As shown in Annex 3, the total woodfuel consumption in the Near East countries amounts to 793.31 PJ in 1995. This account for merely 4% of the total energy at 22,366 PJ consumed in the region in 1995.
In many countries the data is scarce and/or unavailable. These countries, however, only consume a minor amount of the total woodfuel in the region.
The relatively small quantity of woodfuel use in the region can be explained by the lack of forest resources in combination with considerable oil resources.
Pakistan is the largest consumer of woodfuel, at 269.76 PJ in 1995, which is related to the considerable large population in the country approximately 136 millions.
Sudan has, however, the largest per capita consumption, which amounts to 143.63 PJ in 1995. This can not be contributed to a large population, as in the case of Pakistan. Although Sudan has a population that is six times less than the one in Pakistan, the country consumes half of the amount of woodfuel consumed in Pakistan. This is illustrated in table 2.1.
Morocco at 120.23 PJ, is another country with a considerable per capita consumption of woodfuel. The country consumes one third of the amount in Pakistan. Morocco's population is, however, seven times less than the one in Pakistan. Afghanistan, Tunisia, Pakistan, Turkey and Lebanon follow Morocco.
Iran, Iraq and Kuwait, i.e. the oil producing countries, have the lowest woodfuel consumption.
The Total Energy includes all types of solid fuels (hard coal, lignite briquettes, coke, peat, etc), liquids (crude petroleum, natural gas liquids, gasoline, etc), gases (natural gases, coke oven gas, and other) fuels as well as primary electricity, and traditional fuels (fuelwood, bagasse, charcoal, animal wastes, vegetal wastes and other wastes).3
Table 2.1. Proportion of Woodfuel of the Total
Energy Consumption in 1995
The major Woodfuel producer and consumer in the Near East region is Pakistan, at 34.6 % and is thereby the most important woodfuel consumer in proportion to the total woodfuel consumption. Sudan (18.1%) follows Pakistan. Morocco (15.2%), Turkey (11.4%), Afghanistan (7.4%), Tunisia (3.7%), Iran (3.2%), Egypt (2.8%) and Algeria (2.6%), as shown in table 2.2. These countries consume 98% of all the woodfuel in the region, although they comprise only of 10 countries. The remaining countries consume merely 2%, which is equal to 13.91 PJ. The total consumption of woodfuel in the Near East adds up to 793.3 PJ.
Table 2.2. Main Woodfuel Consumers in Near East Countries 1995
According to our estimation, the total woodfuel consumption in Near East region is, compared to woodfuel consumption in other regions, relatively minor. The consumption is, however, increasing in all regions, with Asia in the lead. The variation woodfuel consumption in the Near East in 1980-1995 varied with 31.85%. This as, well as regional trends, is shown in table 2.1.1. The major variation in woodfuel consumption occurred in Asia, followed by the Near East and Europe and OECD-countries.
Table 2.1.1. Total woodfuel consumption in different continents [PJ]
Unfortunately there is no information available according to the type of woodfuel consumed by the different sectors, such as e.g. household and industry. There are only data of the total woodfuel consumption. Consequently a desegregation of the figures is need.
As shown in table 4. fuelwood is a significant woodfuel product predominantly in Pakistan, Turkey, Morocco and Sudan.
Pakistan is the most important consumer of fuelwood in the Near East, followed by Turkey. While Pakistan is increasing its consumption from 166.74 PJ in 1980 to 281.16 PJ in 1997, Turkey is decreasing its consumption from 163.59 PJ to 85.71 PJ in 1997. Sudan is another country with a decreasing consumption.
Turkey is the only country in the region, which imports fuelwood to a significant degree. For the other countries the import of fuelwood is very small or non-existent (see Annex 2 for illustration). Fuelwood production and consumption account for a major part of the total woodfuel.
Sudan is followed by Afghanistan, where the fuelwood consumption has increased between 1980 and 1997.
In Algeria the consumption of fuelwood has more than doubled from 9.16 PJ to 20.94 PJ between 1980 and 1997.
For Iran the sources available have provided us with the same figures for the entire period between 1980-1997. It is unlikely that the consumption amounts to the exact same amount during a period of 17 years. These figures are, however, the only one available.
Table 2.3.1. Fuelwood consumption 1980 -1997
1[PJ]=100000[CUM]4
Table 2.3.2. Fuelwood
consumption 1995 in %
As shown in table 2.3.3., which compares the data from World Energy Council5 and FAOSTAT, the are important differences when it comes to the figures for some countries. The differences of significance can be found in the case of Yemen, Turkey, Sudan and Morocco. In general the values presented by WEC are higher than the ones from FAOSTAT. The only exception is in the case of Morocco, where WEC presents a lower value than FAOSTAT.
In FAOSTAT there is no information at all on the production of fuelwood in Yemen. WEC, however, presents a figure of 35.9 PJ in 1996.
Table 2.3.3. WEC and FAOSTAT fuelwood production1996
The information available shows that the charcoal consumption in Near East countries is nearly non-existent and there is no data at all available for the former Soviet republics, i.e. Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.
Sudan is the biggest consumer of charcoal 80.44 PJ in 1980 and 72.75 PJ in 1997, with a slight decrease the last twenty years. Morocco has the second biggest consumption at 10.96 PJ; followed by Tunisia at 4.58 PJ (all the figures refer to 1995).
Table 2.4.1. Charcoal consumption 1980 - 1997
1[PJ] ~32500 [MT]
The information from FAOSTAT has been compared with data from International Energy Agency (IEA)6, and the comparison shows, (see Annex 3) that the values from the different sources are similar. The exception is the values for Iran the last years, i.e. from 1988-1997. According to the figures presented by FAOSTAT, the consumption of charcoal in Iran is decreasing, while the values provided by IEA shows an increase.
The data on black liquor, is limited, and thereby making the setting up of a data profile on black liquor use in the Near East countries, unfeasible. It's difficult to determine if the lack of data is due to a non-existent use of black liquor or due to data gaps.
Little use of black liquor in the Near East, there is probably no pulp and paper production in the region.
Turkey and Iran are the most important consumers of black liquor in the region. The amount of consumed in these countries is, however, insignificant and the total amount for the whole region is merely 12.01 PJ in 1995. Black liquor is consequently not an important source of energy in the region.
3 1996 Energy Statistics Yearbook
4 1[PJ]= 1[PJ]*109([MJ]/[PJ])/ {?wood([kg]/[CUM]* PCIwood([MJ]/[kg]) ?wood = 725[kg]/[CUM]
5 The data from WEC is only available for 1996.
6 The information provided by IEA includes only the first group of the countries covered in this study.