ANNEX III - Welcome Addresses and Other Presentations

Welcome address from UNEP

Keynote Address

by
Bakary Kante,
Ag. Director Regional Office for Africa, UNEP

delivered by
Bai-Mass Taal
Senior Programme Officer Biodiversity/Forests
Division of Policy development and Law

Mr Chairman, Participants,

I welcome you to Gigiri, Nairobi, the Headquarters of UNEP. I hope our facilities will meet your requirements. The Acting Director ROA, Mr Bakary Kante asked me to extend his apologies to all of you. He would have liked to come and address this gathering on a topic close to his heart especially when it focuses on African issues.

As you know, UNEP has five priority areas in this biennium. Africa is the only region in the priority areas. The issue in this workshop, fuelwood energy, is also a priority issue in Africa. It is against this backdrop that when our sister organization FAO requested UNEP to become a partner in this workshop, we did not hesitate to join hands. As more and more resources especially financial resources become more difficult to come by, it becomes more prudent for organizations both within and outside the UN system to pool their resources together to address issues of common concern.

Mr Chairman, Participants,

The energy sector in most African countries is claiming a very substantial part of their financial resources when oil is to be imported and processed; before the mid-seventies it was only the commercial energy sources which were referred to, as creating economic and financial problems, and hence needing planning efforts and international cooperation and coordination; but since then the wood-fuel have come into focus and the studies devoted to their nature, availability and evolution have revealed their financial, economic, social and ecological impacts often far more important and worrying than those to other energy sources.

The picture in Africa shows an ever-growing population depending on wood-fuel. Ninety-one percent of the wood harvested in Africa is used for fuelwood.

As a result the consumption of forest products nearly doubled during 1970-94. The production and consumption of firewood and charcoal rose from 250 to 502 million m³ during the same period. Recent projections estimate that consumption will rise by another 5 percent by 2010. More recently new economic reform measures have removed subsidies on energy alternatives, which further increased the demand for fuelwood.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The forests of Africa cover 530 million hectares and constitute more than 17 percent of the world's forests is undergoing massive deforestation (3.7 million ha/a) a deforestation rate of 0.7 percent which is more than the world's average of 0.3 percent due to several factors especially the quest for wood fuel.

Africa is in deficit of wood fuel by over 200 million m³. But I hasten to add that, many initiatives have nevertheless been taken to improve the fuelwood situation at national, subregional and regional level. Most governments in the Sahel either by their own efforts or through donor assistance have attempted to assess the fuelwood situation. Most of these countries have completed comprehensive documents on their fuelwood resources and supply problems at least at the assessment level.

At regional levels, coordination efforts and join activities have been stated by CILSS or taken into consideration by (IGAD), FAO helped in

(i) Assessing consumption situation and resource availability
(ii) Identifying problems.

All these efforts are laudable and are tokens of a growing awareness and readiness for action in the area of wood-fuel.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I cannot conclude without recalling the Nairobi Programme of Action. Some of you may remember that UN Conference on New and Renewable Sources of Energy, took place in Nairobi August 10, through 21, 1981, made the following recommendations:

"Bearing in mind that fuelwood and charcoal constitute important sources of energy for large populations especially in the rural areas of developing countries; that adequate management of forest resources to provide fuel, food and timber requires the assessment of projected supply and demand and the identification of deficit areas; that their proper role must be seen in the context of the overall energy requirements and the particular problem of rural areas of most developing countries, and notwithstanding financial feasibility, especially in agroforestry system and that broad-based support and participation of men and women in the development, management and efficient use of fuelwood are essential taking into account the need for maintaining the ecological balance, the following specific actions have been identified: ..."

This recommendation was made almost 20 years ago and it is still valid today. Let us walk the talk. Action is what is needed. I hope your workshop will give us insight on how to properly assess the wood fuel situation in Africa.

I wish you successful deliberations.

Welcome remarks and official opening
by Kenya Forestry Department

Presentation of the Chief Conservator of Forests, Kenya,
at the Official Opening Ceremony

Monday, 23 October, 2000

[The speech was delivered by the Deputy Chief Conservator of Forests in charge of Agroforestry and Extension, Mr D.K. Mbugua]

The FAO Representative in Kenya, Senior Forestry Officer of FAO (regional Office for Africa), UNEP Representatives and other donors of this workshop, the EC Delegation, other invited guests, participants, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Kenya.

