Abstract
Ethiopia is one of the largest charcoal-producing countries in Africa where its urban consumers burn over 3 million tons per year. The purpose of this study was to measure the amount of charcoal produced and its related environmental and socioeconomic impact in the study area. A total of 305 respondents were selected by using a simple random sampling technique. The amount of greenhouse gas emissions from charcoal production was analyzed based on the Intergovernmental Panel on climate change quantification techniques, and the impact of charcoal production on households’ income was analyzed using propensity score matching. The results revealed that the annual charcoal production rate and emission of carbon dioxide equivalent have an increasing trend at an alarming rate in the study area. From propensity score matching analysis, the economic impact of charcoal production has a positive difference of 0.43813162 as compared to nonproducers. Socioeconomic factors like land size, eucalyptus coverage, agricultural extension, market distance, and the number of oxen have a highly significant effect but variables like sex, family size, education status, credit services, and marital status had no significant effect on charcoal production. In general, even though charcoal production is economically having a positive impact on households’ annual aggregate income; it has disproportionality adverse effect on the environment like air pollution in addition to sophisticated respiratory health problems. Therefore, responsible institutions and planners should have focused on the multidimensional effect of traditional charcoal production on environmental issues and sophisticated health problems especially on employed laborers and nearby residents.
Highlights
Charcoal production trends between 1965 and 2005 show increasing production levels with Africa topping the chart [1], and approximately 1.5 billion people in developing countries drive more than 90% of their energy from charcoal for cooking and heating
Due to low cost as compared to other energy sources, the traditional energy alternative charcoal remains the most used, and it is expected that about 2.4 billion people rely on it [4]
The most serious of these is the harmful effect on the environment and climate changes, which both have consequences for human health and pollution. erefore, this study needs to address the effect of charcoal production on the environment and human health in Mecha district, Ethiopia. erefore, the reason that the researchers want to conduct this study is to provide answers to the following research questions: why do charcoal producers engage in charcoal production? and are charcoal producers willing to patronize alternate sources of income? Answers to these questions provide insight into how to deal with the environmental problems presented by charcoal production, which ensure the sustainable management of the environment and reduce the health impact of charcoal production
Summary
Charcoal production trends between 1965 and 2005 show increasing production levels with Africa topping the chart [1], and approximately 1.5 billion people in developing countries drive more than 90% of their energy from charcoal for cooking and heating. Africa’s charcoal production has moved from about 18.5 million tons in 1965 to about 49 million tons in 2005. Production of traditional charcoal serves as a lifeline for the increasing populations in less developed countries in general and SSA nations in particular. Due to low cost as compared to other energy sources, the traditional energy alternative charcoal remains the most used, and it is expected that about 2.4 billion people rely on it [4]
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