PRESENTATION:

With costs and difficult seasonal schedules at times to get fuels into villages, there are a number of strategies that can help tribal communities be more independent.  For one, any type of biomass that is available can be used to produce biochar through limiting oxygen when burning grasses, treewood or even manure.  With easy to obtain (or fabricate) implements, char produced with good pore space can be used to make as a soil amendment for better growing or as filtration medium for water. This also reduces wildfire danger by reducing the fuel on the ground.  In addition, through simple means biomass can be combusted, now with oxygen, to produce a woodgas that can operate generators for electricity fairly easily.   Lastly, local biomass can be used with a simple build of refractory bricks to obtain high heat storage in a burn box as well as cinder blocks flue (for keeping frost off in early breakup or late fall in a greenhouse or shed/barn.  This can use local wood/grasses very effectively and regulates how quickly stored heat can last (for starting seedlings or keeping others warm).