2. Present status of woodfuel

2.1 Current woodfuel use
2.2 Woodfuel production systems
2.3 Current energy plantations
2.4 Have plantings for energy been successful?

2.1 Current woodfuel[1] use

2.1.1 The 'woodfuel crisis'

Woodfuel is a broad term covering both the direct use of wood in cooking and heating, the use of charcoal (both for households and for industrial uses) and also recovered wastes in wood-using industries. While all are important in particular situations in developing countries, the use of wood and charcoal in heating and cooking predominate and are the main energy sources for more than two billion people (Nogueira, et al. 1998; Mather 1990; WEC 1999). However, substantial quantities are used in small and large-scale industrial processes - in Brazil, for example, about four million tonnes of woodfuel, as charcoal, are used in the steel and cement making industries each year, much of this being derived from eucalypt plantations (Foley 1986; Turnbull 1999). Furthermore, there is widespread use of wood wastes to provide energy for wood processing in Brazil.

The production and use of woodfuel is heavily concentrated in developing countries and in particular in the tropical countries (Table 1). Asia accounts for about 44 percent of all wood fuel use, Africa about 21 percent and South America and the Caribbean about 12 percent. These figures hide the variability between individual countries. Indeed there are 34 countries where woodfuel provide more than 70 percent of their energy needs and 11 African and two other countries where woodfuels provide over 90 percent (WEC 1999). In developing countries woodfuel makes up about 80 percent of total wood use; in Africa it averages 89 percent (Table1) and in a few countries it is almost the sole use of wood. The per capita woodfuel use also varies widely, being highest in African countries and tropical Oceania. Again, usage varies widely between countries, with 19 developing countries and four industrialised countries averaging greater than one cubic meter per person per annum (WEC 1999).

Table 1: Woodfuel use summarised by region (based on WEC, 1999)

Region			Woodfuel demand m3/yr x 106		% of total energy used	% of wood used for energy	% world's woodfuel use	Woodfuel per capita m3/yr
Developing countries				1 763	15	80	77	0.40
	Tropical			1 368	26	84	59	0.51
	Non tropical			395	6	65	17	0.23
		Africa		486	35	89	21	0.67
		Asia		1 003	12	81	44	0.29
		Oceania		1	52	56	<1	0.88
		Latin America		268s	12	66	12	0.56
Developed countries				537	2	31	23	0.41
World				2 300	7	59	100	0.40

Notes:

1) Totals may not tally due to rounding
2) Oceania excludes Australia, New Zealand; Asia excludes Japan, Turkey and Israel; all these countries are included in the developed countries. Latin America includes the Caribbean. The limitations of this data have been discussed by WEC, 1999.

Less obvious when looking at percentages of wood used as woodfuel for individual countries, is that the scale of production can be quite high compared to forest resources. Large volumes of woodfuel are produced from savannah woodlands of African countries, for example. As already pointed out for India large quantities come from trees grown on farms, along roadways or around the village. Furthermore, woodfuel is regularly available where fallow systems of agriculture (shifting cultivation) are used. Thus the supply of woodfuel depends not only on the forest resource, but also on the nature and condition of agriculture (Mather 1990).

In developing countries charcoal is often an important, although a small component of woodfuels (Foley 1986; WEC 1999). Limited data given by WEC (1999) suggest that about 7 percent of all woodfuel in developing countries is used as charcoal. Where it is used, then individual consumption is 100 -150 kg yr^-1 (Foley 1986). Charcoal is relatively more important in Africa and Latin America than Asia. Wood residues and black liquor are generally less important in developing countries than developed countries (WEC 1999).

In addition to woodfuel there are other biomass alternatives that need to be recognised when considering woodfuel use and the potential for woodfuel. These include agrofuels in rural areas and municipal by-products in urban areas[2]. Agrofuels such as straw, husks, dung etc., are readily substituted for woodfuel and thus make estimation of true demands more complex. For example, in India it was estimated that 22 percent of bioenergy comes from dried dung (Vergara 997).

2.1.1 The 'woodfuel crisis'

The 'woodfuel crisis' of developing countries, propounded in the 1970's and often accepted until more recently, was based largely on looking at supply and demand from forests and did not take into account the complexities of the situation (Leach and Mearus 1988; WEC 1999). Deforestation was seen as one consequence of this theory because it was found that consumption exceeded annual forest growth rates. Furthermore, this problem was seen as often being aggravated by population growth. The remedy was to plant trees. Leach and Maerus (1988) identified four factors that tended to negate this theory:

• The imprecision of estimates about resources and consumption - a small initial difference, which may not be real, may suggest disaster in the longer-term.
• Estimates often ignored trees outside forests
• The gap calculations did not always allow for re-growth
• The switch to other fuels was ignored.

