Fuelwood Use Research Articles

Women, Woodfuel, and Health in Adamtar Village, Nepal

Women, wood energy, and health are interrelated subjects. In rural Nepal, women's much needed household energy requirements are met by woodfuel This paper, based on a field study of 100 women, examines the health effects of woodfuel use on women as primary users, carrying large bulks of woodfuel to their homes and inhaling the smoke emitted while cooking. Increasing deforestation has forced women to carry woodloads over longer distances. Wood shortages have also meant that women settle for an inferior quality of wood, and cooking is done in poorly ventilated kitchens. As a consequence, their vulnera bility to health problems has increased. This study found a relation between exposure to woodsmoke and chronic bronchitis in women. A possible association is also seen between carrying heavy loads of wood over long distances and prolapse of the uterus. The paper also examines forest management policy interventions in relation to women's fuel needs.

A history of change: causes of miombo woodland decline in a protected area in Malawi

1. Tropical dry woodlands are thought to be declining as a result of human activity. Aerial photograph analysis showed measurable conversion of closed canopy miombo* to sparse woodland in Lake Malawi National Park, Malawi, from 1982 to 1990. This multi‐disciplinary study investigates the possible contributions to these impacts by local use of domestic fuelwood, construction poles and fuelwood for commercial fish smoking. 2. Domestic fuelwood use was measured in 30 households over an 11‐month period. Domestic fuelwood is collected by women and is headloaded to the village. It comprises a large biomass of mainly dead wood and small branches over a wide species range. Mean total annual domestic fuelwood consumption by the total enclave population was less than half the mean annual production of fallen dead wood in the Park, estimated from three quadrats harvested monthly over an 11‐month period. 3. Construction poles are mostly small, have extended durability and come from a broad species range. Fencing poles frequently take root to form live hedges. Eucalyptus trees are commonly grown for poles. Construction pole use appears sustainable and shows signs of substitution. 4. The 305 commercial fish smoking stations in the enclaves used less fuelwood annually than domestic fuelwood users. However, the men who undertake this activity target large branches and logs from a narrow species range, involving destructive felling of canopy species. 95% of men collecting fuel for fish smoking use cutting tools and three‐quarters transport the wood by boat or bicycle. 5. The scale, size classes and species involved in commercial fish smoking suggest that this activity drives the observed degradation of closed canopy to sparse woodland. Traditional local fishing focused on small species sun‐dried for preservation. Commercial fish smoking was introduced relatively recently by immigrants, along with gill netting that harvests larger fish requiring smoking for preservation. Demand for fish by ever‐increasing urban populations underpins the continuing growth of the fish smoking industry. 6. Disaggregation of different wood use practices allows informed management policy for the Park. Currently, management targets and penalizes domestic fuelwood collectors. While seeking to reduce demand and provide alternative fuelwood sources, law enforcement and forestry extension should be reorientated to address the extraction of fuelwood for fish smoking.

Le bois-énergie en Europe. Une étude prospective à l'horizon 2020

In this 2020 prospective study, we have developed a methodology for analysis of the possibilities of increasing the use of fuelwood, and the socio-economic and environmental implications of the kind of mobilization which would result therefrom. We have made such an evaluation in five countries within the European Community: Austria, Finland, France, Portugal and Sweden. The methodology is described in detail in the report. The fuelwood share of the energy supply in these five countries could be increased to 9 % by the year 2020 if a scenario with a interventionist policy of fuelwood use is assumed in potential user sectors. This could be compared to the present fuelwood share of 5 %. There are, however, large differences amongst the five countries. The increased fuelwood use could reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 7 % for the year 2020, compared to the present level. The study shows that fuelwood is an economically competitive fuel for energy production in many user sectors. There are, however, a number of non-technical-economic factors (institutional, sociological, political…) which may stand in, the way of increased fuelwood use. The method of analysing the possibilities for — and consequences of — an increased use of biomass which has been developed in this project could be used for similar analyses of other groups of countries in the European Union.

