A more sustainable use of woodfuels will not only have a positive impact on the environment and support sustainable forest management, but will also contribute towards generating employment and income and thus improve food security in developing countries.
To this end, the Wood Energy Programme of FAO is broadening and disseminating knowledge and information on wood energy aspects through: (i) the promotion and application of a unified wood energy terminology, aimed at enhancing the consistency, comparability and exchange of wood energy information; (ii) continuous review and improvement of our Wood Energy Information System (WEIS); and (iii) development and dissemination of planning tools supporting wood energy planning and policy formulation.
Most of the planning tools presently applied in the energy sector have been conceived by energy planners to analyse energy aspects (including wood energy), but do not address woodfuel supply and demand aspects.
The increasing amount of information available on wood resources and woodfuel consumption facilitates the development of analytical tools for supporting wood energy planning and policy development.
The challenge faced by wood energy planning is a major one. This is due, inter alia, to the complex interdisciplinary and inter-sectoral character of wood energy, which encompasses energy, forestry, agriculture and rural development issues. The patterns of woodfuel production and demand, and the associated social, economic and environmental impacts, are site specific. A holistic view and a better knowledge of the spatial patterns of woodfuel supply and demand are required in order to adequately assess the implications of current woodfuel production and use and the sustainable potential of woodfuel resources, particularly within developing countries.
Broad generalizations about woodfuel situations and impacts have often resulted in misleading conclusions, and failed to attract the required recognition and resources.
FAO has assisted member countries for more than a decade in the realisation of detailed woodfuel flow studies with a view to understanding current wood energy systems and to supporting operational planning. However, these studies are expensive and time consuming. New methodologies that make use of information already available and existing techniques (such as GIS) allow the geographical visualisation of woodfuel production and consumption patterns.
The Woodfuel Integrated Supply/Demand Overview Mapping (WISDOM) methodology, which was developed under the above considerations and in the context of FAO country assistance, has been the fruit of collaboration between FAO’s Wood Energy Programme and the Institute of Ecology of the National University of Mexico (UNAM).
WISDOM enables a geographical representation of woodfuel priority areas or “woodfuel hot spots” within a country (or a group of countries) to be made through the integrated analysis of existing woodfuel demand/supply-related information and indicators.
The aim of this paper is to describe the key methodological aspects for the application of the WISDOM methodology and to present, as an example, the analysis of fuelwood consumption patterns in Mexico identifying the country’s priority areas for action (fuelwood hot spots).
Wulf
Killmann
Director
Forestry
Department
FAO