Originally published in 1986, this book provides a detailed examination of programmes to introduce improved charcoal making techniques throughout the developing world. Charcoal making is widely regarded as an extremely wasteful use of scarce wood resources. The book includes a section on the physics and chemistry of charcoal and descriptions of the various traditional methods of charcoal making. Patterns of charcoal supply and distribution are analysed and efforts to introduce improved charcoal making techniques are described and evaluated.