Women, Woodfuel, and Health in Adamtar Village, Nepal

Women, wood energy, and health are interrelated subjects. In rural Nepal, women’s much needed household energy requirements are met by woodfuel This paper, based on a field study of 100 women, examines the health effects of woodfuel use on women as primary users, carrying large bulks of woodfuel to their homes and inhaling the smoke emitted while cooking. Increasing deforestation has forced women to carry woodloads over longer distances. Wood shortages have also meant that women settle for an inferior quality of wood, and cooking is done in poorly ventilated kitchens. As a consequence, their vulnerability to health problems has increased. This study found a relation between exposure to woodsmoke and chronic bronchitis in women. A possible association is also seen between carrying heavy loads of wood over long distances and prolapse of the uterus. The paper also examines forest management policy interventions in relation to women’s fuel needs.

The Swedish wood fuel market

In Sweden, wood fuels are traditionally used in the Swedish forest products industry and for heating of single-family houses. More recently they are also become established as an energy source for district heating and electricity production. Energy policy, especially the energy taxation system, has favoured wood fuels and other biofuels, mainly for environmental reasons. There is now an established commercial market for wood fuels in the district heating sector, which amounts to 45 PJ and is growing 20 per cent annually. Price levels have been stable in current prices for a decade, mainly because of good access to wood fuels. Price levels are dominated by production costs on a market that is largely governed by the buyer. It is expected that the use of wood fuels will increase in Sweden in the future, which will push a further development of this sector on the market and bring about technological changes in the area.

The potential of fuelwood to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Europe

The project FEEDS (Fuelwood in Europe for Environment and Development Strategies) has been carried out to analyze possibilities of increasing fuelwood use for five selected European countries in the year 2020, considering environmental, technical and socio-economic aspects. In this paper the effects of increased use of fuelwood on emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) such as CO 2, CH 4 and N 2O, are presented. Achievable emission reductions in Sweden range from 6.9 to 17.2 Mt CO 2 equivalents, which is equivalent to 12 and 30% of total energy-related GHG emissions in 1995. In Finland a reduction between 5.0 and 10.5 Mt (9 and 18%) is seen to be possible. For France (8.6 and 13.6 Mt; 2 and 4%), Austria (3.7 and 6.2 Mt; 6 and 10%) and Portugal (1.8 and 2.4 Mt; 4 and 6%), relative emission reductions are lower, because of the usable fuelwood potential, but also the market potential in various sectors of the economy are lower. Greatest emission reductions in 2020 are expected in the sectors of individual housing, collective housing (France, Austria and Sweden), tertiary, manufacturing and other industries (Portugal) and district heating (Finland, Sweden). The scenarios indicate that fuelwood has significant yet limited possibilities to reduce total emissions of GHG in the five countries, with the greatest relative reductions in Sweden and Finland.

Knowledge Claims and Landscape: Alternative Views of the Fuelwood—Degradation Nexus in Northern Nigeria

The existence of competing or contradictory orthodoxies in Nigerian forestry is a long recognised, if little explored research problem. Far from being the product of a monolithic culture, regional forestry, or, more inclusively agrosilvipastoral landscapes and fuelscapes, are social products which have been described as often construed in a plurality of ways and invested with diverse if not antithetical meanings by different individuals and social groups. They represent sites of contestation and cooperation for human agents and state agencies engaged in constructing, maintaining and modifying woodfuel and other forestry-related discourses. The author juxtaposes several such contests, their meanings, and the discourses of which they are a part. He does so with particular reference to perceived linkages between fuelwood use and production, on the one hand, and vegetation and degradation and other environmental change, on the other. The geographical focus is dryland Nigeria, in particular its regional forestry spaces and landscapes. In the conceptual framework empirical theorisation is combined with discourse and landscape analyses. The author concludes that the juxtaposition of forestry discourses, which he attempts, creates spaces for different landscape visions to be seen as virtual realities, which are shaped and sustained by social forces and (technologies of) representation.

