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1. Defining the scope of wood fuel systems

Russell deLucia


1. Introduction
2. Basic characteristics of wood fuel systems
3. Important system perspectives
4. Dynamic features of wood fuel systems
5. Information gathering
6. Wood fuel survey design


1. Introduction

This paper presents some ideas that my colleagues and I have found useful in thinking about energy issues for developing countries. In particular, it discusses factors which have influenced our thinking regarding the scope of wood fuel surveys and associated efforts. The chapter draws heavily on both earlier and ongoing1 work. It reflects ideas developed over the last few years with a number of colleagues interested in these issues,2 but the author is solely responsible for their interpretation in the present paper.

1 Including other work of the author (deLucia, 1980 and 1981; deLucia and Tabors, 1980), corporate work (Meta Systems Inc., 1978 to 1980) in which the author participated, and recent work of a colleague (J.H. Arnold, 1980).

2 I am indebted to a number of my colleagues - John Briscoe, Douglas Smith, Ramesh Bhatia, Mike Lesser, Richard Tabors, and John Arnold. In addition, there are a number of individuals elsewhere whose work or writing have particularly influenced the thinking that is reflected in this paper. They are too numerous to mention them all here, but Mike Arnold at FAO, M. Nurul Islam at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Dacca, and David Brokensha at the University of California deserve particular mention.

Wood fuel surveys can be, and have been, undertaken for a variety of purposes. The most important purpose for carrying out a survey is to prepare for action; that is, to gather information needed to improve the rural energy situation, in order to facilitate the process of development. This paper is concerned with surveys designed to serve this developmental purpose.

Within such a framework surveys may need to be undertaken for a spectrum of purposes, ranging from the estimation of the magnitude of fuel use, and/or the spatial variation in this use, to the planning of a specific project (or projects). Different surveys are likely to be needed to serve the process of planning at the macro, sector or project level, and they can differ widely.

The planner at the national level, concerned mainly with the share of fuelwood in the country's forest product balance, or of wood fuels in its energy balance, requires only broad aggregate estimates. To establish forestry or energy end use balances for a particular sector more detail would be needed - to differentiate use by household, commercial, industrial and transport sectors. Still more detail is needed if the aim is to differentiate among different types of fuel.

Estimates of traditional fuel3 use, even those requiring information on end use, sector, fuel, and spatial variation, can be based on surveys of demand characteristics. Project evaluation of energy investments that depend on fuelwood requires a different sort of survey from consumption surveys. In many oases investment planning requires understanding of supply resources, the existing and potential demands, and the nature of the systems in which these supplies and demands are balanced.

3 There is no universally accepted term for this class of fuels - i.e. fuelwood, charcoal, crop residues, animal dung. The frequently used term 'non-commercial fuels' is inaccurate since for some fuels - firewood, charcoal - there is usually a commercial cash market. Even where there may not be a cash market, there is frequently some form of 'in kind' exchange for the-commodity. The term 'traditional' fuels is used here to distinguish these from conventional fuels and energy sources which are fossil, hydro, or nuclear based. Thus the traditional fuels are part of the broad class of energy supplies based on renovable resources.

Rural energy systems, both those that are largely dependent on traditional fuels and technologies and those that are undergoing technological modernization, are characterized by interrelations that are important to understand for policy and project formulation. In subsistence situations traditional fuels are part of complex systems in which the important interrelations are social and institutional as well as physical. The use of now energy technologies affects (i) technologies that form different parts of the fuel cycle, (ii) the resources that these technologies utilize, and (iii) other possible uses of the same resources.

A basic premise of this paper, and of the rest of the publication, is that surveys will not be effective in providing the information that will allow the identification and planning of successful interventions in fuelwood shortage situations, unless they reflect the relevant interrelationships within the surrounding systems, and are correctly designed to elicit the appropriate level of detail. These points are stressed here because most past work on fuelwood, not, surprisingly, has not fully met these criteria. The perceptions of what is needed have taken shape only in the past few years. Most earlier work was consequently too narrowly conceived, failing to provide sufficient, or sufficiently precise, information on the factors determining fuelwood supply and use and the basis for understanding the relevant interrelationships.

The present paper is intended to provide an overview of the components of the process of defining and executing a wood fuel survey, the more important of which are discussed in greater detail in later papers, and to set these in broader perspective. The next section of the paper discusses various characteristics of traditional fuel and energy systems that can influence the scope and methodology of a fuelwood survey. A subsequent section discusses system perspectives that markedly influence surveys. This is followed by a treatment of difficulties in estimating both the supply and demand sides of traditional fuel systems, including questions regarding the use of statistical and other source material, which concludes with discussing the different types of survey appropriate to different levels of need-for information; also, some general principles are stated regarding recommended approaches in deciding what to do.

