The organizers feel that the scope of presenting the Wood Energy Component, its objectives and activities was successfully met and accepted with much interest by the participants of both national agencies and international organizations and projects. Most participants shared the same concern expressed by FAO/EC on the wood-energy sector in Africa and welcomed the specific objectives of the wood-energy component, clearly expressing the willingness to participate in its activities. The participants showed great interest in, and respect for, the considerable work carried out so far by FAO to collect, harmonize, review and report on existing wood-energy information in Africa. The comparison of various national and international data sources highlighted the general problem of poor data reliability and consistency, and this was well accepted and recognized as a key issue.
The participants' evaluation of the workshop, reported in Annex V, was positive on all main aspects, including the relevance of the objectives, quality of presentations and material provided, logistics, accommodation, administration, etc. Some improvements that were suggested include:
a) to give more emphasis to information sharing within the countries; and
b) to invite, on future
occasions, two delegates from each country, one from the supply side (forestry
institutions) and one from the demand side (energy institutions).
The presentation of regional and country studies, together with the documents previously prepared by the organizers; the results of the individual questionnaire prepared by all the participants; and the outcome of the working group discussions (Annex IV) were instrumental in carrying out an in-depth analysis of national capabilities and in defining priorities for action, as summarized in the sections below.
The meeting concluded that wood-energy systems were site-specific and complex. In addition, the multidisciplinary and inter-sectoral character of wood-energy systems often represented a limitation to the acquisition of political relevance and to the formulation of efficient solutions. The workshop identified the following critical aspects and issues that would deserve attention by all stakeholders directly and indirectly involved in the implementation of WEPP activities.
Wood-energy information systems
The workshop stressed that reliable and properly analysed wood-fuel information was crucial for the development of sustainable and efficient wood-energy systems. Existing wood energy information systems needed to be improved. It was recognized that they were a useful instrument to show to policy and decision-makers the roles they played for the well-being of people living in both rural and urban areas. It was agreed that wood-energy information could assist in the identification, formulation, evaluation and implementation of activities for the development of more sustainable wood-energy systems. Specifically, the following aspects were prioritized:
Wood-energy scenarios analysis and modelling. The capability to analyse wood-fuel data, develop models and make projections was considered a crucial issue, even more important so than the availability of data per se. It was felt that even the limited available information was not properly used for sector planning due to poor analytical capabilities. WEPP should assist national counterparts in the introduction of new methodological approaches and tools for planning sound wood-energy systems.
Main actions recommended:
The African countries should:
·
institutionalize wood-energy planning tasks with all related activities such as
data management, projections, planning, action plans, etc., and increase
awareness at the level of policy makers, main players and stakeholders, etc.;
and
· develop capabilities for, and carry out, projections/outlook analyses and strategic studies for planning purposes; develop close contact with FOSA activities.
FAO should:
· widely
disseminate the documents produced by this project (and other sources) and make
them accessible on the web;
·
establish official focal points interacting with this FAO process for WE
activities;
· carry out
wood-energy outlook studies at the regional and subregional levels and develop/maintain close interrelations with other project components (i.e. FOSA).
Reliable wood energy databases. The workshop considered that frequent and reliable wood-fuel consumption estimates should be conveniently disaggregated between rural and urban users. Lower priority was given to the differentiation between household and industrial users.
It was recognized that a great part of the wood-energy demand was met by wood fuels derived from non-forest areas, but these resources were rarely, if ever, surveyed. Consequently, the collection of information on consumption data was considered more essential than data on different types of wood-fuel supply sources. This could reflect the perception that primary needs of human beings should be given the highest priority. However, information on wood-fuel supply sources, and specifically those from agricultural/private lands and from natural vegetation outside reserved forests and plantations, should receive adequate attention in order to assess their sustainability and impact. The workshop concluded that WEPP could make relevant contributions to improving existing national regional and international wood-energy databases.
Main actions recommended:
National wood energy institutions should:
· adopt a
harmonized framework of definitions consistent within and among the
countries;
· collect on a
regular basis wood-fuel data to update and upgrade existing wood-energy
information systems on:
FAO, as well as other international organizations and projects, should:
· further
assist with concrete programmes and funds for the continuation of data
collection, compilation, analysis and dissemination;
· disseminate and promote the utilization of
the Unified Wood Energy Terminology (UWET) at the national and international
level;
· support the
development of adequate (simple and practical) methodologies and tools for
data collection, collation, interpretation and presentation, such as the
guidelines for wood-fuel surveys proposed during the meeting;
· assist in, and support, the
follow-up to the national case and pilot studies already initiated; promote
country studies;
· promote
cooperative programmes and synergies with other relevant (FAO and non-FAO)
initiatives on information techniques (i.e. AFRICOVER);
· carry out training activities to enhance
national capacities for the collection, presentation and dissemination of wood-energy data, as well as for the analysis of projections and the realization of outlook studies.
Institutional linkages and coordination arrangements on wood energy aspects
It was admitted that wood energy was a multidisciplinary system with a great number of activities covered, among others, by forestry, energy and environmental agencies. The workshop concluded that the current institutional linkages and coordination arrangements of wood-energy aspects among stakeholders were very poor. This was caused by a number of factors, such as limited human resources and inadequate funds allocated for this task. The workshop felt that WEPP could do a significant contribution to overcoming the main problems and removing some barriers.
Main actions recommended:
National wood energy institutions should:
·
establish official institutional mechanisms, such as a national steering
committee (with the participation of major stakeholders);
· create adequate frameworks for the exchange
of information and experiences (such as a network of national, regional and
international wood energy experts); and
· develop national wood energy web sites.
FAO should:
· promote national and international linkages
through the organization of regional meetings in collaboration with other
regional agencies (RPTES, CIRAD-Foręt, etc.);
· support the establishment of regional
wood-energy networks and improve/expand the FAO Forest Energy Forum web
site;
· organize a follow-up
workshop in 2001 to assess the progress achieved.
Wood energy policies
It was highlighted that, in spite of the fact that wood fuel provided most of the national energy requirements (at least for the household sector of both rural and urban areas), the sector was considered "poor business", with little attraction for capital investments and little promise of rich revenues. It was stressed that a number of factors, such as lack of financial appeal, unreliable statistics on wood energy and poor understanding of the roles played by wood energy in the different social and economic sectors of society, were the main causes for the insufficient attention given to wood energy in the national policies, strategies and programmes. In order to have a better understanding of the roles played by wood energy systems in the society and improve their contribution to sustainable forestry management plans, the following activities were recommended.
Main actions recommended
· National wood energy institutions should:
· review
and revise forestry and energy legislation (and policies) to remove barriers
which hamper the development of sustainable wood-energy systems; and
· disseminate sustainable practices for the production, preparation, transportation, transformation, trade and use of wood fuel.
FAO should:
· favour the identification of priority areas
of intervention through enhanced information and national analytical
capabilities; and
· promote
policies and practices of proven sustainability.