Tag: fuelwood
Grassroots Innovations Improve Woodfuel in Sub-Saharan Africa
Historical Development of Agroforestry and Overview of Global Agroforestry Systems
Can Land Use Planning Enable Better Landscape Governance In Dien Bien Province, Viet Nam?
Agroforestry in rice-production landscapes in Southeast Asia
Factors influencing the adoption of biochar-producing gasifier cookstoves by households in rural Kenya
Fuel wood is the main source of cooking and heating energy in developing countries. However, it is combusted in inefficient cookstoves, leading to more fuel use and human health problems resulting from exposure to smoke. Thus new, efficient cooking systems that can address some of these problems are required. This study examined gasifier cookstove use in Kwale County, Kenya, and factors influencing adoption. Gasifier stoves were issued for free to 50 households, which were surveyed after 2–3 months of use. The results showed that the stove was used by 96% of the households at varying frequencies, 40% of them used it almost every day with 4% switching to only using the new stove. All the users appreciated it because it saved fuel, produced less smoke, and produced charcoal to use for either cooking or soil amendment. Compared with the traditional three-stone open fire, the gasifier stove was reported to be easier to clean (98% of respondents), easier to adjust the heat (88%), easier to handle (58%), caused less exposure to heat (96%) and was cleaner for pots and the kitchen (98%). Another reported benefit of the gasifier stove was that it needed no tending (i.e., adjusting wood and blowing to keep the flames burning). The gasifier stove was mainly used to cook foods that required a short cooking time and many preferred to use it to cook dinner. However, the households encountered some challenges with using the gasifier stoves. For example, fuel preparation, reloading, and lighting were reported as challenges by 42%, 77% and 19%, respectively, of the 83% of households who reported challenges. These challenges could be overcome by improving stove design and by devising innovative ways of cutting fuel into small pieces.
Opportunities, barriers and support needs: micro-enterprise and small enterprise development based on non-timber products in eastern Indonesia
This paper focuses on lessons related to the development of viable medium, small and micro-enterprises (SMMEs) based on non-timber products in East Nusa Tenggara (ENT), Indonesia, that are relevant to the international aid shift towards private sector development and women’s economic empowerment. Most of the products traded in the 11 428 market stalls surveyed in informal-sector market places in ENT were not from forests or agroforests, but were vegetables, second-hand clothes and other products. Most of the forest and agro-forestry products being sold were low entry-point, low-value products, sold as part of people’s survival or coping strategies. Nevertheless, a few specialist products, such as indigo, hand-woven textiles, Symplocos leaf mordants and Lygodium fern baskets, have been remarkably successful in reaching global markets. Developing business partnerships with local producer groups and entrepreneurs is easier said than done, and requires strategic choices. In addition, enterprises need to be economically viable. At first, palm sugar from Borassus flabellifer, for example, seemed to be a viable product, but the costs of the fuelwood used to boil palm sap to produce palm sugar is the major constraint on palm sugar producers and household income. Ten barriers facing entry of non-timber products into commercial markets are identified that should be taken into account if long-term enterprise development based on these products is to succeed in the long term.
Assessment of Solid Woodfuel Situation in Sierra Leone and Burkina Faso
Increasing woodfuel consumption is believed to be one of the key drivers of deforestation and forest degradation in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Unlike in much of the developing world where biomass use has already peaked or will peak in the coming years, consumption in SSA is projected to remain at high levels or even rise in the next decades (World Bank 2011), with the number of people relying on wood-based biomass to grow from 575 to 918 million between 2004 and 2030 (US IEA 2006, 2010, as cited in World Bank 2011). In West Africa, despite of countless initiatives undertaken in recent decades to tackle this issue, woodfuel demand is also expected to continue its growth in the near future. For example, an increment of 34% between 2000 and 2020 has been projected for the region, with a growth in consumption from 175 to 235 million cubic meters (Broadhead et al. 2001, as cited in Ouedraogo 2006). West Africa’s high poverty levels and rapid population growth are some of the driving factors for this increase, which is also modulated by changing demographics (e.g. increasing migration to urban areas) and the fluctuation in oil prices. Technological innovations with regard to renewable energies and in particular bioenergy play also key roles, given the low efficiency of traditional methods for firewood and charcoal (below 30% according to UNDP 2012). Cross-cutting issues such as gender roles in woodfuel collection and sale, health problems, cultural implications of traditional biomass use, or impacts on poverty and livelihoods appear also as vital in understanding the wood energy dynamics in the region.
Rotational woodlot technology in northwestern Tanzania: Tree species and crop performance
Growing of trees as woodlots on farms for five to seven years in rotation with crops was considered as a potential technology to overcome the shortage of wood, which is a common problem to many parts of sub-Saharan Africa. The paper summarizes the results of trials conducted at Tabora and Shinyanga in northwestern Tanzania on rotational woodlots, to evaluate tree species for wood production and yields of maize grown in association with and after harvest of trees. On acid sandy soils at Tabora, Acacia crassicarpa A. Cunn. ex Benth. grew fast and produced 24 to 77 Mg ha1 of wood in four to five years. On alkaline Vertisols at Shinyanga, seven years old woodlots of Acacia polyacantha Willd. and Leucaena leucocephala (Lam.) De Wit. produced 71 and 89 Mg ha1 of wood, respectively. Intercropping of maize between trees was possible for two years without sacrificing its yield. The first maize crop following A. crassicarpa woodlots gave 29 to 113% greater yield than the crop after natural fallow. Acacia polyacantha and L. leucocephala woodlots also increased the subsequent maize yields over a three-year period. The increase in crop yields after woodlots was attributed partly to accumulation of greater amounts of inorganic N in the topsoil compared to the traditional fallow, and partly to other effects. Thus medium-term rotational woodlots are likely to contribute to meet the wood requirements of rural people and thereby help protect the natural woodlands in sub-Saharan Africa.
Resilience and Livelihood Benefits of Climate Smart Agroforestry Practices in Semi-arid Tanzania
The agricultural sector in Tanzania is an important driver for economic growth, poverty alleviation, food security and rural development. However, high dependence on rainfall makes the sector vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Economic losses due to climate change are estimated at US$200 million per year. The scaling up of climate-smart agriculture practices such as agroforestry can reduce such losses, build resilience in the sector, improve productivity and farmer incomes while restoring ecosystem functions that contribute to climate change mitigation. Agroforestry technologies build a healthy agro-ecosystem and foster greater climate resilience of farm households through restoration of land productivity and diversification of production and income options. However, evidenced-based information on the resilience and livelihood benefits of semi-arid agroforestry systems as a climate smart practice is limited.