Urban and rural household energy consumption and deforestation patterns in Zaire province, Northern Angola: A landscape approach

Abstract

Angola has been labelled a “petro-state”, since independence, due to its oil-wealth and the country's economic dependence on its revenues. Considering that oil availability and price could be a factor reducing deforestation and forest degradation through accelerating energy-transition, our objective was to study the energy consumption patterns and the role of woody biomass as a source of income of rural villagers and urban poor dwellers practicing agriculture, living in one of the oil-rich provinces. We used a “people and pixels” approach, combining interviews with households' heads with remote sensing analysis of land use/cover change. Our findings revealed that while kerosene is the main energy source for cooking and lighting in the city, in rural areas it is firewood and flashlights, respectively, and that the selling of firewood and/or charcoal is practiced by few households. Contrary to what has been reported about other Angolan regions and African countries, satellite imagery analysis showed that deforestation around Zaire province capital city and surrounding rural villages is comparatively small. Bearing in mind that the consumption of biomass for domestic household needs is reduced, other drivers of deforestation/forest degradation must be considered. Nonetheless, the high domestic use of kerosene contributes to the exhaustion of its limited global supplies and to increasing greenhouse gas emissions, disregarding the country's potential to produce renewable energy.