2. Basic characteristics of wood fuel systems


2.1 Ubiquitous use of fuelwood
2.2 Non-commercial nature
2.3 Availability and access
2.4 Seasonal variation
2.5 Efficiency in end use
2.6 Changes with income and price


The following sections touch on some characteristics of traditional fuel systems that appear in many situations and which need to be considered in identifying the information needs and methodologies. Much of this discussion leads to a viewpoint, presented explicitly later in this paper, that traditional fuel systems are part of complex physical and social systems, and that potential changes must reflect these complexities.

2.1 Ubiquitous use of fuelwood

Recent FAO estimates suggest that in 1980 approximately three-fourths of the population of the developing world - 2 000 million people - depended on traditional fuels for their domestic energy requirements, and that by the year 2000 this number could grow to 3 000 million (FAO, 1981). Traditional fuels, a large portion of the overall energy consumption in most developing countries, are used extensively and often exclusively in meeting the household needs of people in both rural and urban areas. They are also used to a varying extent in the commercial, agricultural and industrial sectors, including some large-scale industrial uses.

Traditional fuels represent as much as 90 percent of the total energy use in countries such its Nepal, Tanzania and Mali. Most developing countries lie in a range from 30 to 80 percent or more overall reliance on traditional fuels, and the importance of traditional fuels may well be increasing.

The transition from traditional to commercial fuels, common to the history of industrial development in the developed world, will in all likelihood not occur in many developing countries in the foreseeable future. Traditional fuel use will probably remain large in absolute quantity, even if most resource bases are deteriorating due to population growth and depletion of local forest resources. None of the alternative sources of energy, discussed later in the paper and in Annex IV, could be developed and put in place at acceptable cost in quantities likely to remove the dependence of the bulk of this enormous, and growing, number of people upon traditional fuels.

The use of traditional fuels in the domestic sector is not simply a rural phenomenon. Urban households rely on traditional fuels, often charcoal. Many of the more serious scarcity and environmental degradation problems occur in areas surrounding major urban areas. While the use of commercial fuels for cooking, water heating, and space heating is more common in the urban areas where incomes are higher and these fuels are more readily and cheaply available, traditional fuel use is extensive.

Domestic uses of firewood, charcoal and agricultural residues are for cooking, heating water and space heating. The last is relatively unimportant in the lowland humid tropics, but can be substantial at high elevations and during chilly seasons elsewhere.

Table 1-1 shows the estimated range of average per capita use of fuelwood in a number of broad regions in the developing world. The differences mainly reflect different climatic situations, and fuel availability and economic conditions which are discussed in the subsequent sections. Use in particular locations can vary considerably both within and outside these ranges.

Table 1-1 Fuelwood use in selected regions


m3/cap/yr

Africa


Arid and sub-arid areas

0.5


Savanna areas

1.0 to 1.5


High forest areas

1.2 to 1.7


Mountainous areas

1.4 to 1.9

Asia


Indo-Gangetic plains

0.2 to 0.7


Lowland areas in S.E. Asia

0.3 to 0.9


High forest areas

0.9 to 1.3


Mountainous areas

1.3 to 1.8

Latin America


Andean plateau

0.95 to 1.6


Arid areas

0.6 to 0.9


Semi-arid areas

0.7 to 1.2


Other areas

0.5 to 1.2

Source: Map of the Fuelwood Situation in Developing Countries Explanatory Note. Food and Agriculture Organization, Rome, 1981.

Variations in consumption levels also reflect variable use of wood fuels in rural industries and agriculture. Though seldom approaching the scale of domestic use, these can be considerable an is shown, for example, by the results of the survey in Nepal by Donovan reported on in Annex II.

2.2 Non-commercial nature

The traditional fuels of firewood, charcoal, agricultural residues (rice, straw) and dung are, in most parts of the world, largely non-commercial in the nature of their paths from point of supply to ultimate use (charcoal is the one general exception). Most traditional fuels are gathered by the users, and women are the major users and gatherers in much of the world. Cash markets usually do exist, mainly for part of fuelwood supply and much of charcoal (the more concentrated fuels). Occasionally cash markets develop for dung and for crop residues, mainly for urban consumers, but also for some rural households and institutions (shops, schools, bars). Although cash or formal markets may not play an important role for many traditional fuels, such as rice or Millet straw, there are frequently complex service or exchange relations in rural societies in which traditional fuels are just one component.

This non-commercial nature of traditional fuels is one of the reasons why these energy supplies are not generally accounted for in forestry and energy statistics. Energy to the statistician has usually included only those energy forms marketed on a large scale through some centralized market system (coal, oil, electricity) - the supplies referred to as commercial energies. This has been a major factor in the widespread failure to recognize the size of the share of fuelwood in national energy and forestry balances. Although perceptions of the statisticians are rapidly changing in this respect, the statistics are at present woefully inadequate.

