Charcoal Production Dynamics and Geographical Implications in Bamenda I Sub-Division, North West Region, Cameroon

The production of charcoal is an important socio-economic activity in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Charcoal production is one of the leading drivers of rural land-use changes in SSA, although the intensity of impacts on the multi-functionality of landscapes varies considerably. Within a given landscape, charcoal production is closely interconnected to agriculture production both as major livelihoods, while both critically depend on the same ecosystem services. The interactions between charcoal and agricultural production systems can lead to positive synergies of impacts, but will more often than not result in trade-offs and even vicious cycles. Such sustainability outcomes vary from one site to another due to the heterogeneity of contexts, including agricultural production systems that affect the adoption of technologies and practices. Trade-offs or cases of vicious cycles occur when one-off resource exploitation of natural trees for charcoal production for short-term economic gains permanently impairs ecosystem functions. Given the fact that charcoal, as an important energy source for the growing urban populations and an essential livelihood for the rural populations, cannot be readily substituted in SSA, there must be policies to support charcoal production. Policies should encourage sustainable technologies and practices, either by establishing plantations or by encouraging regeneration, whichever is more suitable for the local environment. To guide context-specific interventions, this paper presents a new perspective - the charcoal-agriculture nexus - aimed at facilitating the understanding of the socio-economic and ecological interactions of charcoal and agriculture production. The nexus especially highlights two dimensions of the socio-ecological contexts: charcoal value chains and tenure systems. Combinations of the two are assumed to underlie varied socio-economic and ecological sustainability outcomes by conditioning incentive mechanisms to affect the adoption of technologies and practices in charcoal and agriculture productions. Contrasting sustainability outcomes from East Africa are presented and discussed through the lens of the charcoal-agriculture nexus. The paper then concludes by emphasizing the importance of taking into account the two-dimensional socio-ecological contexts into effective policy interventions to turn charcoal-agriculture interactions into synergies.

In sub-Saharan Africa available evidence suggests that biomass use for energy has increased roughly in proportion to population growth. With urbanization the biomass energy sector is becoming more commercialized, and consumption of charcoal is increasing (which leads to higher biomass consumption, given the low conversion efficiencies in most charcoal production). Localized fuel scarcity and resource degradation has occurred, but biomass scarcity has been exaggerated in the past in macro-level studies, which overlooked many non-forest sources of biomass fuel. National studies of biomass availability and use in Kenya, Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone, Botswana, Rwanda, South Africa and Uganda indicate that large unused biomass resources exist, and that scarcity often leads to more efficient use and fuel-switching to other forms of biomass rather than to fossil fuels. Consumption of biomass energy in sub-Saharan Africa is not expected to fall in the near future. Therefore there is an urgent need for recognition of the opportunities and problems which dependence on biomass energy represents. The resource is large and potentially sustainable, but biomass use creates health problems and can cause environmental degradation. National and regional energy planning and policies must take into account the importance of biomass energy supply and use, and seek to modernize the sector so that problems can be minimized.

