Sustainable woodfuel in multifunctional landscapes

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Researchers and practitioners shared experience and recommendations for ways forward to sustain the woodfuel sector in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Woodfuel is the main source of energy for cooking for more than 60% of households in Sub-Saharan Africa, contributing to the food security, nutritional needs and incomes of millions. The sector supports small-scale producers and collectors, traders, transporters and sellers, all of whom rely on woodfuel for their livelihoods.

Production is expected to increase owing to a lack of alternative energy sources and growing demand from cities.

Yet despite its socioeconomic importance, the production and trade of woodfuel, mostly in the form of charcoal, is still largely informal: it is not organized, has weak or inadequate legal frameworks and contributes little to governments’ revenues.

The lack of effective governance — despite various regulations — in combination with increasing demand, has led to unsustainable harvesting, which causes degradation of forests, deforestation, emissions of greenhouse gases and decreased soil fertility, creating a vicious circle from which it is hard to recover. Governments have responded by imposing more regulations and restrictions with little consideration given to motivations for non-compliance in the first place.

By contrast, sustainable woodfuel value-chains can positively contribute to people’s livelihoods by generating both income from trade and a secure supply of fuel for cooking while at the same time reducing emissions, slowing or halting deforestation and improving soil fertility and overall production.

According to researchers and development workers, an integrated approach to woodfuel value-chains is needed to achieve this. Such an approach should consider the multiple functions of forestry–agricultural landscapes and focus on the outcomes for livelihoods and forest governance.

“The Governing Multifunctional Landscapes Sustainable Woodfuel project is supporting this approach in Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya and Zambia,” said Jolien Schure, leader of the project and an associate scientist with the Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF).

Schure and her colleagues — Phosiso Sola, Abdon Awono, Richard Eba’a Atyi and Kaala Moombe — presented an overview of their work at the XV World Forestry Congress in Seoul, Republic of Korea on 5 May 2022, focusing on how woodfuel can be sustainably managed in coherence with wider functions of forestry–agricultural landscapes and how it can be part of policy agendas.

During the session, moderated by Sola, Schure pinpointed the project’s focus in several countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.

In Cameroon, the project team were emphasising reduction of the degradation of mangroves through improved management; promoting production of charcoal from wood residues; and improving woodfuel management in refugee-hosting areas, including fast-growing agroforestry systems for food and fuel and accompanying business models to ensure financial sustainability.

In Kenya, the focus was on developing community action plans for better management in Baringo and Kitui counties; a roadmap for production of charcoal from Prosopis juliflora; and another roadmap for the overall sustainable production and use of woodfuel.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, sustainable woodfuel in the Yangambi landscape, through agroforestry and improved carbonization was emphasised along with improved use of wood residue from sawmills.

And in Zambia, participatory forestry action plans were being developed that included assisted natural regeneration and more efficient production by charcoal producers’ associations.

The session included detailed presentations by Didier Hubert of Eco-Consult on wood energy and restoration of landscapes and forests in the Far North region of Cameroon; Daniel Kofi Abu of Tropenbos Ghana on participatory approaches to community forest restoration and production of wood energy; and Lawrence Kwabena Brobbey of Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology on formalization of the charcoal sector in the country.

A panel discussion on the challenges and opportunities of sustainable woodfuel value-chains featured Thomas Gyambrah of the Climate Change Directorate of the Ghanan Forestry Commission on experience with woodfuel management; Serah Chilawi Lunda of Solwezi — the Mushindamo Provincial Forestry Office — on capacity building and supporting more efficient production by charcoal producers’ associations in Zambia; and Mark Kebo Akparibo, secretary of the Ghana Federation of Forest and Farm Producers and team leader of Business Incubation for the country’s Green Growth Strategy on the role of producer organizations.

“It was clear during the session that to achieve an integrated approach in each country in the region, we need cross-sectoral, multistakeholder platforms that bring together all the key players to ensure all needs are understood and ways forward agreed on,” said Sola. “These platforms need to be transboundary as well given the huge international trade in woodfuel. We, along with our partners and colleagues will continue to urge for such an approach in order to improve people’s livelihoods and their environment.”

Funded by the European Union, the Governing Multifunctional Landscapes Sustainable Woodfuel project aims to contribute to knowledge, options and engagement for more sustainable woodfuel value chains across Sub-Saharan Africa.

The Sustainable Woodfuel Brief series describes findings, insights and analyses from the project’s activities during 2018 to 2021, in particular, experience from woodfuel value-chains in Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya and Zambia.