How land tenure and labor relations mediate charcoal’s environmental footprint in Zambia: Implications for sustainable energy transitions

Abstract

• Land tenure and labor market conditions structure charcoal production’s environmental footprint in Zambia. • Charcoal is a one-off byproduct of agricultural conversion on customary and private lands, so from an unsustainable source. • Charcoal drives forest degradation in Forest Reserves (State Lands), with low regeneration potential. • Charcoal production creates a biomass loss of at least 50% from extraction of most tree species of all sizes (≥10 cm dbh). • Charcoal producers' effort responds to un(der)employment, specially during the season when agricultural labor demand wanes. Charcoal is the main cooking fuel in urban areas of sub-Saharan Africa and demand is expected to rise with urbanization. We explore the environmental footprint and socioeconomic drivers of charcoal production, using data from original field vegetation and producer surveys in a hotspot charcoal production area outside Lusaka, Zambia. We find that land tenure and labor market conditions structure the environmental footprint of charcoal production. Agricultural expansion is the main driver of forest conversion on customary and private (leasehold) lands where charcoal is a one-off byproduct of land-use change by farmers. By contrast, charcoal production drives forest degradation on State land, especially in Forest Reserves where agriculture is prohibited but the more intact forest is intensively harvested, largely by urban residents or, during the dry season, by nearby farmers lacking remunerative employment. Charcoal producers are remarkably varied, with sharp variation in net financial gains that are positively and significantly associated with volume produced. Strategies for improving the sustainability of charcoal production differ by land tenure type but require a combination of enhanced enforcement of existing land use restrictions, improved labor market conditions, greater support for sustainable agricultural intensification, devolution of forest management to more local level, and adoption of alternative cooking fuel sources by urban residents.