The Chief Conservator of Forests for Kenya was to come and open this workshop but he is committed elsewhere. He therefore asked me to represent him and on behalf of him and the Government of Kenya, I say karibu. It gives me great pleasure to come and open this very important workshop which is a great milestone for Africa in the realm of wood energy. I would also like to thank the organizers of the workshop for the confidence they have exhibited for Kenya by choosing her as the host of this workshop and all donors involved in this, especially the FAO, EC and UNEP, for making it possible.

As the briefing for this workshop points out, Africa is the region of the world where wood fuel plays its most important role. The dependence on wood as a source of energy in the subregions of tropical Africa is anything between 61 and 82 percent of total primary energy consumption. Compared to other regions, Africa has by far the highest per capita consumption of wood fuel, which covers between 90 and 98 percent of household energy needs. The need, therefore, of proper planning in the wood energy sector can not be overemphasized.

Whereas the demand for wood energy is increasing, resources for the same are dwindling fast and there is threat that they may not be there in the near future. Once upon a time, fuelwood gathering in Africa was an easy affair as it was done freely on any land. However, with time, this has become a major policy issue with far reaching ramifications on vital social, economic and environmental sectors. Satisfying wood fuel needs, now and in the future, requires careful planning of the wood energy sector and careful management of the resources in light of economic and environmental sustainability. This calls for availability of quality, relevant and updated data.

Most, if not all, African countries view this as a great challenge. Institutions responsible for gathering data on wood energy find it difficult as they are handicapped by human skill deficiencies, financial shortages and political interference, not to mention the periphery place the institutions are given in the planning context. Any existing data is usually inconsistent and unreliable and cannot be used for serious planning. Without any intention of premeditation, the case of the host country, Kenya, is an example we shall get to hear in the course of this afternoon.

Despite the challenge of ensuring availability of good data for planning and the attendant problems, the FAO-EC Partnership Programme has been at the forefront in assisting African countries to reform and focus policies and institutions to support the achievement of sustainable forest management. This is being done through the project Sustainable Forest Management in African ACP Countries. The Wood Energy Planning and Policy Development (WEPP) Component of the project aims at strengthening wood energy planning and policy development across the whole of the African ACP region. The first phase of this component is on enhancing wood energy information systems within member countries covered by this project, hence this workshop. On behalf of the African ACP countries represented in this workshop, I extend our gratitude to FAO and EC for this kind gesture which, we hope, will go a long way in achieving good planning tools for Africa in the wood energy sector.

I would like to end by pointing out that most of the countries represented here today have little capacity to carry out wood energy information gathering, analysis and interpretation for planning purposes. Most of the difficulties can be surmounted by putting in place effective working linkages between forestry and energy sectors, policy and related legal reforms, training of professionals in the sectors in survey and information management skills and some financial resources. The responsible institutions of the member countries of the African ACP are willing to work closely with donors towards realizing this. What is probably needed is wood energy master plans for the aspirations to be realized.

With those few remarks, I once again welcome all those who have come from outside Kenya to this country. I wish all the participants good interaction with each other and fruitful experience sharing during this workshop. Feel free to sample what we can offer and please come back another time. Let me now take this opportunity to declare this workshop officially open.

Thank you.

FAO-EC Partnership Programme - Previous Regional Workshops
In Support to Improving Forestry Information for Sustainable Forestry Management

by

Pape Djiby Koné
Senior Forestry Officer

FAO Regional Office for Africa (RAF)

[See Section "Project Background and Objectives" (page 8) for a general introduction to the FAO EC Partnership Programme, and to the two projects:

· Data collection and analysis for sustainable forest management in ACP countries - Linking national and international efforts (GCP/INT/670/EC), covering the period 1998-2000; and
· Sustainable Forest Management in African ACP countries (GCP/RAF/354/EC) covering the period 2000-2002.]