2.3 Availability and access

Because of its non-commercial nature firewood use is heavily affected by its physical availability to the user, which varies markedly from country to country, within a country, and even among groups within a specific village. There are a number of reasons for this.

Collection for own use requires that there be local supplies. These have often been heavily depleted by deforestation. Even when forest stands are close, government or other ownership and use regulations may prevent firewood use. Ownership or-use characteristics may also limit the access of available non-forest woodland along roads, between crop areas, or within homesteads.

In many countries major portions of forest areas are controlled by government departments and access and use for firewood offtake and/or charcoal production is limited, or prohibited, even if enforcement is limited. In other cases, while ownership may be at least nominally with central governments, control is with local public authorities. These local bodies are often influenced by larger landowners and other richer or powerful people, and so are unrepresentative of the whole populations, and likely to distribute production unevenly.

Access problems also exist for the poor or landless with respect to agricultural residues such as dung. However, here the problem is not just a matter of ownership, since animals that graze in forests and uncultivated lands produce dung which is less available than dung from animals kept in stalls. In many situations availability and access can vary significantly within a given village, according to kinship, class or patron-client relationships. Access is often strongly related to ownership of energy producing resources (forest or homestead lands, animals or crop land) with the small landowners and landless being at a distinct disadvantage. The distributional aspects can also be a function of location, particularly in hilly areas where a village can occupy an area encompassing significant differences in elevation, and resources (forest or good crop land) vary with elevation.

Availability may also be affected by alternative uses, and alternative fuels. For example, some countries mandate that residues be burned in the field to control disease (e.g., cotton in Sudan), and in other countries field burning is a traditional practice. In central Java, rice husks are sold an a fuel but on the nearby island of Lombok these husks are available free to anyone who will take them. The difference is a function of the high population density and lack of fuel resources in central Java.

Access to residues belonging to the rich may not be available to the poor so that, even in such a fuel-poor country as Bangladesh, rich farmers burn rice straw in the field. This phenomenon accompanies the transition from subsistence to market economices in rural areas.

2.4 Seasonal variation

Traditional fuel use may vary significantly in both amount and relative composition of different fuels from season to season. Both demand and supply factors influence these changes, At the household or farm level, demand factors include increases in consumption for cooking during festival periods, space heating requirements during colder months in some areas, crop drying and other food processing needs in the post harvest season.

On the supply side an important factor is the changing availability, quantity and quality of fuel sources. Rice or millet straw, for example, is likely to be abundantly available after the harvest but scarce later in the year. Fuelwood is likely to be scarcer in the wet season when it is harder to gather and carry, and when there are competing demands for labour for activities such as land preparation and harvesting, in many situations there is a dramatic change in relative composition, for example with millet straw being the dominant fuel in some and fuelwood in others. To arrive at an accurate assessment of total fuelwood needs in the year, it is therefore often necessary to monitor use through the different seasons.

2.5 Efficiency in end use

Energy requirements for cooking probably do not vary significantly within a region, and change by only an estimated ± 30 percent with changes in diet, cooking techniques and stove designs.

However, the difficulties of understanding and quantifying the use of traditional fuels in rural areas in developing countries is compounded by lack of information on the efficiencies of operation of many of the principal and use devices, which can vary widely with both design and method of use. The energy efficiency of traditional stoves is frequently 10 percent or less, compared to a cooking efficiency of 30 percent or greater in a western stove. This inefficiency is common to grain drying and space heating as well.

One reason traditional fuels loom high in gross energy budgets in developing countries is because such fuels are burned at much lower efficiencies than commercial fuels. Energy budgets presented in terms of net or end use show a much greater importance of commercial fuels than do gross energy comparisons. Because of this, energy planners in India in the 1960s chose to use 'coal replacement' values that consider differing efficiencies of use rather than the more widely used 'coal equivalents' (National Council of Applied Economic Research, 1965). However, for many types of cooking, measurements of conversion efficiencies are nonexistent, so that meaningful comparisons on any 'replacement' basis are not possible.

Although actual measurements of conversion efficiencies are few, they have increasingly been incorporated into resource studies. They are particularly important, because one major option for intervention in a shortage situation can often be to reduce or curb growth in future demand through adoption of a more efficient stove or other conversion process. Any such impact on demand will feed back into lower future supply needs, a potential development which need to be recognised in looking at the possibilities for interventions on the supply side. The issues arising in measurement of conversion efficiency are discussed in detail by Geller and Dutt in Annex III.

2.6 Changes with income and price

How traditional fuel use varies with household income is a complicated question, interrelated with other critical factors such as price and availability of both traditional and conventional commercial fuels.