<p>The increasing demand for charcoal in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is a growing threat to tropical ecosystems as more forest areas get cleared to meet the high energy needs. While the region’s current socio-economic trends, such as increasing population, urbanisation and high poverty levels, will likely drive high charcoal demands into the future, current estimates indicate that charcoal production contributes up to 7% of total deforestation in tropical ecosystems every year, with carbon emissions corresponding to 71.2 million tonnes of CO<sub>2</sub> and 1.3 million tonnes of CH<sub>4</sub>. Although forest management practices could enable sustainable production by using harvest cycles to allow forest regeneration, emissions from charcoal production may contribute to exacerbate global warming. A transition for other energy carriers in SSA has been called for, which may be a slow process as it depends on investments and cultural changes, thus projected demands for charcoal could severely impact the balance and timing of carbon fluxes and the overall carbon budget of tropical ecosystems. To better understand how charcoal production affects tropical ecosystems carbon dynamics, we parameterised a dynamic global vegetation model, LPJ-GUESS, to determine the magnitude and direction of carbon fluxes following charcoal production. We simulated 300 model years for two forest governance regimes, natural and managed forest, on 782 gridcells at 0.5° x 0.5° resolution covering the tropical rain forest of Africa. We allowed for tree harvesting for charcoal only in managed forests, where we vary the fraction of trees cut (10%, 20%, and 30%) and harvest rotation cycles (10, 20, and 30 years). We find that Net Ecosystem Exchange (NEE) under all charcoal production regimes cause tropical forests to transition from a net carbon sink (NEE natural = -0.024 ± 0.047 kg C/m<sup>2</sup> yr-1) to a net carbon source. We estimate NEE = 0.005 ± 0.432 kg C/m<sup>2</sup> yr-1 under the least intense management regime (10% forest cut every 30 years) and a mean NEE of 0.027 ± 0.630 kg C/m<sup>2</sup> yr-1 for the most intense regime (30% forest cut every 10 years). We further observe an initial and steep drop in vegetation carbon following the start of charcoal production for all management regimes, and this change quickly stabilises as tree harvest keeps vegetation under a new stable state that is lower than that of natural forests. Compared to our modelled natural forest, we find that all charcoal regimes lead to more than a 25% decline in vegetation carbon over time. We further examined carbon partitioning into pools of litter and soil and find consistent patterns of transition from sink to source. These findings suggest that while carbon dynamics vary in tropical systems depending on the intensity and frequency of charcoal production, even a management regime of 10% charcoal production every 30 years can result in forest carbon loss with amplified vegetation carbon losses in the order of 25%. </p>

Land cover change refers to modification of the existing land cover or complete conversion of the land cover to a new cover type. Most of these studies identified that deforestation and expansion of cultivation land in to marginal areas were the principal cause of land degradation. Change in land use and land cover may result in land degradation that manifests itself in many ways depending on the magnitude of changes. All of these manifestations have potentially severe impacts on land users and people who rely for their living on the products from a healthy Landscape. This alteration of LULC type coupled with poor land management practice in the region resulted in exposing of land for erosion hazard, which was later turned to accelerated land degradation. All the factors of deforestation such as the prevalence of various types of agricultural activities, fire wood and charcoal production, cutting trees to fulfill the demand of constructional materials, settlement expansion and income generation are directly or indirectly related to population growth and new settlements. The absence of applicable forest policy is cited as a contributing factor for deforestation in different parts ofthe world including Ethiopia.

In the tropics, livestock grazing usually occurs simultaneously with charcoal production, yet empirical understanding of the combined activities remains poor, especially as regards to their effects on hydrological functions. Given predicted growth in both charcoal and beef production in Sub-Sahara Africa, South East Asia, and Central and South America, understanding the potential effects of maintaining this dual production system on local and landscape level hydrological dynamics is paramount for ensuring long-term ecosystem sustainability. Based on a synthesis of existing literature, we propose a theoretical and conceptual framework for analyzing the interlinks between charcoal, livestock, and hydrological processes where they co-exist. In a silo approach, we analyze the isolated effects of charcoal production and livestock on hydrological processes before exploring their combined effects (systemic approach). Given the scarcity of studies that explicitly treat the influence of traditional small-scale charcoal production on hydrological processes, we base our findings on existing knowledge about deforestation, forest fire and grazing impacts on hydrology. We find that exclusion of the effects of companion activities and omission of information on the intensity of biomass harvesting (i.e., pruning branches, selective harvest, clear cutting, uprooting tree stumps) can lead to over-attributing changes in hydrological processes to charcoal, thus exaggerating the effects on vegetation which might lead to inappropriate interventions. We also find that, in the case of livestock keeping, impacts on hydrological processes are highly dependent on grazing intensity, with low intensity grazing possibly having negligible or even positive effects on forest regrowth and thereby restoration of hydrological processes. Thus, the charcoal-livestock-water nexus may have a wide range of outcomes for hydrological processes ranging from negligible to highly profound effects, depending on key decisions in management and practice. To test these finding, however, field studies are needed with an explicit focus on the combined effects of different biomass harvesting practices and grazing intensities on hydrological processes across different scales. Albeit conceptual at this stage, we believe that our approach is a necessary first step in the process of diagnosing potential shortcomings of past approaches for studying charcoal production systems and developing new understanding of this three-way nexus.

