Wood fuel consumption, institutional quality, and forest degradation in sub-Saharan Africa: Evidence from a dynamic panel framework

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to answer an empirical question regarding whether wood fuel consumption and institutional quality affect forest degradation in sub-Saharan Africa. To accomplish this, a sample of 45 sub-Saharan African countries covering 2005-2013 was employed. Also, the dynamic generalized method of moments (GMM) approach was used to estimate the specified model. The results indicated that wood fuel consumption significantly contributed to forest degradation in the region. On the other hand, control of corruption and government effectiveness were negatively related to forest degradation. This suggests that effective control of corruption and governance can contribute to lowering forest degradation in the region. Forest degradation aided by wood fuel consumption can be lessened by effective control of corruption and governance. Thus, policy makers should (1) provide adequate and affordable (or subsidized) modern fuels to the populace, especially rural dwellers, (2) intensify the fight against corruption, and (3) ensure effective governance.

Renewable Energy, Regulation, Employment and Environmental Sustainability in Sub-Saharan Africa

“…The implication of this is that implementing sound policies and regulations that promote private sector investment in renewable energy such as protection of patent rights, providing infrastructure, secured business environment and incentive like subsidy can motivate private investment in clean energy and subsequently improves environmental quality. This outcome corroborates the finding of Sulaiman et al (2017).…”

Modeling the Effects of Future Growing Demand for Charcoal in the Tropics

“…In Africa, charcoal is still very important as the main source of energy , and for this continent our results show the lowest ability to meet urban charcoal demands. This is likely because despite a high NPP, the rates of deforestation in Africa are five times higher than the global average (Bowker et al, 2017), and are mostly due to fuel wood consumption (Bailis et al, 2015;Sulaiman et al, 2017). Further, given the very high need for land for food production (Bowers et al, 2017) and the external land grabbing processes that are currently ongoing in the African continent (Johanson et al, 2016;Zoomers et al, 2017), our results may even be underestimates.…”

Bioenergy Intensity and Its Determinants in European Continental Countries: Evidence Using GMM Estimation

“…The modifications in energy intensity are contributed mostly in two ways: alterations in the manufacturing decomposition of an economy, and change in its energy manufacture intensities. In European countries, different studies [40][41][42][43][44] analyzed the decomposition and determines factors of energy intensity in various sectors such as residual, commercial, electricity, transportation, and manufacturing in European countries in recent decades [45][46][47][48][49][50].…”

“…In the wood fuel industry of Sub-Sahara Africa country, an early study [46] applied a generalized method of moment (GMM) different from system approaches. On the other hand, the same researcher in a separate study [49] related to the wood fuel industry of Sub-Sahara African countries, implemented the generalized method of moment (GMM) system approach for five different models that relied on previous studies [42,47] using the Arellano Bond Dynamic Panel GMM estimators.…”