In the literature on energy use in developing countries, a notion of 'stages of development' of fuel sources is often mentioned. This suggests that, as people's income increases, they move from reliance on traditional fuels to reliance on conventional commercial fuels. While a comparison of, say, the United States and India, or a comparison of Dacca with a village in Bangladesh, lends credence to such a 'theory', differences other than income may account for consumption patterns. For example, in explaining differences within Bangladesh, it appears that the absence of access to traditional, noncommercial fuels is what accounts for some people entering the commercial, fuel system, rather than an increase in purchasing power. Frequently, it may be the poorest groups who therefore purchase their fuel requirements, because they have no access to traditional sources.

In many countries fuels used by the domestic sector (kerosene and LPG) are heavily subsidized. When local prices reflect increases in international oil prices, this can induce switches to use of traditional fuels, for the conventional fuels are limited largely to higher income groups and industrial/commercial users. Many urban families of the professional classes in Manila, for example, are reported to be returning to at least partial use of traditional fuels, because of recent increases in the price of LPG.

3. Important system perspectives


3.1 Wood fuels as part of complex systems
3.2 The fuel cycle of traditional fuels
3.3 Energy requirements, supply conversion and end use systems


3.1 Wood fuels as part of complex systems

In a typical village energy balance some agricultural produce is sold to the outside and some chemical fertilizer and other inputs are brought into the village, it is not a closed system. In many areas kerosene is imported for lighting (and sometimes cooking), and in more developed situations petroleum fuel may be used for pumping or mechanical tilling. The energy flows exhibit many interconnections. Any resource adjustments - e.g., fewer livestock, forest clearing for agriculture, or higher crop yields - imply altered energy availabilities and needs.

Consequently, for many traditional energy sources, sectoral planning and analysis must account for complex competing uses. For example, trees provide many useful products. They give shade and shelter and yield fruits and seeds of food or economic value. The leaves and twigs are used as animal fodder or firewood. The trees themselves may be harvested as firewood or used as building material. Residues from the tree may be spread on the fields as fertilizer. Thus the potential for fuel from a tree has more than one value, depending on alternative uses. The complex relationship also concerns labour inputs. In addition to the important role of women in traditional fuel gathering, there can be complexities of adult vs. child labour availabilities. For example, in Indonesia and Thailand children collect dead tree matter but adults must out branches from trees in fuel scarce seasons so as not to kill the tree.

This complex relationship holds for most of the traditional fuel sources. To answer the question of fuel potential it is necessary to take into account the alternative demands on the material for uses other than fuel. Many residues have competing uses in societies such as China and Bangladesh; rice straw for animal feed, compost and fuel, jute sticks for construction material and fuel; and cow dung for fertilizer and fuel. There is often a delicate resource balance within a household or village that limits residue availabilities for fuel.

For many crops, in addition to multiple products, there are alternative, competing, energy-related uses. This situation is well illustrated by the most important crop in many areas of Bangladesh - deep water amon paddy. This crop is broadcast before the monsoon, grows in four to nine feet of water and is harvested after the monsoon waters recede; The complexity of different purposes served by the cultivation of amon paddy in illustrated below where the possible end uses of' each product are in competition with one another (Briscoe, August 1979).

Amon Paddy Products


Use


Human food

Fodder

Fuel

Fertilizer

Construction

Leaves


++

+



Grain

+++





Husk


++

+++



Straw-nara*


+

+++

++

+

Straw-kher**


+++

+

+


(Legend: +++ predominant use; ++ used commonly but not frequently; + used but uncommonly)
* Nara is the tough straw which remains in the field after the paddy is harvested.
** Kher is the more tender straw which is carried from the field with the harvested paddy and which remains after the threshing of the grain.

In many agrarian ecosystems, particularly those in much of Asia, the concept of 'crop wastes' is entirely inappropriate, since almost every product of cultivation is utilized in some way, so there are no slack or unutilized resources.

This resource complexity and utilization makes the process of understanding the energy system contingent on an appreciation of the agricultural and livestock systems. The high degree of interconnection between different sectors, such as the introduction of high yielding varieties (HYVs), has important consequences for the energy and livestock sectors. Appropriate planning in any particular sector, including the energy sector, cannot proceed on the basis of a set of fixed assumptions about the other sectors of the economy. As has been pointed out by many observers (e.g., Brokensha and Riley, 1978) similar complexities occur with fuelwood, use where many tree varieties are used with specific preferences for particular uses. Local people show a highly developed knowledge of trees and their uses.

Among serious resource complexities are the multiple pressures on forest land. Deforestation comes about due to permanent clearing of forest land, for agriculture as well as fuelwood gathering or other overuse of the forest resources. The pressures on the land for food and other crop production, and grazing use, constitute one of the principal constraints to reintroducing, and expanding, tree cover.