Household Energy in Annangland: Its Crisis, Consequences and Reversal Strategies

The daily use of fuelwood in both rural and urban areas in Annangland, the amount carried daily to the latter areas and its rising price in the towns aroused the authors' interest in the supply of firewood in Annangland. A survey was conducted in four of the six local-government areas of the region. The immediate result was that the level of supply had reached a crisis stage. Causes of the crisis, its impact on the environment and those that use it directly, as well as means of reversing the crisis were than studied and analysed. To stem the threatening ecological disaster, research with the active participation of the communities, from the planning stage to the use of the product of research, is crucial.

THE POLITICAL ECOLOGY OF DEFORESTATION IN MALAWI

ABSTRACT This paper analyzes deforestation in Malawi during colonial and post-colonial periods, examining demographic, agricultural, and fuelwood use practices that have influenced forestry policy. It will be hypothesized that artificial land scarcities have exacerbated deforestation pressures, forcing a significant majority of Malawi's population to subsist off a fraction of its land resources. This population-land distribution discrepancy has resulted in environmental degradation, challenging post-colonial Malawi's government to counter with appropriate forestry policy. Early post-colonial policies were “top-down” projects, however, after decades of unsuccessful results a transition has occurred in which “bottom-up” programs are advocated.

Energy efficiency and competitiveness of biomass-based energy systems

Biomass accounts for 17% of the total Swedish energy supply. The potential increase in annual domestic biomass production is considerable. The costs and primary energy use required for producing one unit of electricity and one unit of heat, as well as the CO 2 emissions involved, were analysed for different biomass- and fossil-fuel-based systems. Supply systems based on cogeneration plants are more energy- and cost-efficient than those based either on heat pumps and condensing plants or on boilers and condensing plants. Less efficient systems lead to greater CO 2 emissions, except for bioniass systems involving a CO 2-neutral fuel cycle. They also lead to an increase in primary energy use. In Sweden, significant reductions in the price of forest fuel during the past two decades and increases in fossil fuel taxes have made bioenergy competitive with fossil fuels for heat production. Current taxes on oil used for heat production are as high as the price of the oil itself. Coal taxes were low until 1982 but are now about four times as high as the price of coal. From 1990 to 1994, the use of wood fuels for district-heat production increased from 3.6 TWh to 10.7 TWh and it is also expected to increase further. Expanded use of biomass-based boilers may prove an obstacle to future cogeneration investments. From 1990 to 1994, use of biofuels for the cogeneration of electricity in district heating systems was less than 0.5 TWh/yr. Low electricity prices in Sweden have limited the competitiveness of cogeneration. The tax advantages of biomass-based electricity production are slight since carbon and fuel taxes are only applied to heat production. Such taxation increases the tax disadvantages for more energy-efficient systems.

Forced migration, environmental change and woodfuel issues in the Senegal River Valley

There is increasing international concern about the environmental impacts of refugees on host areas, with governments calling for compensation for environmental damage, particularly concerning the loss of woodland resources as a result of demand for wood for fuel. In addition to an obvious increase in the population of host areas, concern about refugees' woodfuel-use centres on the notion that they are 'exceptional resource degraders'. Since they view their stay as temporary, it is argued, they therefore do not have any incentive to use resources in a way that is sustainable in the long term. This study examined refugee migration to the middle valley of the Senegal River, and compared woodfuel use by refugee and local populations. Drawing on a household survey and direct measurement of woodfuel use, little or no evidence is found to support the expectation that refugees use more wood for fuel than local people, or that they are more destructive in their collection or use of wood. This is important since it suggests that policy measures developed to reduce what is perceived as excess demand by refugees, notably through the introduction of fuel-efficient stoves, are unlikely to be successful. Reforestation schemes have been relatively unsuccessful in addressing supply or demand for wood.