Previous Regional Workshops

The first project on "Data collection and analysis for sustainable forest management in ACP countries - Linking national and international efforts" (GCP/INT/670/EC), covering the period 1998-2000, mainly focussed on subregional workshops on forestry statistics, data collection and analysis, support to Forestry Outlook study for Africa (FOSA), and on specific case studies in some countries. These workshops were organized as follows:

· Subregional workshop on forestry statistics IGAD region. Nakuru, Kenya 12-16 October 1998
· Subregional workshop on forestry statistics SADC region. Mutare, Zimbabwe 30 November-4 December 1998
· Atelier sous-regional pour les pays du Bassin du Congo + Madagascar sur la collecte et l'analyse des données forestières. Lambarene, Gabon 7 September - 1 October 1999
· Subregional workshop on forestry statistics and outlook study for Africa/FOSA - ECOWAS Subregion
Yamoussoukro, Côte d'Ivoire, 13-18 December 1999
· Subregional workshop on forestry statistics and outlook study for the islands of the Indian Ocean
Andasibe, Madagascar, 15-18 march 2000

The main recommendations of the workshops are summarized below:

a) Nakuru:
      · Carry out surveys of fuelwood and charcoal consumption
      · Harmonize data collection procedures
      · Collect and disseminate data on price and other market information
      · Mutare:
      · Need to revisit the quantity of data on fuelwood to reflect supply and demand
      · countries should therefore compile statistics on fuelwood at national and sub-national levels

b) Lambarene:
      · Mobilization of resources for the collection of statistics and coordinate sources of information
      · FAO should support dissemination of information and electronic networking
      · Assistance needed to train adequately national staff assigned to forestry statistics

c) Yamoussoukro:
      · Institutional framework and required infrastructure should be put in place by countries 
      · Collaboration and liaison among Departments involved in wood energy matters at national level
      · Fuelwood surveys must be carried out on regular basis
      · Standardize methodologies for fuelwood data collection
      · Training of national staff should be given priority

d) Andasibe:
      · Establishment of electronic network at national and Regional levels
      · Adequate training should be organised for national staff

Conclusions

· Africa's population, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, relies more than ever on wood to meet domestic energy needs. Fuelwood and charcoal consumption increased significantly between 1980 and 1998.
· It is expected that this trend will continue, driven by increasing populations and macro-economic policies.
· Of the 603 million cubic meters of roundwood produced in the region in 1998, 86 percent was in the form of fuelwood and charcoal.
· Given the present trends, fuelwood is expected to continue to be the most important source of household energy in Africa in the foreseeable future.
· This is the reason why I believe that some key recommendations of the Five subregional Workshops that I mentioned earlier deserve adequate consideration by this meeting.

Recommendations

· Strengthening collaboration between departments of Energy, Forestry, Statistics, as well as other relevant stakeholders, on all aspects relating to wood energy;
· Harmonization of data collection and processing procedures at national, regional and international levels;
· Establishment of National Subregional and Regional Network on Wood Energy in Africa.

Main features of the FAO Study "The Role of Wood Energy in Africa"

by

Samir Amous
Tunisia

(Excerpt from Power Point presentation)

The issue

· Most of African countries heavily rely on wood energy for meeting their energy needs
· In most of the African countries, wood-fuel represent almost 100 percent of the household energy consumption
· Economic value of the wood fuel in Africa : US$ 6 billion /year
· On a longer term, the wood-fuel are likely remaining the major energy product used in Africa
· Wood fuel planning should be considered as one of the major tasks of the energy teams in African countries
· The management of forest resources should fully take into account the wood fuel removals
· Despite their importance, the wood-fuel are not adequately considered :
    - The energy teams in African countries do not cover appropriately the wood-fuel in their daily and planning activities (e.g. more project-based initiatives)
    - The forestry departments don't really devote the adequate level of effort to managing wood-fuel as they do for protection and production tasks
    - There is rarely sustainable framework for data collection and updating for wood-fuel
    - data are unreliable 
    - no adequate tools for planning tasks

Study initiated by FAO :

Global objectives: compile, compare and analyse existing wood fuel statistics in Africa

· Quantitative analysis : role of wood-fuel in meeting energy needs, global trends of wood fuel use, contribution to wood removals, and associated future environmental and energy challenges.
· Qualitative analysis : assessment of the level of uncertainty associated with existing data, consistency issues and application of UWET, supply relevant indications and suggestions for improving the data collection process