As mentioned above, another resource complexity arises from the multiple, competing, uses of the wood resources. In the survey in Malawi reported on in Annex II, it was found that people in the fuelwood, a priority which strongly influences their attitudes towards replanting trees. Too few studies have examined in micro detail the multiple food, fodder and fibre needs, and other pressures on the resource base.

When studies include such issues and other resources complexities, they not only reinforce this view of traditional fuels being part of complex resources and social systems, but also suggest that solutions are not easy and that alternatives must be evaluated in the light of these complexities.1 Part of the complexity is the differential access to resources and the failure of aggregate measures (at the village level) to reflect problems or options particular to class/group or locations.

1 e.g., the studies by Bajracharya, Briscoe, Brokensha and Riley, and the Fleurets summarized in Annex II, and the work that Reddy bases his paper on.

As has been mentioned earlier, there are important differences in consumption patterns, problems and options available to different households and groups within the same village. It is important to understand the social, economic or other characteristics that determine these differences, whether it be size and type of land holdings or other social/economic characteristics such as access to resources, or the source of cash income (particularly off-farm income) which is so important in many areas.

Differential access to energy and other resources, varying energy needs and multiple demands on natural resources suggest that it is useful to examine village energy systems in a manner which considers resource flows. This approach allows an evaluation of the impacts of possible intervention which may markedly change the pattern of resource flow such as happens when dung and other residues are redirected from existing uses to feedstock for biogas production.

An example of this change in resource flows is presented in Fig. 1-1 which outlines the effects of the introduction of biogas plants. In this case, biogas diverts the use of manure from direct use as fertilizer and fuel and requires capital and labour from the household. On the other hand, the biogas units provide fuel for the household, fertilizer, and possibly pumping energy for the cropland. In addition, biogas decreases the demand for fuelwood and also, in the case of use in pumping, increases crop production, thereby either raising cash income or reducing food purchases. An important impact not shown in the figure is the potential differential impact across socio-economic classes or groups if dung previously utilized by poorer families is no longer available because the animal owner now uses it for biogas production.

This example was provided in order to indicate how a detailed analysis of the resource flows in a village should be part of any examination of energy related technology intervention. In order to understand these issues, resource flows, and class or group differences, it is necessary to have the following types of information: village demographic, forest/homestead treeland, agricultural land, and livestock resource by class (or group, if location1 or other social economic characteristic such as off-farm income is important); village cropping patterns and agricultural production by class/group; village feed balances - for households (human) and animals by class/group; as well as information on seasonal variation. Capturing the characterization of class or other special differences is very important in intervention design and is further discussed below. In the next paper Reddy presents an example of a detailed approach to examining the energy and other resource flows in a village.

1 In hilly or mountainous regions, resource availability by group or class for people in a single village may differ dramatically in locations at different elevations (Bajracharya, 1980; Brush, 1977).

Survey work can be much more economical, practical and directed, if prior investigations can be carried out to get an idea of the various complexities that should be considered. These complexities make the estimation of fuel supplies and associated food/resource demands difficult, and when coupled with other characteristics of the problem, argue for a multi-faceted approach to the problem.

3.2 The fuel cycle of traditional fuels

All fuels have a cycle of stages of activities that start with the exploration or identification of the resource and continue to the ultimate use of the fuel for one or more energy and uses such as heating, cooking or running motors. While the fuel cycle for conventional fossil fuels has stages such as exploration not explicitly found in that of traditional fuels, renewable sources such as forests must be identified and in some cases assessed for their potential. Both fossil and traditional fuels share such steps in the cycle as mining or harvesting, refining (if defined as a chemical transformation, charcoal making, a thermochemical process, is a refining process), storage, transport, marketing (in the case where the traditional fuels are also commercial fuels) and end use.

Figure 1-1 Altered resource flows due to biogas plant

In both conventional and traditional fuel cycles, the transport and storage steps may take place more than once, separated by either space or time. In conventional fuels there may be more than one marketing stage. This can also be the case for commercial traditional fuels such as fuelwood and charcoal. Since these are renewable-based fuels, there is also an activity or stage not found in fossil fuel, cycles, namely a managed or unmanaged regenerate activity.

Figure 1-2 shows the fuel cycle for fuelwood and charcoal. When the activities are connected, this indicates a possible transport stage in the cycle. Storage and marketing activities are shown only once between other major activities where they might occur, but in some cases there may be repeated distinct marketing and storage stages associated with different dealers. Also, the figure indicates marketing coming before storage, though these activities are often reversed.