When households run out of fuel: Responses of rural households to decreasing fuelwood availability, Ntcheu District, Malawi

This paper examines strategies used by rural households in Central Malawi to cope with a decreasing fuelwood availability. With increasing distance to woodlands, households initially collected further away, spending more time on collection. But when distance to woodlands increased, households returned to nearby places using less time for collection and switching to lower quality wood. Results indicate that distance to collection place and collection time are not reliable indicators of fuelwood shortages as so often postulated in the literature. Households within the same village differed in collection strategies particularly as regards collection distance and collection frequency. Households that tended to collect further away and more frequently were large in size with more female adults. These households also collected more wood, even per capita, compared to smaller households, suggesting that smaller households economized on fuelwood use. This paper supports the idea that level of fuelwood used is not only determined by fuelwood availability, but the more by labor availability.

Price trends in the Swedish wood-fuel market

The state of the market for wood fuel, mainly used in district heating, in Sweden has been surveyed, enabling trends in market prices to be established. This market has grown significantly during the past 15 years to around 36–43 PJ (10–12 TW h) per annum. During 1984–1994, the current price was stable at Swedish Krona (SEK) 28/GJ (SEK 100/MW h, $US 4/GJ). This is equivalent to a price drop of almost 50% in real terms. Short-term prices continue to fall, reflecting the fact that high energy taxes on fossil fuels cause wood fuels to be highly competitive in the district heating market. The increase in the use of wood fuels during recent years has not increased the market price as supplies have increased. Significant quantities of sawdust and other by-products from the wood-processing industry, as well as smaller amounts of imported wood, have reached the market at a low price, resulting in additional price drops. In the future, the use of wood fuels is expected to continue to grow to include the use of short-rotation energy forests. At the same time there has been a significant increase in the use of wood fuels which have been mechanically processed to improve their quality. These include briquettes, pellets and powders which command higher prices in new markets. This increasing use of wood as fuel has not increased market prices, which are expected to remain stable in real terms, reflecting the ample supply of wood fuels and a forecasted stability in the competing prices of fossil fuels.

Fuel switching or multiple cooking fuels? Understanding inter-fuel substitution patterns in rural Mexican households

Ninety-one per cent of Mexican rural households and 11% of urban households cook with fuel wood. Fuel wood represents 50% of total residential energy use in the country. This paper presents the results of a detailed study of the patterns of household fuel wood use and inter-fuel substitution in three villages of rural Mexico. All residents in the three villages cook with fuel wood, and between 20 and 43% of them also use LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) for this task, depending on the village. Average household fuel wood demand ranges between 53 and 60 GJ/yr for fuel wood only users and from 40 to 57 GJ/yr for mixed fuel wood-LPG users, depending on the village. Cooking practices are described together with their energy use. Kitchen performance tests and controlled cooking tests (CCT) were applied in two villages to measure savings in household fuel wood use from partially switching to LPG. The analysis shows that energy and fuel wood savings are much lower than those that may be expected on a purely technical basis. In fact, fuel wood is very seldom replaced entirely, even in households that have been using LPG for many years. Rather than switching, households follow a multiple fuel strategy which gives them the advantages of both fuels. There is a strong pattern of fuel preferences by type of dish and cooking task. Fuel wood is seen as a fuel with advantages that go beyond price and include cultural considerations. Lorena-type improved woodburning cookstoves might prove particularly useful for multiple fuel users as they show savings of up to 50% for tortilla-making compared with the traditional stoves in CCT.

Is there a fuelwood crisis in rural Mali

The study takes a conventional supply and demand approach to the study of fuelwood use. It compares estimated wood production in West African bush and forest formations based on an available equation using rainfall data with own collected data on local wood consumption in a village in southern Mali. To allow comparison, data from 49 other villages in the same area are analysed. This study, toget her with an earlier study in northern Mali, indicates that locally induced deforestation caused by fuelwood use does not represent an immediate problem in rural Mali. Local use of fuelwood does not seem to be exceeding forest regeneration. However, where there is external pressure on the forest represented by commercial exploitation of wood for sale in the urban centres, fuelwood depletion might occur.

