Biomass plays a vital role in the energy supply of many developing countries. It is the major energy source for the rural population of Nepal, where 70 % of the total energy is derived from woody plant biomass in the form of fuelwood. The main aim of this study is to describe the fuelwood consumption pattern and the role of community forests and trees on private farmland in biomass supply to rural households in Nepal. The study investigates whether demography and socioeconomic attributes of households affect fuelwood consumption. A household survey was conducted, along with measurements of fuelwood mass for six community forest user groups in Dolakha district of Nepal. Average daily household fuelwood consumption was estimated to be 8.4 kg, giving a mean annual consumption of 3060 kg per household. Per capita fuelwood consumption per day was found to be 1.7 kg. Total fuelwood consumption of households is significantly correlated with household size, ownership of cultivated irrigated terraces and number of livestock per household, and negatively significantly correlated with ownership of cultivated rain-fed terraces. Fuelwood consumption varies significantly between seasons. Among various sources of biomass energy, fuelwood from community forests contributes 23 % and trees on private farmland contribute 12 %. The rest is provided from other biomass sources, including the remains of fodder collected from private farmland vegetation, wood previously used for fences and trellises in private farmland, crop residues, and purchased fuelwood.

Background: A healthy wetland provides a range of goods and services contributing to human wellbeing. Inle Lake, the first Biosphere Reserve in Myanmar, has been supporting the local inhabitants with ecosystem services (ES) including habitat for a wide range of biodiversity. In the recent years, influenced by land use land cover change (LULCC), the lake has witnessed changes with altered flow of ES, affecting human well-being. Communities' perceptions are often undermined, when it comes to research LULCC. We analyzed LULCC change data from 1989-2000 to 2000-2014 using Landsat imageries. This was then linked to ES considering dependency through qualitative data collated from participatory rural appraisal tools and structured questionnaires focusing on people's perception to understand the LULCC dynamics and its implication. Results: During 25 years (1989-2014), there has been a sharp reduction of 164 km 2 perennial wetland area in the Inle Lake, which is 4.2-fold higher in 2014 to that of 1989. Similarly, forest area has been declined by 92 km 2 (8.56%) in last 25 years. Contrary to this, cropland area showed an increment of 60.67% in 2000 and 64.53% in the year 2014 alone giving a total increase by 268 km 2 over the last 25 years and an expansion of 40 km 2 seasonal freshwater area were observed showing periodic increment over the time. Communities from the three study areas, namely, Kyaung Taung, Zay Gon and Kyar Taw are found to have high dependence in their surrounding ecosystems. These villages utilizes 17 ES from forest ecosystem, 13 from agro-ecosystem, 10 from seasonal and 4 from perennial water body for their livelihood respectively. Around 93% of the respondents opined that forest ecosystem has decreased over the last 10 years. Around 40% of the respondents reflected an increase in area used for cropland; 43% conversely perceived a declination. About 63% of the respondents perceived such changes have brought huge reduction in availability of freshwater ES. A significant number of respondents (92%) perceived an enormous reduction in seasonal water body during the dry season. Conclusion: Observed decreasing trends in forest and perennial wetland areas were consistent with people's perceived changes. Communities associate loss of forest and wetland area with reduced availability of ES as well as degraded health of the lake.

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