These stages of activities all have implications for information requirements for programmes that would lead to an intervention in one or more stages of the cycle. The lean commercial the system the more the cycle will be localised (except for distant supplies). What, are come information needs in relation to this cycle, particularly where the system is commercial? For each of the activities or stages, from reforestation or natural regeneration through to end use, and including multiple storage, transport and marketing steps, It is important to know how the activity in performed and what, the costs are. It is also important to know the performance characteristics of particular activities, i.e., does the wood or charcoal deteriorate when stored? What is the conversion efficiency in charcoal making? The problem of inefficiency of and use is very important in traditional fuel systems., inefficiency In charcoal making in also important. When activities are performed in more than one manner, i.e., transport by trucks of different size, or by rail, or charcoal making in earth pits as well as steel kilns it is important to know the costs and performance characteristics of each different approach.

Information on the costs and performances of the various stages of the fuel cycle in Important for coat effective programmes. The best way to Improve the systems W differ in various circumstances. In some cases technological change that increases the conversion efficiency of charcoal making may be best. In others, increasing the productivity of forest supplies may be appropriate, and in other cases improving the efficiency of the end use device such as stoves, or increasing the competition in the market, may be the most satisfactory. Selection can only be made based on an understanding of the economics of the whole fuel cycle. In rural subsistence fuelwood supply/use systems, the fuel cycle is localised and condensed. In commercial wood fuel systems, for example to supply urban markets, they are likely to be both complex and extended. In a later paper Morgan describes the main features of such systems, and discusses the particular information needs associated with then.

3.3 Energy requirements, supply conversion and end use systems

The energy requirements of a rural village for domestic, agricultural and industrial activities are heat light, shaft power and other mechanical powers The delivery of these requirements may have associated fuel cycles based on different sources, an has been noted above, in the cape of many rural energy systems the spatial dimensions of the cycle are compressed except for imported supplies such as kerosene, but for all other sources there will be moot or all of the stages. In the cycles introduced earlier. Improvements in rural energy systems my take place in one or more stages of the cycle, improvements in the delivery of energy to the rural areas include energy source modification or augmentation, Improvement in end use device, and development of conversion technologies (Figure 1-3).

Energy source modification or augmentation involves the development or use of a new source of energy or the modification of present sources. For example, in many rural areas in developing countries, wind power, small-scale hydro and solar power systems represent a potential new energy source. An augmented source would be the planting of village woodlots of fast-growing tree species which, when coupled with technologies as gasifiers, offers new ways to meat end use needs (see Annex IV).

Figure 1-2. Schematic of fuel cycles for fuelwood/charcoal

Figure 1-3. Relationship between village energy and energy technologies

Many energy conversion technologies are currently in use or under development. Examples range from biogas converters, under intensive development in many areas of the developing world, to high-technology options such an photovoltaics. Because of the high cost of some conversion technologies, improvements in end-use devices must focus on efficient use of the converted energy. For example, with the introduction of the new conversion technology of photovoltaics, energy can be generated from sunlight, but the high coat of that energy means that end-use devices such an pumps mast be designed for high efficiency.

Many traditional fuel system interventions are feasible in a wide variety of circumstances. Two different sets of interelated stages in fuel cycles based on traditional sources are shown schematically with the a shading in Figure 1-3. On of theme is the source (biomass), conversion (gasifier, engine), and end use device (pump) system to most the effective energy requirement of shaft power for the energy need of pumping or drainage. Another in the system of source (biomass) and use device (improved stove) to meet the effective requirement of heat for cooking. Theme systems could both have competing systems to moot the effective energy requirements based on other sources (fossil, hydro, etc.) and utilizing various conversion and/or end use devices. Any comprehensive examination of investments to improve the rural energy, systems should consider a wide variety of such changes.

It is not the purpose of this publication to describe and discuss the different technologies that the planner dealing with fuelwood related rural energy situations might need to consider. This information is readily available in existing literature. However, Annex IV provides a brief review of the principal relevant technologies biogas, small-scale hydro-power and others. Included in the annex in a table which classifies the technologies by sources, conversion and village energy and use.

The table highlights those sources with potential for application in rural areas. These potentials lie mainly in industrial, agricultural production and processing and service applications. An has been noted earlier, the possibility of application within the household is limited because of cost, scale of operation, complexity and related factors.

4. Dynamic features of wood fuel systems


4.1 Impacts of increasing wood fuel shortages
4.2 Energy for future development
4.3 Increasing industrial and agricultural demands for wood fuels
4.4 Integrating technical, economic and social analysis


4.1 Impacts of increasing wood fuel shortages

The process of change at the village and household level in likely to mean that future energy needs will be different in a number of respects from present usage. It will not suffice, therefore, for surveys to record only the present. An attempt must also be made to identify the factors of change influencing energy needs and use, so that interventions reflect what is likely to materialize in the years ahead.

