Disingenuous forests: A historical political ecology of fuelwood collection in South India

Drawing on knowledge: Visual narrative analysis for critical environment and development research

“…Absent from much fuelwood collection research are the realities of daily practices in households and villages at different scales and in different settings. Far too little attention has been given to understanding the process of procuring energy resources used for cooking within public forests, private properties and communal agricultural fields, among other areas (Chatti et al, 2017;Simon and Peterson, 2019). Our work here analyzes drawings about fuelwood collection to develop an analytical framework that draws attention to the socio-spatial dimensions of such livelihood activities and more broadly, development.…”

Influence of different salts of alkali and alkaline earth metals on the pyrolysis of Prosopis juliflora

“…Prosopis juliflora was selected for this study. P. juliflora , a fast‐growing exogenous species, were planted en masse in India in the nineteenth century owing to an acute fuelwood shortage and is still extensively used in the rural regions of the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu for firewood and charcoal production 1,12 . This biomass thus forms an integral part of the livelihood of the rural population.…”

The Gender of Fuelwood: Headloads and Truckloads in India

“…Second, to address deforestation and climate change, cookstove improvement advocates have encouraged people to adopt 'efficient' biomass-burning stoves or to replace firewood completely with solar, biogas or LPG-all deemed as 'clean' energy in comparison to fuelwood for cooking purposes. 1 For over a century, colonial foresters across Africa and South Asia falsely identified local wood cutting as the reason for forest degradation to justify state control of forests (Simon & Peterson, 2019). In the 1970s and the 1980s, two concerns converged across much of the developing world: forest conservation and poverty reduction (Crewe, 1997).…”

“…During this vulnerable period, Rajasthan's forests faced irreparable damage. 2 Research on the historic-structural conditions of poverty and forest scarcity (e.g., Blaikie, 1985;Dewes, 1989;Leach & Mearns, 1988;Thompson et al, 1986) has challenged the argument that household fuelwood use caused deforestation, but the simplistic narrative persisted (e.g., Simon & Peterson, 2019). In the last 20 years, discredited explanations that traditional cookstoves are a key driver of environmental degradation remain a foundation for national and international programmes to distribute fuel-efficient cookstoves to millions of people across India (Clean Cooking Alliance, 2020; Hanbar & Karve, 2002).…”

“…In the last 20 years, discredited explanations that traditional cookstoves are a key driver of environmental degradation remain a foundation for national and international programmes to distribute fuel-efficient cookstoves to millions of people across India (Clean Cooking Alliance, 2020; Hanbar & Karve, 2002). Simon and Peterson argue that these fictions persist because governments, NGOs and private corporations find them useful justifications for their international and localized development programmes as they simultaneously deflect responsibility away from other activities responsible for forest loss, including colonial forestry practices, modern agricultural land clearing, commercial timber logging, production of charcoal and other fuels, and dam building (Simon & Peterson, 2019, p. 47). Similarly, a focus on traditional wood-burning cookstoves not only appeals to the desire for simple, technological solutions but directs responsibility downward rather than upward towards more powerful actors.…”