Producing Woodfuel for Urban Centers in the Democratic Republic of Congo: A Path Out of Poverty for Rural Households?

Schure, Jolien; Levang, Patrice; Wiersum, K.F.

doi:10.1016/j.worlddev.2014.03.013

Cited by 48 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Most activities of charcoal production are unpaid as done by the household, but some technical activities require to hire chainsaw millers. The average costs is 40 USD/month/producer for an average monthly production of 25 bags our surveys, Schure et al 2014 Maintenance of the oven maintenance and operating costs of 50USD a month for a monthly production of 25 bags our surveys Equipment (bags) Unit price on the Kisangani market our surveys…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Are community forests a viable model for the Democratic Republic of Congo?

Lescuyer¹,

Kakundika²,

Lubala³

et al. 2019

E&S

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Since the second half of the 2000s, several options for implementing community-based forest management in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), like the local community forest concession (LCFC), have been discussed in the country's technical and political circles. Proposals and pilot testing have increased in the last five years, but the funding of initiatives is often proposed for divergent purposes and taking different approaches. We reviewed current experiences in the Eastern province of the DRC and found that nobody has carried out an estimation of the financial returns of the business models they drew up for/with the communities involved. We therefore conducted a financial feasibility analysis for two case studies, estimating the costs of developing/ implementing activities and the benefits expected for the communities within the next five years. Three main conclusions were drawn from the analysis: (1) most activities conducted under the LCFC model deal with rural development, and not with forestry operations per se; (2) several forestry activities such as biodiversity conservation or carbon sequestration are not detailed in the management documents and appear to have little legitimacy for local populations; (3) the two LCFCs show a negative financial performance because the inception and implementation costs are substantially higher than the medium-term profits. Community forestry is unlikely to develop in the DRC unless local people are guaranteed that it will contribute to improving their livelihoods, notably their financial and physical capital. This requires that LCFC initiatives focus on actual productive uses of forest resources, which financial performance is systematically assessed ex ante. A simplification of the legal constraints is also needed to reduce the cost of creating and managing a LCFC.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Each producer trades 300 bags of charcoal every year for local and regional consumption. Charcoal bags are sold at the village gate price our surveys, Schure et al 2014…”

Section: Turn Over Harvested Volume and Pricementioning

confidence: 99%

Are community forests a viable model for the Democratic Republic of Congo?

Lescuyer¹,

Kakundika²,

Lubala³

et al. 2019

E&S

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Over 70% of the population relies on woodfuel as their primary household energy source, with an average per capita consumption of 0.69 m 3 /year in 2011, or 2.5 times the global average [1][2][3].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The environmental, socioeconomic, and health impacts of woodfuel value chains in Sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic map

et al. 2017

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Background: In Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), the production and use of woodfuel remains an important socio-economic activity with more than 70% of the population relying on woodfuel as their primary household energy source. Despite their socio-economic significance, woodfuel value chains are often viewed negatively due to their association with detrimental health and environmental impacts. However, the lack of sound evidence and limited understanding of the role of contextual factors in influencing the various impacts of woodfuel value chains have prevented the formulation of properly guided policy interventions. Thus the objective of this systematic map is to provide a comprehensive review of the environmental, socio-economic, and health impacts of woodfuel value chains across SSA. Methods:The search strategy for this review map was defined in a peer-reviewed protocol and refined by iterative testing. Search strings were composed of population, intervention, and location terms and combined using Boolean operators. The bibliographic databases Web of Science, Scopus, and CAB Abstracts were used as the main sources of literature for this review, and a total of 4728 results were initially retrieved. Following title and abstract screening, 659 entered full text screening. Critical appraisal of 219 articles led to the exclusion of studies that did not set meet quality criteria for this map, resulting in a final total of 131 articles for inclusion in data extraction and analysis.Results: From the 131 included articles, 152 individual studies were identified during data extraction. Studies came from 26 of the 49 Sub Saharan African countries, with a particular preponderance of articles published in the last 10 years. Critical appraisal found significant weaknesses in the experimental design of woodfuel value chain studies with the exception of health impact studies, which frequently utilized controls or other relevant comparators. Findings suggest that woodfuel value chains have environmental, socioeconomic and health consequences with the frequent presence of trade-offs. The reporting of contextual factors in the studies challenge the widespread perception of deforestation as being directly caused by bush fires, overgrazing and woodcutting. Instead, agricultural expansion (which often includes forest clearing) and pre-existing biophysical factors were the most frequently cited factors in shaping environmental outcomes.