The growing shortage of wood fuels, and often of available supplies of other traditional fuels, is itself one of the main factors bringing about change in needs, Shortages in the first instance are likely to induce a spontaneous improvement in efficiency of use within the framework of present practices and technologies. More care is taken with, for example, a three-stone fire to economies on use, to put the fire out when not in use to manipulate the firewood pieces economic that they produce effective heat most efficiently, etc. In short, in situations with presently limited supplies, to most the same cooking needs in the future, lees fuelwood per household may be needed than in used at present if there are improvements in efficiency.

As shortages deepen, more fundamental changes are likely to occur. Fuelwood supplies may have to come from the excessive pruning, or oven destruction, of trees of economic value - fruit trees, trees like Acacia senegal which produce gum arabic, or trees maintained along stream banks to protect water supplies. Other materials of economic value, such as an animal dung and crop residues, also got diverted to fuel use. Though adequate supplies of fuel may be maintained in these way, it could well be that planning for the future will need to make provision for more fuelwood than in used at present in order to allow people to reverse these negative developments.

4.2 Energy for future development

Rural change is likely to affect more them just the level of future subsistence energy needs. This is the dominant requirement in initial stages of development but energy in required to most more than these needs, The energy crisis is but one facet of changing population and natural resource balance in the developing world. It is a crisis of development and resource distribution, and of the inefficiency and insufficiency of energy use. Inefficiency creates larger fuel demands and a greater human effort expended in fuel gathering. Insufficiency causes the not amount of useful energy consumed in agricultural and craftwork production to be low. In order to increase food, fibre, and fuel production end to increase jobs, more energy in the forms of fertiliser, water lifting, seed and crop drying, and mechanical power in required.

The level of economic development, and access to fossil fuels determine to a large extent the choice of technologies. Although it is conventional to assume that development means more chemical fertilizer, tractors, and diesel and electrical motor pumps, it in rational to complement these commercial energy inputs with animal manure and plant residues and to use biomass-fueled heat engines, various solar, wind, water, biogas, and animal powered water lifting, and more efficient agricultural implements.

It in possible to suggest a certain progression, and Figure 1-4 suggests graphically how energy demands change over time as development proceeds in rural areas, The figure differentiates between household and non-household activities. In the household most activities (cooking, space heating) are found throughout the process of modernization, but the technologies and end use devices change. Some household activities such as cooling appear, or change, an modernization occurs. Nonhousehold activities, the technologies employed, and the concomitant energy needs, change dramatically in the course of technological modernization, Figure 1-4 portrays some of the possible activity and technology changes associated with modernization. The transitions are indications of the type of changes that may occur, as technological modernization nay have different transitions in various circumstances.

Different technologies, associated with the indicative activity changes for nonhousehold activities, are shown at the bottom of the figure. The evolution of technological modernization increases energy demands. As development proceeds, technologies progress from smithies and forges -to rice and flour mills, to small motors for machinery repair and lathes, to sawmills, to more complex drilling presses, to metal cutting machines, and to refrigeration, motorcycles, etc. Fuelwood and other biomass based alternatives can provide much of the energy for theme requirements. If development in to proceed, energy use mast increase, which may mesa increased demand for fuelwood and other traditional fuels. To meet these requirements there are viable (technical, economic, and financial) alternatives, many of them based on firewood, charcoal and other traditional fuels, which can be used for development in the rural and parts of the urban industrial sector.

4.3 Increasing industrial and agricultural demands for wood fuels

In addition to urban and rural commercial and industrial establishments currently utilizing wood fuels, many urban industries which now use conventional commercial fuels could switch to wood and charcoal if the relative prices of the former continue to increase. The principal candidate industries are those which already use firewood and charcoal to produce some of their process hosts. These include iron and steelmaking, lime and cement reducing, metal smelting, brick and ceramic firing, cash crop drying and refining and glass blowing. In come countries urban industrial use of fuelwood (and charcoal) is a major factor and the potential for increased use in the urban industrial actor appears quite large. Even more important in many situations is the potential for mall scale rural industry and agriculture. These rural and urban traditional fuel needs are often within the scope of fuelwood survey efforts.

Figure 1-4 Changes in energy demands with development/technological modernization

Annex IV presents some limited additional discussion of energy requirements of industry and agriculture that can be met through woodfuel and other traditional sources. The Annex also briefly discusses some issues of technology improvements, including the important issue of improvements in stove technology.

Traditional fuels and energy system characteristics have important implications for information needs. This information is necessary in order to understand the existing and potential future demands for fuelwood so that broad policy and specific projects can be formulated to meet the energy requirements for both subsistence and development. The formulation of such policies and specific projects should integrate the social, economic and technical factors as discussed below.

4.4 Integrating technical, economic and social analysis

Analysis of the available information must be done in the context of both the existing situation and of what might evolve as a result of expected agricultural or rural developments. However, there is a need to be realistic in considering how complicated this may make the analysis.