A study of biomass as a source of energy: Nepal

In Nepal, the total primary energy consumption in the year 1994–95 was about 276.3 PJ in which the share of biofuel was about 92%. The shares of fuelwood, agricultural residues and animal wastes in the total biomass use for energy were 75.0, 16.3 and 8.7% respectively. Annually, about 159.1 PJ of agricultural residues and about 25.1 PJ of biogas from animal wastes could be potentially viable as energy source in Nepal. Traditional cookstoves account for about 92% of fuelwood use in the country. From the potential supply and consumption figures of fuelwood in Nepal, it is seen that in 1994, there was a fuelwood deficit in the range of 20.9 to 100.5 PJ. Projections suggest that there will be a potential fuelwood deficit in the range of 25.1 to 134.0 PJ in the year 2010.

96/04077 Soclo-economic analysis of fuelwood use in a rural area of Turkey

96/04077 Soclo-economic analysis of fuelwood use in a rural area of Turkey

NOx emissions and thermal efficiencies of small scale biomass-fuelled combustion plant with reference to process industries in a developing country

Solid biomass materials are an important industrial fuel in many developing countries and also show good potential for usage in Europe within a future mix of renewable energy resources. The sustainable use of wood fuels for combustion relies on operation of plant with acceptable thermal efficiency. There is a clear link between plant efficiency and environmental impacts due to air pollution and deforestation. To supplement a somewhat sparse literature on thermal efficiencies and nitrogen oxide emissions from biomass-fuelled plants in developing countries, this paper presents results for tests carried out on 14 combustion units obtained during field trials in Sri Lanka. The plants tested comprised steam boilers and process air heaters. Biomass fuels included : rubber-wood, fuelwood from natural forests ; coconut shells ; rice husks ; and sugar cane bagasse. Average NO x (NO and NO 2 ) emissions for the plants were found to be 47 gNO 2 GJ -1 with 18% conversion of fuel nitrogen. The former value is the range of NO x emission values quoted for combustion of coal in grate-fired systems ; some oil-fired systems and systems operating on natural gas, but is less than the emission levels for the combustion of pulverized fuel and heavy fuel oil. This value is significantly within current European standards for NO x emission from large combustion plants. Average thermal efficiency of the plants was found to be 50%. Observations made on operational practices demonstrated that there is considerable scope for the improvement of this thermal efficiency value by plant supervisor training, drying of fuelwood and the use of simple instruments for monitoring plant performance.

Socio-economic analysis of fuelwood use in a rural area of Turkey

The present article is based on the socio-economic analysis of fuelwood use in 70 villages in Trabzon, Turkey. Energy requirements of the 70 villages studied are subsidized considerably by the surrounding forest in the form of firewood. It was noticed that the amount of fuelwood consumption in the 70 villages was 171 371 m 3 in 1990. The total amount of fuelwood per house provided by the forest enterprise was 12 212 m 3 in the same year and, therefore, the amount of illegal fuelwood consumption was 159 160 m 3. This study showed that the amount of fuelwood provided by the forest enterprise for each house in the villages was only 7% of the amount of fuelwood the villages used up. Finally, the economic, social, cultural, legal, technical, managerial and psychological reasons for the illegal fuelwood consumption from the State Forests have been studied and necessary and appropriate solutions have been proposed.

Determination of biomass burning emission factors: Methods and results

Biomass burning, in a broad sense, encompasses different burning practices, including open and confined burnings, and different types of vegetation. Emission factors of gaseous or particulate trace compounds are directly dependent both on the fuel type and the combustion process. Emission factors are generally calculated by stoichiometric considerations using the carbon mass balance method, applied either to combustion chamber experiments or to field experiments based on ground-level measurements or aircraft sampling in smoke plumes. There have been a number of experimental studies in the last 10 years to investigate wildfires in tropical, temperate, or boreal regions. This article presents an overview of measurement methods and experimental data on emission factors of reactive or radiatively active trace compounds, including trace gases and particles. It focuses on fires in tropical regions, that is, forest and savanna fires, agricultural burns, charcoal production, use of fuelwood, and charcoal combustion.