Fuelwood scarcity, energy substitution, and rural livelihoods in Namibia

Palmer, Charles; MacGregor, James

doi:10.1017/s1355770x08005007

Cited by 35 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…According to Brouwer et al (1997), the switch was caused by increase in distance to fuel collection points as fuelwood becomes scarce. On the contrary, Palmer and Macgregor (2009) found very little evidence for substitution between fuelwood and dung; rather the use of cow dung as fuel was a predominant feature in livestock rearing communities. However, the livestock rearing regions also generally experienced acute fuelwood scarcity, hence it was possible that reliance on dung was an adaptive response to fuelwood scarcity.…”

Section: Hypothesis 1 Influence Of Energy Access On Dietary Choices mentioning

confidence: 85%

“…The results are therefore mixed, with some authors suggesting that fuelwood scarcity would lead to use of dung as fuel (Dewees 1989;Brouwer et al 1997;and Palmer and Macgregor 2009), while others (Mekonnen 1999) found other reasons that motivated the use of dung as fuel. The energy ladder model has been disproved in several settings.…”

Section: Hypothesis 1 Influence Of Energy Access On Dietary Choices mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Links between energy access and food security in sub Saharan Africa: an exploratory review

et al. 2016

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Three quarters of the population in Sub Saharan Africa lacks access to modern energy, and relies instead on biomass fuels for cooking and heating. The environment and health implications of the use of biomass fuel has been widely documented in the literature, and has raised the topic of energy access in various policy and development arenas. Still, the impact of energy access on food security at the household level has not been explored in detail; consequently the two sectoral policies remain unaligned. Our aims for this review were to document how lack of access to energy can impact on food security through influence on dietary choices and cooking practices; and how reallocation of household resources from food to energy procurement causes a switch to biomass energy forms of lower grade. We searched the literature for published peer-reviewed articles available through major online publication databases, initially identifying 132 articles but finally reviewing a set of 19 that met our criteria. While most studies suggested that fuelwood scarcity can affect food security through three hypothesised pathways, very few of them provided empirical data to support this argument. Overall, the review found coping measures for woodfuel scarcity to be highly contextual and influenced by geography, household economy and labour availability. Due to the limited number of studies with detailed data, it was not possible to perform a comparative analysis that could support or refute a hypothesis that lack of access to energy can impact on food security. More rigorous studies on this topic are needed which could provide evidence for policy action.

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Section: Hypothesis 1 Influence Of Energy Access On Dietary Choices mentioning

confidence: 85%

Section: Hypothesis 1 Influence Of Energy Access On Dietary Choices mentioning

confidence: 99%

Links between energy access and food security in sub Saharan Africa: an exploratory review

et al. 2016

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“…A study in Ethiopia shows that rural households in forest-degraded areas increase their labour input for collection in response to a shortage in fuelwood (Damte et al, 2012). A Namibian study on fuelwood scarcity also confirmed more labour going into wood collection rather than reduced energy consumption (Palmer & MacGregor, 2008). These studies found limited evidence for energy substitution away from fuelwood to other energy sources, despite the declining availability of forest and non-forest stocks.…”

Section: The Traditional Rural African Village Energy Contextmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Fuelwood deficits are becoming an increasing problem in rural parts of Africa, adding to the wood collection burden on rural households. In many parts of Africa, households are highly vulnerable to the rapidly degrading forest resources (Palmer & MacGregor, 2008). The reason is that fuelwood is collected primarily from natural wood-land and shrub-land, which are non-forest-type sustainable sources (Aron et al, 1991).…”

Section: The Traditional Rural African Village Energy Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Scoping exercise to determine load profile archetype reference shapes for solar co-generation models in isolated off-grid rural African villages

Prinsloo

2016

J. energy South. Afr.

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“…4). But the dominant biomass fuel was leaves and twigs.Firewood is found always preferable to the households, but most of the rural households are not able to buy firewood with comparatively higher cost than the other biomass (cowdung, leaves and twigs, branches, bamboo, rice straw and rice husk -Arnold et al , Jashimuddin et al 2006, Palmer & Macgregor 2009). Furthermore, women and children can collect those free of cost from their homestead, agricultural land and also from the neighbors (pers.…”

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confidence: 99%

Domestic use of biomass fuel in the rural Meghna floodplain areas of Bangladesh

Akther¹,

Miah²,

Koike³

2010

iForest

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© iForest -Biogeosciences and Forestry IntroductionBiomass fuels contribute to the largest share of the energy uses in Bangladesh. Currently, biomass is the fourth largest source of energy which supplies 15% of the energy use in the world (Sudha & Ravindranath 1998). Only in the developing countries, traditional biomass fuels meet a large percentage (38%) of the total energy needs (Sudha et al. 2003). In some countries like Bangladesh, its use is as so high as 75-90%, mainly used for cooking and heating (Sudha et al. 2003). Woody and non-woody biomass in the form of fuelwood, crop residues and cowdung dominates as the energy source in the low income country. Rural households are the major consumer in this respect.About 77% of the populations in Bangladesh live in the rural areas and they need energy for their domestic use like cooking, crop processing, lighting, agricultural industries, social welfare and commercial activities (BBS 2006). Because of over exploitation of natural and homestead forests, fuel shortage intensity is being increased day by day. In Bangladesh, biomass plays an important role, especially in the rural areas, where most of the people live. The overuse of fuelwood is significantly sharing the deforestation process. In addition to this, there is an increased use of crop residues and cowdung as fuel which is depriving the agricultural soil of valuable nutrients and organic matter. However, the fuel choice by the households is influenced by the income, family size, educational status and the occupation of the household members (Rao & Reddy 2007). Sarker & Islam (1998) studied the household biomass fuel energy situation in the poor forest regions of Bangladesh. Miah et al. (2003) studied the biomass fuel use by the rural households in Chittagong region, Bangladesh. Jashimuddin et al. (2006) investigated the preference and consumption pattern of biomass fuel in some disregarded villages of Bangladesh. Akhter et al. (1999) studied the homestead biomass fuel energy situation of a forest rich district, Cox's Bazar. Rao & Reddy (2007) studied the variations of energy use by Indian households. Wijayatunga & Attalage (2002) analyzed the household cooking energy demand and its environmental impact in Sri Lanka. Xiaohua & Zhenming (1996) carried out a survey of rural household energy consumption in China.To know the biomass consumption and expenditure pattern in the rural households, no study was so far found in the Meghna floodplain zone of Bangladesh. Thus, the study was conducted to understand the biomass fuel consumption and its expenditure by the rural households in the specified geographical location. The findings of the study are expected to contribute to the sustainable energy development in Bangladesh. Methodology Study areaThe study was conducted at Raipura Upazila (local government unit under a district in Bangladesh) of Narsingdi district ( Fig. 1 Rural households in the developing countries constitute the largest share of the biomass fuel consumption. It is also a major source of energy in...

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Fuelwood scarcity, energy substitution, and rural livelihoods in Namibia

Cited by 35 publications

References 19 publications

Links between energy access and food security in sub Saharan Africa: an exploratory review

Links between energy access and food security in sub Saharan Africa: an exploratory review

Scoping exercise to determine load profile archetype reference shapes for solar co-generation models in isolated off-grid rural African villages

Domestic use of biomass fuel in the rural Meghna floodplain areas of Bangladesh

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