Fuelwood: The “other” renewable energy source for Africa?

Horst, Greg Hiemstra-van der; Hovorka, Alice J.

doi:10.1016/j.biombioe.2009.08.007

Cited by 100 publications

(59 citation statements)

References 62 publications

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“…Nevertheless, traditional biomass use has received remarkably little attention in the current biofuel debate, for it is considered unsustainable and primitive [5]. This attitude ignores the reality that traditional biomass use is and will remain extremely important for the global energy management and in particular for the poorest people.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Increasing the sustainability of household cooking in developing countries: Policy implications

Maes

Verbist

2012

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews

110

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Although 40% of the global population relies on traditional biomass use, mainly firewood and charcoal, for cooking, traditional biomass has received very little attention in the current biomass debate, because of its considered primitive and unsustainable nature. In this review, we discuss how the sustainability of household cooking in developing countries can be improved.Indoor air pollution due to incomplete combustion of traditional biomass causes the death of 1.45 million people every year, mainly of women and children, who also carry the heavy burden of fuelwood collection. In addition, charcoal production and combustion is responsible for very high greenhouse gas emissions per unit of energy. On the other hand, fuelwood production and trade is of vital importance for local economies and serves as safety net for the poorest people. Moreover, fuelwood collection is not a driver of deforestation and global fuelwood shortage will not occur, despite local problems of fuelwood provision.There are two distinct policy alternatives to increase the sustainability of cooking in developing countries. The first option is to climb the energy ladder and to switch from solid fuels to fossil fuels (LPG or kerosene), biogas or electricity. As this largely avoids the severe health damages of traditional biomass use, this option is considered the most desirable by numerous countries and by international organizations. However, as most developing countries are far away from meeting the necessary requirements, related to infrastructure, economics and local culture, expecting a large-scale switch to liquid fuels or electricity is unrealistic.In that case, the second policy option, increasing the sustainability of the current traditional biomass system, must be considered. This can be realized by an integrated approach, in which national and regional fuelwood policies are adapted, improved systems for charcoal production are implied and improved stoves, in combination with chimneys, are distributed.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Increasing the sustainability of household cooking in developing countries: Policy implications

Maes

Verbist

2012

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews

110

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“…Other studies have indicated different factors are also responsible for fuelwood consumption. The relationship between poverty and fuelwood dependency has been documented in Brazil and other countries at local scales (Hiemstra van der Horst and Hovorka, 2009;Matsika et al, 2013;Top et al, 2006). de Mederios et al, (2012) found that socioeconomic characteristics of rural communities in the same region explained up to 31% of fuelwood consumption, with monthly income the most important.…”

Section: Factors Affecting Fuelwood Consumptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fuelwood Consumption and its Impact on Forests in the Teknaf Peninsula on the Southern Coast of Bangladesh

Ullah

Tani

2017

American Journal of Environmental Sciences

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This study focuses on the household fuelwood in the Teknaf Peninsula of Bangladesh. Teknaf Peninsula has a protected forest area which is facing the threat of extinction due to the over dependency of the local people. Among the subsistence activities, harvesting fuelwood from the protected forest area is the most common and also a significant cause for the deforestation. This study aimed to determine the household fuelwood consumption and factors influencing the consumption. Data was collected during March 2015 using structured questionnaire to interview the sampled households. Among the 42 households the average annual consumption of fuelwood per person was found 1168 kg, which is quit higher than other similar studies around the world. Among the considered factors only family size influenced the fuelwood consumption. According to the current reports and our fuelwood consumption study the forest is not capable to provide fuelwood in a sustainable way.

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“…These types of forest exploitation has been documented as a problem in many rural areas in Africa [37,[38][39]40]. [41] considered wood extraction for fuelwood and timber as contributing to forest degradation even without significant changes especially when the initial area was well bordered.…”

Section: Drivers Of Deforestationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Land Use-Land Cover Change and Drivers of Deforestation in the Patako Protected Area (Center-West of Senegal)

Sambou¹

2015

AJEP

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Abstract:This study focus on land use-land cover changes relation to the multidimensional characteristics of spatial and temporal patterns of land dynamics and social practices. The objectives are to characterize the dynamics of land-use and landcover changes from 1992 to 2015, and to identify the drivers of deforestation and land degradation. Nine (09) types of classes were identified: humid vegetation (HV), savanna/wooded savanna (WS), savanna/shrub savanna (SSS), shrub savanna (SS), mangrove (MA), grass savanna (GS), cropland (CP), water (WA), and bare soil (BS). The process of change was analysed within a 5614.6 ha which includes the Patako protected area. The results have shown significant changes in land use-land cover for more than two decades (1992 to 2015). A high variability of land cover transfer was recorded between periods and class categories. At least, 55% of the HV changed to WS that was manifested by a loss of 16% during the first decade. The most important decline in area was recorded annually within the HV (4.8%), and the WS (2.6%), while the SSS experienced a substantial annual increase of 0.5%. The appearance of the SS (10.3%), during the last fifteen years, is a witness to degradation process as a result of anthropogenic pressure mainly for subsistence raisons. This pressure resulted to a conversion of small forested land to agricultural land on the boundary of the protected area. Tree cover represented 99.4% of the entire forest area in 1992, 97.4% in 2010, and slightly more (+1.2%) in 2015. According to this evolution, the annual rate of deforestation was estimated to 0.09% with an average of 0.11±0.08% for the three defined periods. The drivers leading to changes in land useland cover stresses the complexity that is related to sustainable management of protected areas. Urgent action is necessary to reduce loss of biodiversity due to deforestation and land degradation. For this purpose, a particular attention must be paid to the implementation of the Patako management plan under a Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) project.

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Fuelwood: The “other” renewable energy source for Africa?

Cited by 100 publications

References 62 publications

Increasing the sustainability of household cooking in developing countries: Policy implications

Increasing the sustainability of household cooking in developing countries: Policy implications

Fuelwood Consumption and its Impact on Forests in the Teknaf Peninsula on the Southern Coast of Bangladesh

Land Use-Land Cover Change and Drivers of Deforestation in the Patako Protected Area (Center-West of Senegal)

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