Land cover (LC) change is an integrative indicator of changes in ecosystems due to anthropogenic or natural forcings. There is a significant interest in the investigation of spatio-temporal patterns of LC transitions, and the causes and consequences thereof. While the advent of satellite remote sensing techniques have enhanced our ability to track and measure LC changes across the globe, significant gaps remain in disentangling specific factors that influence, or in certain cases, are influenced by, LC change. This study aims to investigate the relative influence of regional-scale bioclimatology and local-scale anthropogenic factors in driving LC and environmental change in Ghana. This analysis builds upon previous research in the region that has highlighted multiple drivers of LC change in the region, especially via drivers such as deforestation, urbanization, and agricultural expansion. It used regional-scale remotely sensed, demographic, and environmental data for Ghana across 20 years and developed path models on causal factors influencing LC transitions in Ghana. A two-step process is utilized wherein causal linkages from an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) are constrained with literature-based theoretical constructs to implement a regional-scale partial least squares path model (PLSPM). The PLSPM reveals complex interrelationships among drivers of LC change that vary across the geography of Ghana. The model suggests strong effects of local urban expansion on deforestation and vegetation losses in urban and peri-urban areas. Losses of vegetation are in turn related to increases in local heating patterns indicative of urban heat island effects. Direct effects of heat islands are however masked by strong latitudinal gradients in climatological factors. The models confirm that decreases in vegetation cover results in increased land surface albedo that is indirectly related to urban and population expansion. These empirically-estimated causal linkages provide insights into complex spatio-temporal variations in potential drivers of LC change. We expect these models and spatial data products to form the basis for detailed investigations into the mechanistic underpinnings of land cover dynamics across Ghana. These analyses are aimed at building a template for methods that can be utilized to holistically design spatially-disaggregated strategies for sustainable development across Ghana.

Urban population in sub Saharan Africa (SSA) is rapidly growing. While only 30% of its population lived in urban centers in 2000, this figure will reach 60% by year 2050. Urban energy demand is closely tied to forest degradation. Charcoal is the main source of cooking fuel for eighty percent of African urban households and its overall consumption is expected to rise by 2040. Charcoal production is already the main driver of forest degradation in SSA. REDD+ guidelines encourage countries to identify and describe individual activities and drivers causing forest degradation as an initial step to define suitable methods for measuring and monitoring and formulate appropriate strategies and policies. Yet, forest degradation associated to charcoal production remains largely under reported. Charcoal production results in partial removals of forest cover that do not necessarily involve significant variations of the spectral signal. As a consequence, efforts to monitor forest degradation associated to charcoal production with medium resolution data has proved elusive. We present initial results of our effort to monitor and quantify carbon emissions from forest degradation due to charcoal production in SSA. Our work combines time series of multi sensor medium (20 – 30m), high (2m) and very high (0.5m) spatial resolution sensors with field data to characterize the spatial and temporal dynamics of charcoal production in charcoal production sites across SSA. The integration of these datasets provides the means to map, monitor and measure charcoal kilns, and subsequently quantify the magnitude and intensity of aboveground biomass removals associated to charcoal production at a level of detail and precision not reported previously. Our initial results reveal that charcoal production accounts for a larger share of greenhouse gas emission than previously reported, highlight its negative impacts on the ecosystem, and question the long-term sustainability of charcoal production under current and future urban energy demands. This work is a first step towards the development of a monitoring, reporting and verification system specific to forest degradation in the SSA context.

Global land cover (LC) changes threaten sustainability and yet we lack a comprehensive understanding of the gains and losses of LC types, including the magnitudes, locations and timings of transitions. We used a novel, fine-resolution and temporally consistent satellite-derived dataset covering the entire Earth annually from 1992 to 2018 to quantify LC changes across a range of scales. At global and continental scales, the observed trajectories of change for most LC types were fairly smooth and consistent in direction through time. We show these observed trajectories in the context of error margins produced by extrapolating previously published accuracy metrics associated with the LC dataset. For many LC classes the observed changes were found to be within the error margins. However, an important exception was the increase in urban land, which was consistently larger than the error margins, and for which the LC transition was unidirectional. An advantage of analysing the global, fine spatial resolution LC time-series dataset is the ability to identify where and when LC changes have taken place on the Earth. We present LC change maps and trajectories that identify locations with high dynamism, and which pose significant sustainability challenges. We focused on forest loss and urban growth at the national scale, identifying the top 10 countries with the largest percentages of forest loss and urban growth globally. Crucially, we found that most of these ‘worst-case’ countries have stabilized their forest losses, although urban expansion was monotonic in all cases. These findings provide crucial information to support progress towards the UN’s SDGs.

