No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the author.
Firewood and Charcoal Demand in Sub-Saharan Africa: Assessing Sustainability and Trends
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any citations for this publication.
Agricultural landscapes are increasingly being managed with the aim of enhancing the provisioning of multiple ecosystem services and sustainability of production systems. However, agricultural management that maximizes provisioning ecosystem services can often reduce both regulating and maintenance services. We hypothesized that agroforestry reduces trade-offs between provisioning and regulating/maintenance services. We conducted a quantitative synthesis of studies carried out in sub-Saharan Africa focusing on crop yield (as an indicator of provisioning services), soil fertility, erosion control, and water regulation (as indicators of regulating/maintenance services). A total of 1106 observations were extracted from 126 peer-reviewed publications that fulfilled the selection criteria for meta-analysis of studies comparing agroforestry and non-agroforestry practices (hereafter control) in sub-Saharan Africa. Across ecological conditions, agroforestry significantly increased crop yield, total soil nitrogen, soil organic carbon, and available phosphorus compared to the control. Agroforestry practices also reduced runoff and soil loss and improved infiltration rates and soil moisture content. No significant differences were detected between the different ecological conditions, management regimes, and types of woody perennials for any of the ecosystem services. Main trade-offs included low available phosphorus and low soil moisture against higher crop yield. This is the first meta-analysis that shows that, on average, agroforestry systems in sub-Saharan Africa increase crop yield while maintaining delivery of regulating/maintenance ecosystem services. We also demonstrate how woody perennials have been managed in agricultural landscapes to provide multiple ecosystem services without sacrificing crop productivity. This is important in rural livelihoods where the range of ecosystem services conveys benefits in terms of food security and resilience to environmental shocks.
Bioenergy, mostly from wood biomass, is now widely seen as an important element in the efforts to tame dangerous climate change. At the same time, foresters and development specialists note that wood-based energy production can contribute to rural development. However, to deliver on these two goals without generating negative side effects, wood-based energy has to be sustainable, while currently, the sector is developing rapidly in ways that are technologically advanced, with questionable sustainability. How can sustainability be achieved in bioenergy production, to make it a viable element of climate change mitigation, adaptation, and rural development? Arguing for the need to mainstream sustainability thinking into wood-based energy production, the article draws on a critical literature review to identify four different levels of sustainability in the existing research on bioenergy from wood. It shows two possible strategies for integrating sustainability in wood bioenergy production. A top-down approach draws on global forestry governance instruments, while a bottom-up approach uses best-practices in forest plantations for bioenergy purposes, as illustrated by a case study from rural Paraguay. Using aggregated and visualized sustainability indicators, the article exemplifies what sustainable bioenergy production means in more tangible terms.
The United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals encourage a transition to 'affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all'. To be successful, the transition requires billions of people to adopt cleaner, more efficient cooking technologies that contribute to sustainability through multiple pathways: improved air quality, reduced emissions of short-lived climate pollutants, and reduced deforestation or forest degradation. However, the latter depends entirely on the extent to which people rely on 'non-renewable biomass' (NRB). This paper compares NRB estimates from 286 carbon-offset projects in 51 countries to a recently published spatial assessment of pan-tropical woodfuel demand and supply. The existing projects expect to produce offsets equivalent to ~138 MtCO2e. However, when we apply NRB values derived from spatially explicit woodfuel demand and supply imbalances in the region of each offset project, we find that emission reductions are between 57 and 81 MtCO2e: 41%–59% lower than expected. We suggest that project developers and financiers recalibrate their expectations of the mitigation potential of woodfuel projects. Spatial approaches like the one utilized here indicate regions where interventions are more (and less) likely to reduce deforestation or degradation: for example, in woodfuel 'hotspots' in East, West, and Southern Africa as well as South Asia, where nearly 300 million people live with acute woodfuel scarcity.
Over half of all wood harvested worldwide is used as fuel, supplying ~9% of global primary energy. By depleting stocks of woody biomass, unsustainable harvesting can contribute to forest degradation, deforestation and climate change. However, past efforts to quantify woodfuel sustainability failed to provide credible results. We present a spatially explicit assessment of pan-tropical woodfuel supply and demand, calculate the degree to which woodfuel demand exceeds regrowth, and estimate woodfuel-related greenhouse-gas emissions for the year 2009. We estimate 27–34% of woodfuel harvested was unsustainable, with large geographic variations. Our estimates are lower than estimates from carbon offset projects, which are probably overstating the climate benefits of improved stoves. Approximately 275 million people live in woodfuel depletion ‘hotspots’—concentrated in South Asia and East Africa—where most demand is unsustainable. Emissions from woodfuels are 1.0–1.2 Gt CO2e yr−1 (1.9–2.3% of global emissions). Successful deployment and utilization of 100 million improved stoves could reduce this by 11–17%. At US1 billion yr−1 in avoided greenhouse-gas emissions if black carbon were integrated into carbon markets. By identifying potential areas of woodfuel-driven degradation or deforestation, we inform the ongoing discussion about REDD-based approaches to climate change mitigation.