The underlying belief in a woodfuel crisis and the reaction to plant trees for this purpose, often in the form of traditional plantations, has led to many programme failures (WEC 1999). Nevertheless there are instances where intense local use, for example near large urban centres has lead to forest depletion (Mather 1990). Vergara (1997) also points to increasing difficulties in heavily populated areas like India and Bangladesh. Here, tree planting, both as plantations and outside forest areas, are likely to be important. Nogueira et al. (1998) suggested that, in general, there is little conflict with industrial use of wood (including for industrial energy) and that being used for household use.

There has been a steady increase in woodfuel demand in the developing countries over the last 50 years while demand has been relatively constant in the developed countries (Mather 1990[3]; WEC 1999). In the early 1950s woodfuel production was estimated to be about 866 million m³ worldwide (Mather 1990). By 1970 the estimate for developing countries was about 1000 M m³ and this has risen steadily so that by 1995 it was estimated that 1763 million m³ was being used annually (WEC 1999). Globally there has been an annual growth of 1.75 percent in total woodfuel demand. Woodfuel demand and growth has been linked to both population growth and to income level, with low incomes generally indicating higher consumption (WEC 1999). Thus between 1975 and 1985 population increased by 19 percent while woodfuel increased by 28 percent (Mather 1990). However, while it is anticipated that by 2030 the world's population will grow by a further 45 percent and that most of this will be in developing countries, the majority of this growth will not be in rural areas (WEC 1999). The impacts of future population growth on woodfuel use are, therefore, less easy to predict.

2.2 Woodfuel production systems

Figures and studies like those described above hide what actually happens. In practice most of the woody biomass is collected from a wide range of sources - natural and degraded forests, savanah and shrub lands and from trees planted in plantations, on farmlands, in villages, along roads etc. Furthermore, a wide range of products is used from leaves under trees, dead and live branch windfalls and loppings, logs, logging residues and wastes from wood using industries. Bhattarai (1998) has described this as a 'residue and by-product woody based system'. In many situations woodfuel is not the main product of the forests. Often many of these contributions to woodfuel were poorly accounted for in earlier studies so that much of the past data is unreliable.

The importance of planted trees in farmland, villages, homesteads or along roads, waterways etc., can vary widely but often have a large impact on woodfuel supply. Asian studies for example, show that forest based supply can range from 13 percent in the Philippines to as high as 73 percent in Nepal and that in many countries it is less than 50 percent (Bhattarai 1998; Vergara 1997). On average only 5 percent comes from plantations (Table 2).

A 1996 example of the breakdown by woodfuel source from the Philippines illustrates the diversity possible (source RWEDP database):

	%
· Natural Forest	7
· Forest plantations	4
· Processing residues	3
· Home gardens	26
· Crop lands	19
· Rubber plantations	7
· Coconut plantations	19
· Other	15
Total	100

These figures also indicate the considerable variation in the ownership of the forest resources from which woodfuel is derived; government, private companies, communities and farmers. We see this also in Indian figures where in rural areas where 62 percent of woodfuel is collected from forest and public lands, 23 percent is collected from private lands and 15 percent is purchased (Ahmed 1997).

Other Indian estimates suggested a breakdown of woodfuel, based on ownership and source, as follows (based on RWEDP 1997):

	%
· Natural forests (state)	32.2
· State & community plantations	7.0
· Farm forestry (plantations)	11.3
· Farm trees (planted)	21.1
· Homestead gardens	7.3
· Degraded lands	12.1
· Shrub lands	9.0
Total	100

In contrast to these patterns South America has a greater emphasis on privately owned woodfuel plantations, some of which, as in Brazil, are large-scale to supply industries. In Minas Gerais State, the center of Brazil's iron and steel industry, there are several private companies with 150 000 to 200 000 hectares eucalypt plantations being grown for charcoal (Turnbull 1999). Some of these are also encouraging small landowners to plant eucalypts.

Another source of woodfuel is from extensive rubber and palm plantations. There are almost 10 million hectares of rubber plantations, of which about 64 percent are overmature (IRSG 1997). Similarly, about 20 percent of the12 million hectares of coconut plantations are senescent (APCC 1998). India has about 2.3 million hectares in these types of plantations. Bamboo is also an important in some countries.

2.3 Current energy plantations

Globally, non-industrial forest plantations are estimated to cover about 20 million hectares (FAO 2000). This was almost 17 percent of the world's total plantation area in 1995. Most of these had been planted for woodfuel and 98 percent are in developing countries. Other major reasons for establishing non-industrial plantations include land rehabilitation and erosion control, watershed protection and production of non-woody forest products. These plantation figures do not account for trees planted outside forests on farms or villages etc; nor do they consider agricultural plantations like rubber or palm trees. Furthermore, they do not consider forest residues that are used by industries, nor where rural people collect fuel from industrial plantations. FAO (2000) suggested that as a first approximation, the roundwood volumes for non-industrial plantations might be used as conservative estimates for woodfuel plantation production.

