, Namibia Tel: +264 (0) 67 306225 Fax: +264 (0) 67 306247 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.cheetah.org CCF Bush (Pty) Ltd. P.O. Box 769 Otjiwarongo Ph: +264 (0) 304806 Fax: +264 (0) 304430 e-mail: [email protected] Website: www.bushblok.com