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“…Mayombe was chosen, "Primarily due to the same primary agent of deforestation acting within both the Project and Reference Areas -namely, planned commercial harvest -and is also similar to the project area in terms of landscape configuration, socio-economic drivers [. Maï Ndombe is about 50% further from Kinshasa than Mayombe (Schure et al 2014). .…”

Section: The Mayombe Forest Reference Area: a Dubious Choicementioning

confidence: 88%

Information exchange in swidden communities of West Kalimantan: lessons for designing REDD+

et al. 2016

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Certification standard bodies in climate governance are assumed to function as independent third parties agencies in transactions, providing trust and transparency to ensure that the calculation of carbon credits is reliable. This article investigates the validity of this assumption for the voluntary forest carbon market by analysing the environmental credibility of baseline scenarios of two certified REDD+ projects, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (the Maï Ndombe REDD+ Project) and in Madagascar (The CAZ REDD+ Project). Authors show that these two certified REDD+ projects resemble 'virtual emission reduction machines' designed to inflate the production of carbon credits and that they do not structurally change the local economy characteristics which drive deforestation. The design of both REDD+ and certification standards business models leads almost inevitably to the decision to use a baseline scenario with high deforestation rates and to limited interventions in the field. The need to deal with the carbon market's price volatility and to cover the fixed costs of certification exacerbates this trend towards inflated baselines, which also assists in the reduction of land use conflicts with local populations. L''économie virtuelle' des projets REDD+: la certification privée des projets REDD+ garantit-elle leur intégrité environnementale? C. SEYLLER, S. DESBUREAUX, S. ONGOLO, A. KARSENTY, G. SIMONET, J. FAURE et L. BRIMONT En matière de gouvernance climatique, les standards de certification sont supposés agir comme un organisme tiers, gage de confiance et de transparence pour s'assurer de la fiabilité du calcul des crédits carbone. Cet article étudie la validité de cette hypothèse dans le cadre du marché volontaire du carbone, en analysant la crédibilité environnementale du scénario de référence de deux projets REDD+ certifiés: le projet Maï Ndombe en République Démocratique du Congo et le projet CAZ à Madagascar. Les auteurs démontrent que ces deux projets s'apparentent davantage à des 'machines de réduction d'émissions virtuelles' visant à gonfler la production de crédits carbone, sans agir structurellement sur les caractéristiques économiques locales responsables de la déforestation. La structure des modèles économiques de REDD+ et des standards de certification mène presque systématiquement au choix d'un scénario de référence basé sur des taux de déforestation élevés et à des interventions locales limitées. La nécessité de composer avec les prix volatils du marché du carbone et de couvrir les coûts fixes liés à la certification renforce cette tendance à gonfler les scénarios de référence, évitant également les conflits avec les populations locales pour l'usage de la terre.

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Producing Woodfuel for Urban Centers in the Democratic Republic of Congo: A Path Out of Poverty for Rural Households?

Cited by 48 publications

References 25 publications

Are community forests a viable model for the Democratic Republic of Congo?

Are community forests a viable model for the Democratic Republic of Congo?

The environmental, socioeconomic, and health impacts of woodfuel value chains in Sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic map

Information exchange in swidden communities of West Kalimantan: lessons for designing REDD+

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