Woodfuel plays a critical role in energy provision in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), and is predicted to remain dominant within the energy portfolio of the population in the coming decades. Although current inefficient technologies of production and consumption are associated with negative socio-economic and environmental outcomes, projected charcoal intensive pathways along with urbanization may further accelerate pressures on tree covers. This paper reviews the status of the woodfuel sector in SSA, and estimates the magnitude of impacts of increasing wood demand for charcoal production on tree cover, which will be obviously unsustainable under business-as-usual scenarios. Agroforestry, if widely adopted as an integrated strategy together with improved kilns and stoves, can have a significant impact to reduce wood harvest pressures in forests through sustainably supplying trees on farm. A systematic approach is required to promote multi-purpose agroforestry systems compatible with farmers’ needs under local farming systems and current dryland socio-economic contexts.
The production, use and trade of charcoal for domestic cooking and heating are characterized by contradictions, stereotyping, and misconceptions. Partial information, over-generalizations, and the tendency to consolidate charcoal with other biomass fuels have contributed to gross misrepresentation of charcoal in terms of its actual impact on forests, its role in improving energy access, and in appropriate interventions. An underlying and often amplifying challenge that results from this situation is the lack of reliable, consistent, and comparable data on the charcoal sector which would form a necessary baseline for robust decision making. Further, clarifying misconceptions and debunking of myths is paramount for demonstrating the contribution that charcoal could have in addressing energy access and economic challenges in developing countries. We present five commonly held myths about charcoal that are perpetuated by different stakeholders and actors in the sector. Namely, that: 1) Charcoal is an energy source for the poor; 2) charcoal use is decreasing; 3) charcoal causes deforestation; 4) the charcoal sector is economically irrelevant, and; 5) improved charcoal cook stoves reduce deforestation and GHG emissions. Using a review of the literature and our own experience with charcoal research and practice, we propose reasons for the existence of these myths, why they are highly disputable, and the consequences that the myths have had on policy and intervention responses to charcoal. Widespread beliefs of these myths have and continue to misguide policy response and intervention approaches relating to charcoal. We propose some policy and research recommendations to curb further perpetuation of misconceptions that have been particularly harmful for charcoal.
This article examines woodfuel policy challenges and opportunities in Malawi two decades after woodfuel-crisis narratives and counter-narratives. A nuanced examination of woodfuel supply, demand, use, and markets illuminated options to turn stagnant policies based on charcoal 'bans' and fuel-substitution into proactive, realistic ones acknowledging woodfuel dominance and its socio-economic importance. Findings revealed growing, spatially differentiated woodfuel deficits in southern and central Malawi and around Blantyre, Zomba and Lilongwe cities. Poverty, limited electricity access, reliability and generation exacerbated by tariff subsidies, and complex fuel-allocation decisions restricted energy-ladder transitions from woodfuels to electricity, producing an enduring urban-energy mix dominated by charcoal, thereby increasing wood consumption. Diverse socio-political interests prevented lifting of the charcoal 'ban' despite progressive forest laws. Despite implementation challenges, lessons already learnt, efficiency and poverty-reduction arguments, limited government capacity, growing illegal production of charcoal in forest reserves, and its staying power, make targeted community-based forest management (CBFM) approaches more practical for regulated, commercial production of woodfuels than the status quo. New differentiated policies should include commercial woodfuel production and licensing for revenue and ecological sustainability under CBFM or concessions within and outside selected reserves, an enterprise-based approaches for poverty reduction, smallholder/private tree-growing, woodfuel-energy conserving technologies, improved electricity supply and agricultural productivity.
Sustainable energy supply challenges have provided key areas of concern in African cities. Considering the links between vegetation modification and woodfuel production, consumption and exchange in cities, academics and policy actors are turning attention to the matter as it forms key challenges to social and environmental sustainability. Researchers have warned that the dynamic impacts of a rapidly changing world economy including the limited physical availability of, and economic accessibility to, non-wood energy substitutes is challenging traditional resource management systems, and is threatening the long-term diversification and sustainability of local and regional systems in urban centres. This project reviewed attempts to deal with the problems through scientific/technical sector-based interventions designed and implemented through science-based action plans. Observed outcomes often show disappointing results. It became clear therefore that sustainable solutions require social transformation to be achieved through co-designing of projects which must involve community mobilization and empowerment. In the drylands of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), where there are presently several cities with huge population that continue to expand through high growth rates and rural urban migration, the Dryland Network (DRYCON) aimed to co-design a research project focussed on mitigating and/or leading to sustainable adaptation to dryland conditions. The project mobilized different expert groups and other stakeholders on urban management to work as a team and built trust to address the urban energy challenges through socio-cultural interventions. The Network focused sustainable transition to renewable and more sustainable energy. So far, the group has been fully mobilized and has created an acceptable learning environment through dialogue, negotiations, and a sense of humility amongst the different group members.
