The potential of agroforestry in the provision of sustainable woodfuel in sub-Saharan Africa

Tree-Based Ecosystem Approaches (TBEAs) as Multi-Functional Land Management Strategies—Evidence from Rwanda

“…In turn, over 90% of the SSA population still rely on wood fuel, i.e., firewood and charcoal, which together account for >80% of primary energy supply, relative to the~10% global contribution of solid biomass [13]. Charcoal production has been cited as among the main causes of net greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in SSA [14,15], as it generally relies on the selective cutting of live trees in forests and woodlands rather than on planted tree stands.…”

“…Production of charcoal, in turn, is known to have a significant landscape-level impact on forest degradation due to multitudes of tree cuttings at the production site level [16]. With projected population growth, meeting growing charcoal demand under the business-as-usual scenario will negatively impact land uses significantly in SSA [13,14]. In an extreme case, annual loss of carbon to meet charcoal demand is projected to reach up to 4.5 million ha of forest area in 2050, up from 1.5 million ha in 2010 [13].…”

“…With projected population growth, meeting growing charcoal demand under the business-as-usual scenario will negatively impact land uses significantly in SSA [13,14]. In an extreme case, annual loss of carbon to meet charcoal demand is projected to reach up to 4.5 million ha of forest area in 2050, up from 1.5 million ha in 2010 [13]. While global policy debates emphasize the need for the poor to gain access to cleaner alternatives such as kerosene, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), and electricity, modern energy sources are unlikely to provide primary household energy needs for most of the poor in SSA for some decades yet, due to the fiscally unsustainable magnitude of the subsidies and infrastructure required to do so.…”

“…While global policy debates emphasize the need for the poor to gain access to cleaner alternatives such as kerosene, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), and electricity, modern energy sources are unlikely to provide primary household energy needs for most of the poor in SSA for some decades yet, due to the fiscally unsustainable magnitude of the subsidies and infrastructure required to do so. For the coming years, therefore charcoal will remain among the important energy sources to a wide range of urban socio-economic groups in SSA [13,14]. In view of this trend, an integrated strategy for sustainably supplying trees at the landscape scale and the promotion of efficient carbonization technologies is urgently needed to reduce wood harvest pressures, to sequestrate carbon, and to improve system resilience [13,17].…”

Effect of torrefaction temperature on properties of Patula pine

“…Wood has been at the same time a key fuel used worldwide. For instance, the fuel used for locomotion in the US during the 1850s was entirely wood (Schurr and Netschert 1960) and currently there are several regions that still use abundant amounts of wood as fuel, for example, for cooking (Iiyama et al 2014). However, since approximately the midst of the 19 th century to the beginning of the 20 th century, wood fuel has been progressively substituted by fossil fuels in several countries.…”