Source: Gitonga Njeru
Kenyan companies are starting to produce paper from sugarcane waste in a move environmentalists hope will reduce illegal logging, reverse deforestation and help slow the effects of climate change. But the use of bagasse - the fibrous matter left over after sugarcane has been crushed and the sugar extracted - in papermaking will help protect forests as well as provide jobs and opportunities for many in western Kenya, sugar makers and environmentalists say.

Countries like India, Mexico, the United States and Australia already use bagasse to make paper. In Kenya, production began on March 10 and is still on a small scale. But as one of sub-Saharan Africa’s largest sugarcane producers, Kenya hopes the industry will grow to a large scale.

“We’ll be producing paper and selling it but at the same time we are helping the community preserve the tropical forests in this part of the country,” said Raju Chatte of Kibot Sugar and Allied Industries Limited, a western Kenyan company that has invested more than $14 million to start producing paper from sugarcane waste.

Kibot plans to partner with other organizations in its papermaking venture. Webuye Paper Company, a paper producer that a few years ago was on the verge of bankruptcy, has also begun making paper from cheap sugarcane waste.

Farmers or entrepreneurs can earn as much as $2 per kilo of bagasse sold to paper factories. An average farmer can sell up to several hundred kilos of bagasse during the six-month sugarcane-harvesting period.

Western Kenya produces more paper than any other part of the country and is the biggest producer in East Africa. The global economic crisis pushed many paper producing companies close to bankruptcy, though many have recovered, and the use of sugarcane waste could help revive other struggling companies.

Gitonga Njeru is a science journalist based in Nairobi.