Examines some of the factors influencing the evolution of conventional fuel and wood fuel demands in the developing world. It shows that the resource and balance-of-payments constraints against the use of conventional fuels are less than commonly assumed. It examines the dynamics of wood-fuel resource depletion, and discusses the problems of estimating the future demand for wood fuel. The need for a disaggregated analysis that takes into account the differences between categories of domestic fuel consumers is emphasized. - Author
Highlights
► Sub-Saharan Africa has the lowest electricity access levels of 31% compared to other developing regions. Access ranges from 100% in Mauritius to 3% in Burundi. ► To address access to electricity, performance in the following policy areas has to improve: governance of state-owned utilities, finance and increasing regional electricity trade. ► 80% of the population still rely on wood and charcoal for cooking because they have no access to modern fuels and if they have access they cannot afford them. ► The woodfuel sector could significantly contribute to development of the poorest section of the population if it were modernised, decentralised and efficiently managed. ► The dissemination of improved cookstoves should be an urgent policy priority to lessen health impacts of open cooking fires on women and children.
This paper disusses domestic energy supply and demand in rural India. Links between forest scarcity and household fuel collection are analyzed in a non-separable household model, focusing on substitution of non-commercial fuels from the commons and the private domain. Based on data from villages bordering a protected area, a novel maximum entropy approach is used for estimation. It is found that households respond to forest scarcity and increased fuelwood collection time by substituting fuels from private sources for forest fuelwood. However, the magnitude of the response appears insufficient to prevent current fuelwood collection practices from causing serious forest degradation
Overreliance on biomass energy, such as firewood and charcoal, for cooking in developing countries has contributed to high rates of deforestation and resulted in substantial indoor pollution, which has negatively impacted the health of many individuals. However, the effectiveness of public policies aimed at encouraging households to switch to cleaner fuels, such as liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and kerosene, hinges on the extent to which they are mentally committed to specific fuels. Using data on four cooking fuels (charcoal, firewood, LPG, and kerosene) from the Ghana living standards survey, we found strong evidence that the most preferred fuel is LPG, followed by charcoal, with kerosene the least preferred. In addition, with the exception of kerosene that has price-elastic demand, the price elasticities of demand for the fuel types examined are inelastic. This finding suggests the so-called fuel-ladder is not robust.
In the 1970s, it appeared that fuelwood use was growing rapidly, and this could have major adverse impacts on the resource and poor users. By the mid-1980s, revised assessments indicated that there was less of a problem than had been foreseen, and much less of a need for forestry interventions to maintain supplies. As a result many of the latter were sharply scaled back. Additional information and analysis that has become available since the 1980s support the view that there is no need for large scale interventions devoted just to provision of fuelwood. However, declining access to supplies or markets can raise significant problems in some areas, and for particular categories of user. Growing urban demand for charcoal can also cause local problems, in particular in Africa. The potentials for appropriate forms of intervention are discussed.
Global Forest Sector Outlook 2050: Assessing future demand and sources of timber for a sustainable economy
- Agriculture Food
- Organization
Food and Agriculture Organization (2022a). Global Forest Sector Outlook 2050: Assessing future
demand and sources of timber for a sustainable economy.
https://www.fao.org/3/cc2265en/cc2265en.pdf
Criteria and indicators for sustainable woodfuels
- Agriculture Food
- Organization
Food and Agriculture Organization (2010). Criteria and indicators for sustainable woodfuels.
https://www.fao.org/documents/card/en/c/acea8f95-2064-500e-a9a3-a04adaa4b5c1/
Super Abundance: The Story of Population Growth, Innovation, and Human Flourishing
- M L Tupy
- G L Poley
M. L. Tupy, M.L. and G.L. Poley, "Super Abundance: The Story of Population Growth,
Innovation, and Human Flourishing," Washington, D.C. CATO Institute, 2023.
Global Forest Products Facts and
Food and Agriculture Organization (2018). Global Forest Products Facts and Figures 2018.
https://www.fao.org/3/ca7415en/ca7415en.pdf
Classification of Forest Products 2022
- Agriculture Food
- Organization
Food and Agriculture Organization (2022b). Classification of Forest Products 2022.
https://www.fao.org/3/cb8216en/cb8216en.pdf
FAOSTAT: Forestry Production and Trade
- Agriculture Food
- Organization
Food and Agriculture Organization (2023). FAOSTAT: Forestry Production and Trade.
https://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/FAO
United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2022)
United Nations (2022). United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population
Division (2022). World Population Prospects 2022, Online Edition. https://population.un.org/wpp/
25. The World Bank n.d.:World Bank Country and Lending Groups.
https://datahelpdesk.worldbank.org/knowledgebase/articles/906519-world-bank-country-andlending-groups