In developing countries about one third of the plantation estate was being primarily grown for woodfuel in 1995 (Table 2). Three quarters of these plantations were in Asia (which in this analysis excludes Japan), where they accounted for 60 percent of total plantation production. In Latin America more than half of plantation production went to woodfuel; in Africa and Oceania a larger proportion of plantation production was as industrial wood. However, plantations, in general, provided only a small proportion of total woodfuel used (Table 2). Uruguay is an interesting exception.

Table 2: Estimated areas and production of non-industrial forest plantations in developing countries by region, and for the largest producers in each main region
(Based on FAO 2000).

Region		Area woodfuel estate* ha x 103	% total plantation estate	1995 estimates
				Plantation woodfuel* m3 x 106	% of plantation production	% of total woodfuel use**
Africa		2 154	37	12.2	34	3
	Ethiopia	135	88	1.5	93	3
	Madagascar	122	52	1.5	84	16
	Sudan	233	78	1.1	76	7
Asia***		15 090	33	53.8	60	5
	China	3 854	18	5.5	20	2
	India	8 308	67	30.2	92	11
	Indonesia	399	13	4.2	52	5
Oceania****		14	10	<0.1	12	<1
Latin America		3 123	35	20.4	55	8
	Brazil	1 946	47	12.6	51	12
	Peru	210	72	1.5	70	9
	Uruguay	232	67	2.1	71	95
Developing countries		20 380	33	86.4	47	5

Notes:

* Assumes non-industrial plantations are primarily for woodfuel.
** Based on estimates in WEC (1999) and FAO (2000).
*** Asia includes Turkey but excludes Japan.
**** Oceania excludes Australia and New Zealand.

While these three countries dominate the world scene, it is also important to recognise that woodfuel plantations will vary in their importance depending on location, climate, socio-economic and historic factors. For example in Ethiopia, over 87 percent of plantations are grown for bioenergy (FAO 2000). Yet they provided only 3 percent of the woodfuel used, which is about the African average (Table 2). Ethiopia has a long history of planting eucalypts for fuel and poles, having introduced them in 1895. Madagascar's 122 000 hectares of woodfuel plantations provide 16 percent of their woodfuel demand or 13 percent of their total energy demand. In contrast, South African production has been dominated by industrial wood, with only 1 percent of their plantation production going to woodfuel in 1995 (FAO 2000); they made very little input to their woodfuel use (0.02 percent).

2.4 Have plantings for energy been successful?

Recent studies have concluded that there was mixed success with large-scale programmes designed to meet chronic rural woodfuel shortages. In Asia large-scale woodfuel plantations were established in India, China, Pakistan, Indonesia, Myanmar, Vietnam and South Korea. Many of these were planted under government programmes either by the state itself or as community programmes; their success has been mixed. Sudan, Ethiopia and Rwanda are African countries with relatively large areas of forest plantations used for woodfuel (FAO 2000) while Brasil, Peru, Uruguay, Cuba and Mexico are the main Latin America countries. Brazil is notable for its large area of industrial woodfuel plantations. However, in general, WEC (1999) concluded that large-scale plantations have been the least successful method of providing woodfuel.

Problems associated with past efforts have been:

• Woodfuel plantations sometimes ended up being used for more profitable purposes (e.g. in South Korea) and not for energy.
• Sometimes farmers became discouraged with tree planting because woodfuel has low market value. For example, some Indian farmers were encouraged to plant for industrial uses that never eventuated and subsequently firewood gave poor returns.
• Subsidies on prices of woodfuel from Government forests (e.g. in India) discouraged private tree planting (Saxena 1997).
• Using a 'top-down' approach, where 'community participation' involved experts telling the people what was planned.
• Lack of participation by local communities - the planting programme was ignored or in rarer cases was hindered.
• Ignoring social structural aspects such as, who has the power, who has the land, who has the need and who does the work.
• Projects failed to define and establish rights to the trees and procedures for allocating benefits. This led to indifference by the people being assisted.
• Not recognising that woodfuel is only one need among many. This led to incorrect choice of species and practices - often the focus was too narrow.
• Lack of adequate assistance and follow-up to ensure trees were correctly planted, tended and protected.
• Targeted areas associated with villages were not actually available because of encroachment or competition from other uses.
• Large-scale reforestation schemes, often on previous agricultural land, reduced grazing, food production and employment (Long and Nair 1999).

On the other hand planting on private farms was more successful (Long and Nair 1999).