Residential Fuelwood Research Articles

Residential fuelwood consumption in Brazil: Environmental and social implications

For a long time, firewood was the only source of energy available for cooking, heating, and protection. Currently, new forms of energy, such as liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and electricity, have replaced the use of firewood. However, this fuel is still part of the energy matrix of many countries, including Brazil. Its use in cooking activities generates particles and gases that can have an impact on global warming and health. The objective of this study was to evaluate the use of firewood related to socioeconomic and environmental factors in Brazil. According to the results, firewood characteristics, per capita consumption, and distribution percentage vary widely within the country. Although LPG is the most used fuel in Brazil, a significant portion of the population - about 11 million households - still uses this fuel for domestic purposes, causing the highest emission rates of greenhouse gases. New research is necessary and may be the best investment to improve the quality of life and mitigate these climate change problems and health hazards.

Spatial analysis of residential fuelwood supply and demand patterns in Mexico using the WISDOM approach

Abstract A WISDOM analysis was conducted in Mexico in order to: (1) identify fuelwood (FW) hot spots in terms of residential FW use and availability of FW resources for the year 2000, and (2) estimate net CO2 emissions from the non-renewable use of FW. WISDOM (woodfuel integrated supply/demand overview mapping) is a spatially explicit method, based on geographic information system (GIS) technology, which ranks a set of spatial units according to a group of indicators, in order to identify woodfuel priority areas or woodfuel hot spots. A comprehensive analysis was conducted, integrating full coverage national data on land cover classes, land cover change maps (1993–2000), geo-referenced population censuses (1990 and 2000), and a meticulous review of the international literature and Mexican case studies. Following a spatial multi-criteria analysis, 2395 counties (out of a country total of 2424 in year 2000) were ranked based on the number, density and annual growth rate of FW users; the percentage of households that use FW; the resilience of FW consumption, and the magnitude and likely trends of FW forest resources. The WISDOM analysis allowed the identification of 304 high priority counties (HPC), which showed a spatially aggregated pattern into 16 clusters. HPC cover 4% of Mexican territory and represent 27% of total FW consumption. We estimated that 1.3 Tg CO 2 y - 1 are released to the atmosphere by non-renewable FW burning, a value that represents less than 1% of Mexican total annual CO2 emissions in 2002. The results of the analysis show that WISDOM is a useful tool for both focusing resources to critical areas where action is more needed and to obtain more accurate estimates of the impacts associated to FW use.

Species, sources, seasonality, and sustainability of fuelwood commercialization in Masaya, Nicaragua

The structure of the fuelwood supply chain and the impacts of urban residential fuelwood consumption on forests in Nicaragua are little known. To characterize the nature of fuelwood movements toward residential centers, we examined the fuelwood inventories and movements in the largest fuelwood market, in Masaya, during the peak of the rainy season, in October 1999, and again at the peak of the dry season, in May 2000. We found a stressed fuelwood supply that depended greatly upon natural forests. There was a diverse (64 tree taxa from 28 families) and strongly seasonally variable taxonomic composition of the supply of fuelwood. Greater volumes concentrated in fewer taxa (63,648 kg per 5-day period, with 58.9% in three species) were sold to vendors in the dry season than in the rainy season (12,921 kg per 5-day period with 24.6% among the same three species). The proportion of fuelwood derived from natural forests increased from one-third of the market sales during the rainy season to one-half in the dry season; virtually none of the fuelwood was derived from plantation forestry. We recommend a fuelwood supply management strategy based on incentives to farm owners for supplying managed fuelwood and increased vigilance to limit forest destruction for fuelwood production.

Residential fuelwood consumption in the Southeastern U.S.

A telephone survey of households in 13 states in the southeastern U.S. determined residential fuelwood acquisition and use for heating during the 1991 heating season. Although wood burning accounted for only 10% of the total household heat requirement of the region, it accounted for 51% of the total heat requirements of wood-burning households. One-quarter (25%) of the households burned wood, consuming almost 9 million standard cords. Three-quarters (77%) of wood-burning households reported that wood burning contributed to household heating requirements. Wood as a source of home heating was particularly important to low income households, both rural and urban. Wood is the sole source of home heating for 17% of the wood-burning households in the region.

An Econometric Analysis of Residential Demand for Fuelwood in the United States, 1980–1981

Abstract This paper presents an econometric study of residential fuelwood demand in the United States. It is based on a residential energy consumption survey conducted by the U.S. Department of Energy in 1980-81. Estimates are derived of the probability that a particular household will burn wood and of the quantity of wood that will be burned. Aggregate fuelwood demand is predicted for five census regions and for the contiguous United States. The predicted average probability of burning wood is 0.32, and the average predicted quantity burned is 1.57 cords. Residential fuelwood demand is found to be quite responsive to changes in the price of nonwood heating fuel. Forest Sci. 32:1001-1015.

Residential Fuelwood Use in the United States

Abstract A national survey by the USDA Forest Service found that U.S. households are burning more wood than at any time since World War II. In 1981, an estimated 42 million cords were used--an amount equal to one-fourth of that going into other wood products. Eighty percent of fuelwood is hardwood. The effect on timber markets is limited because only one-fourth is purchased and less than one-fourth of that cut by households comes from portions of trees usable for pulpwood or sawlogs. Currently, fuelwood displaces 2 to 3 percent of other home-heating fuels. One-half of fuelwood is burned in rural areas, where almost one-half of the households use 2½ to 3 cords annually. Greatest use per household is in the Pacific Northwest, Northern Rocky Mountains, and New England.