Scope : 55 African countries in 8 regions :

Approach :

· Identification of all available existing data at FAO and IEA libraries + personal documentation : international, regional, national, study-specific data, etc. (Period of data collection: 1970-1997)
· around 200 documentary resources consulted but NO VISITS IN THE COUNTRIES
· Description of the data + the approach for each existing database + cross-comparison between the various sources of databases
· Presentation of the existing data in a uniformed framework + Best estimates for 1980-1996 using the same uniformed framework- one of the major outputs of the study
· Formulation of a preliminary framework for data collection

Presentation adopted : consistent with previous studies (Asia and Eastern Europe)

Best estimates for base years were derived on a country-by-country basis using the following approach :

· most recent national data, or those derived from field surveys among all the sources of data, were given major priority in representing the reference data;
· statistics from the Energy Sector Management Assistance Programme (ESMAP) and Environment and Development Action (ENDA) were generally given priority since they are derived from best national knowledge, or from field surveys;
· Where consistent, the IEA data for 1995 and 1996 (detailing fuelwood versus charcoal consumption as well as sectorial consumption), were reported in the best estimates figures for the 23 countries considered individually by the IEA statistics;
· FAO data for black liquor were systematically adopted in the best estimates; Other FAO data were also used for cross-checking purposes;

Approach for completing the time series: on a sectorial basis :

· Consumption for intermediate years (e.g. where data are available for only 1980 and 1990) estimated using a compound series approach based on the calculated growth rate of total consumption within the two available observations.
· Consumption years beyond 1990 estimated using a compound series approach based on the growth rate of per capita consumption within the two available observations. (if consumption trend inconsistent, a more adequate approach : comparison with a similar country, consideration of a longer time series, etc.).
· In case only one historical data or no data at all, estimates made by applying per capita consumption or even calculated trends of countries or group of countries with similar geographic, ecological and economic characteristics (in a few cases, per capita consumption, the basis for estimating national consumption, left unchanged for the whole time series).

Conclusions

There is a need to establish a SUSTAINABLE data collection process within a specific wood fuel planning Programme, since wood fuel use is growing :

· Population growth;
· Urbanization process è a shift to charcoal in most African countries (low carbonization efficiencies è greater wood demand);
· Concentration of consumption in urban areas è higher pressure on nearby forest resources. In addition, carbonization practices è clearing operations for production purposes whereas fuelwood use was mainly a by-product of forest clearing activities arising from shifting cultivation practices.
· Poor quality of the wood fuel data - no time series - not systematically based on field surveys - not relevant for the whole country - sometimes extrapolation are done using inconsistent figures - no sectorial analysis
· Info. On supply very scarce and uncertain (e.g. from shifting cultivation or specific cutting, region of origin, etc.)
· No efficient international framework for data compilation at international level

Recommendations for the future

Short-term measures

· More efficient data collection process to be established by FAO :
· Identify the experts/specialists on wood fuel
· Better involve the FAO Programme Officers in countries
· Consolidate the Best Estimates
· Collect recommendations from country experts on ways to improve data collection procedures
· Modify the annual data query procedure (FAO)
· Define a new questionnaire
· Allow country expert to correctly simulate data when they are not available (modelling - panel surveys, etc.)

Medium-term measures

· Launch a pilot programme targeting the top ten consuming countries (or where data are highly uncertain)
· Quick national survey (data gathering on wood fuel demand by sector and by area, by wood fuel type;
· Information gathering on wood fuel patterns and behaviours : past trends and outcomes;
· Supply side information (origin of wood-fuel, collecting practices, etc.).

Longer term measures

· Data collection and updating framework should be developed in each African country + systematic transmission process to FAO, which would act as an observatory compiling the data at aggregated levels. This includes :
· Observation process for wood fuel data (demand, supply, demand-supply balance) in each country_ regular field surveys, remote sensing and cartography programmes;
· Framework for collaboration between African countries and FAO in the wood fuel domain in order to monitor the process properly;
· Regional framework for collaboration and exchanges of experience among African countries.