Woodlands in Kenya are undergoing land cover change and degradation leading to loss of livelihoods. Uncontrolled charcoal production, although a livelihood source for communities living in woodland areas of Kenya, leads to woodland degradation. We used Landsat imagery, field plot data and household interviews to describe land cover change and the role of charcoal production in woodland degradation. An unsupervised classification was used to determine land cover change from woodland to open/farmland, and five 16‐km transects were used to investigate the extent of charcoal production in the target woodlands. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted on 117 households to understand their perceptions on woodland cover change and the role of charcoal production. The overall accuracy of our classification was 86%. Woodland areas decreased by 24% between 1986 and 2014. The trend of woodland area change compared well between remote sensing and interview data. The density of kilns, a proxy for charcoal‐led woodland degradation, varied across the sample plots. Despite charcoal providing a livelihood for 66% of the households, the community felt that their environment, wealth and social relations have been affected by land cover changes caused by charcoal production. Based on these results, we recommend that appropriate measures aimed at improving the productivity of agriculture, adapting to climate change and reducing dependence on charcoal for sustenance should be encouraged to mitigate woodland cover loss and degradation. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

We used historical Landsat imagery to monitor forest degradation from charcoal production in the main supplying region of the Mozambican capital, Maputo, during a ten-year period (2008–2018). We applied a change detection method that exploits temporal NDVI dynamics associated with charcoal production. This forest degradation temporal sequence exposes the magnitude and the spatial and temporal dynamics of charcoal production, which is the main forest degradation driver in sub-Saharan Africa. The annual area under charcoal production has been steadily increasing since 2008 and reached 11 673 ha in 2018. The total forest degraded extent in the study area during the 10-year study period covered 79 630 ha, which represents 68% of the available mopane woodlands in 2008. Only 5% of the available mopane woodlands area remain undisturbed in the study area. Total gross carbon emissions associated charcoal production during this 10-year period were estimated in 1.13 Mt. These results mark forest degradation from charcoal production as the main driver of forest cover change in southern Mozambique. They also denote that, while charcoal production may be relatively localized in space, its implications for forest cover change and carbon emissions in a sub-Saharan African context are relevant at larger geographical scales. This study represents a proof of concept of the feasibility of medium resolution Earth observation data to monitor forest degradation from charcoal production in the context of the growing urban energy demand. It also highlights the potential opportunities to improve REDD+ monitoring, reporting and verification efforts in sub-Saharan Africa as a first step toward designing effective management and policy interventions.

Monitoring intra and inter annual dynamics of forest degradation from charcoal production in Southern Africa with Sentinel – 2 imagery

China has experienced intense land use and land cover changes during the past several decades, which have exerted significant influences on climate change. Previous studies exploring related climatic effects have focused mainly on one or two specific land use changes, or have considered all land use and land cover change types together without distinguishing their individual impacts, and few have examined the physical processes of the mechanism through which land use changes affect surface temperature. However, in this study, we considered satellite-derived data of multiple land cover changes and transitions in China. The objective was to obtain observational evidence of the climatic effects of land cover transitions in China by exploring how they affect surface temperature and to what degree they influence it through the modification of biophysical processes, with an emphasis on changes in surface albedo and evapotranspiration (ET). To achieve this goal, we quantified the changes in albedo, ET, and surface temperature in the transition areas, examined their correlations with temperature change, and calculated the contributions of different land use transitions to surface temperature change via changes in albedo and ET. Results suggested that land cover transitions from cropland to urban land increased land surface temperature (LST) during both daytime and nighttime by 0.18 and 0.01 K, respectively. Conversely, the transition of forest to cropland tended to decrease surface temperature by 0.53 K during the day and by 0.07 K at night, mainly through changes in surface albedo. Decreases in both daytime and nighttime LST were observed over regions of grassland to forest transition, corresponding to average values of 0.44 and 0.20 K, respectively, predominantly controlled by changes in ET. These results highlight the necessity to consider the individual climatic effects of different land cover transitions or conversions in climate research studies. This short-term analysis of land cover transitions in China means our estimates should represent local temperature effects. Changes in ET and albedo explained <60% of the variation in LST change caused by land cover transitions; thus, additional factors that affect surface climate need consideration in future studies.

&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Wood charcoal ranks amongst the most commercialized but least regulated commodities in sub-Saharan Africa. Despite its prevalence as an energy source for cooking and heating, the localized environmental and livelihood impacts of charcoal production are poorly understood. This research deficit is amplified by widespread negative views of this activity as a poverty-driven cause of deforestation and land-degradation. However, the charcoal-degradation nexus is apparently more complicated, not least because the extraction of biomass from already degraded woodlands can be sustainable under various management regimes. In a case study in Central Pokot, Kenya, where charcoal production began in earnest in the early 1990&amp;amp;#8217;s we have investigated the social and environmental dynamics that are interlinked with the production of charcoal. Our methodological approach integrates remote sensing techniques with empirically based social scientific analyses across multiple spatial and temporal scales. Our results show that the area has undergone significant changes, both in the human and in the physical sphere. While the public opinion suggests a close connection between charcoal production and land degradation, a detailed Landsat-based land use and land cover change detection could not reveal a causal connection. In addition, a high-resolution analysis using an unmanned aerial system showed only minor effects of charcoal production on the vegetation. Our data indicates that rural small-scale production of charcoal has the potential to be transformed into a sustainable livelihood. Therefore, however, policy makers need to include their specific situation into the legal frameworks.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;

This study, conducted in Combomune, Mozambique, investigated land use and land cover changes (LULCC) from 2002 to 2021 and their causes, utilizing Landsat satellite imagery and the land change modeler (LCM). The research mapped vegetation changes and analysed identified explanatory variables. Sentinel-2 imagery was employed to identify charcoal production sites during 2016–2021. The findings indicate significant landscape transformations, with a 20.4% reduction in open forest area (approx. 126,000 ha) and an increase of 22.2% in Shrub (approx. 138,500 ha). Key explanatory variables include proximity to rivers influencing the transition of the class open forest to shrub and proximity to villages influencing the transition of open forest to agriculture and others. Despite these changes, the agriculture and others class exhibited minimal variation compared to open forest and shrub, likely due to a low agricultural productivity influenced by semiarid conditions and poor soil quality. Sentinel-2 imagery revealed numerous burned areas within open forests, suggesting that charcoal production is the primary driver of forest degradation. This finding is consistent with statements from key informants and previous studies that highlight the role of charcoal production in altering forest structure and reducing biomass. The study underscores the urgent need for sustainable forest management practices to mitigate resource depletion related to charcoal production and enhance community resilience against environmental challenges.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10661-025-14514-4.

To find a clue to lung cancer etiology in Japan, differences in the pattern of lung cancer histology and related time trends between Osaka, Japan, and the North West Region of England were investigated. Material comprised all incident lung cancer cases registered in both regional registries (14,521 in the Osaka Cancer Registry and 29,859 in the North West Regional Cancer Registry). (1) The age‐standardized incidence rate of lung cancer was higher in the North West Region than in Osaka (80.4 among males and 20.9 among females per 100,000 population in 1979–82 versus 32.1 and 9.2 respectively). (2) A higher proportion of adenocarcinoma was observed in Osaka (36.3% in males and 62.0% in females) than in the North West Region (12.3% and 18.9% respectively). (3) Using the relative frequencies of each histological type according to sex and age‐group, age‐standardized incidence rates were calculated for the main lung cancer histological types. It was shown that the incidence rates of adenocarcinoma were similar in the two areas (10.6 in males and 5.3 in females in Osaka versus 10.0 and 3.5 in the North West Region, respectively) while those of squamous cell and small cell carcinomas were much higher in the North West Region than in Osaka. (4) Time trends of incidence rates showed an increase only for adeno‐ and small cell carcinomas in Osaka. Slight increases were observed for adenocarcinoma in both sexes and for squamous cell carcinoma in females in the North West Region. (5) Considering cigarette consumption and the relative risks of smoking in the two areas, the possible existence of other risk factors for adenocarcinoma in both sexes in Japan, besides active smoking, was suggested.