Possible interventions must be evaluated keeping in mind what may cause them to fail. Broadly speaking, failure occurs when an intervention programme does not achieve its objectives. Many current interventions avoid failure by setting as objectives information, R+D, field testing, etc., but it is important to consider more serious objectives-increases in production, equity, diffusion of technology. It is useful to reflect on why there have been failures and successes in different, situations - why the Guatemalan design of the Lorena stove did not catch on in Indonesia; why community forestry has worked in Korea and is beginning to work in Gujarat; where social forestry has failed and why; why was it not forseen that the biogas facility could be maldistributive in many Indian settings; why biogas has worked in China.

The reasons for failure may stem from one of many social, physical, economic, institutional or environmental factors. People may not adopt a now stove became it in too expensive, or because it fails to conform to culturally defined cooking requirements. Attempts at conserving forest stands may fail because the rural poor who have few alternative sources of livelihood out the trees for income, or because high urban demand leads local entrepreneurs to poach these reserves. Maldistributive impacts include failures due to market, social structure, cultural and ecological interrelations, and technological/specification failure to provide sustaining input.

Maldistributive failures can perhaps be avoided, or at least minimized, if the effects of an intervention are analysed in a systematic examination of before and after resource flows. If the design of certain biogas programmes had uncovered the change in resource flows disrupting dung availability to the landless poor, perhaps they would not have received state support. Technological design or specification failure may be avoided with better information, on design, e.g., matching the intervention better to the and use: if the primary cocking is quick, with high temperature, the solution is not a high thermal mass stove.

If the present and future energy demands are well understood, presumably the correct technical, social, and economic intervention aim be selected. It is then a matter of whether it in economically and/or fiscally sustainable. Sustaining inputs such as spares for mind or micro hydro machines, floating tops for biogas digestors or seedlings for a woodlot programme can be incorporated into design. Bat where are the other factors, the necessary local social/institutional structures? If the intervention requires group action, is there the necessary homogeneity of interest within the group, the past experiences of cooperation necessary to build on? If the technological solution requires a particular expertise, in there an institutional capability to develop this expertise? Thorough evaluation can reduce future failures. This evaluation should integrate social, economic and technical information and should focus on the village, household and/or user level. The approach can build on information regarding village systems that include not only conventional technical/economic information, but also information encompassing the interrelated resource flows and the complex social economic systems in which these flows occur. Throughout any energy studies, local peoples perceptions and knowledge must be taken into account. Local participation in information gathering and learning is important.

Viewing the rural energy issues from the perspective of improving the system has obvious implications for information requirements for both the characterization of the end use demand and the evaluation of possible supply or demand interventions. This means knowing about all demands, not just demand for fuel for cooking and also about social and institutional structures, and about a series of intervention pathways that are the equivalent of alternative fuel cycles from source to end use. Some information my be available from existing sources, some will ooze from survey efforts, The importance of estimation problem and the importance of using other information resources are explored in the following section.

5. Information gathering


5.1 Sources of information
5.2 Supply estimates for traditional fuels
5.3 Measuring fuelwood consumption


5.1 Sources of information

Both in defining the nature of the rural energy problem and potentials, and defining and designing possible actions, there is much potentially useful information. The more activities are aimed at supporting specific project actions, the more expansive are the dimensions of the useful social and organizational information. An assessment of possible action will generally require estimation of both demand and supply sides of traditional fuel systems. And in many oases, such as defining the magnitude of traditional fuel demands on a regional or national basis, it in useful to incorporate some efforts on the supply side as a complement to primarily demand/consumption oriented surveys.1

1 For a discussion of the use of supply estimates to verify and balance consumption estimates, see deLucia and Tabors (1980). Part of this discussion in this section draws heavily from this work. The complementary of demand and supply analysis is also discussed by Douglas (1981a).

For both supply and demand side estimates, there are often existing sources of information. These should always be fully utilized, preferably before study design. Such existing sources frequently exist for both supply related issues - agricultural censuses, forestry surveys, animal population studies - and for the consumption/demand side household expenditure surveys and other outputs of national statistical services (e.g. industrial censuses), as well as earlier energy demand survey.

Some previous efforts my provide information on both supply and demand aspects of the system, This is often the case for agricultural censuses that include a focus on small farmers, special land utilization studies, social science studies, and agricultural or forest project studies. The investigators involved in such studies can also be a source of both general information and guidance. In addition, they may provide possible raw data and information that is not reported in published documents which did not have an energy focus, but which could be useful if reinterpreted with such focus, in a later papery Brokensha and Castro discuss these and other sources of information in more detail.

The importance of such sources in to be emphasized, particularly when attempting to construct an estimate of the quantitative nature of rural energy systems. The author and his colleagues have repeatedly found such divers sources useful: for example, detailed agricultural studies can provide the basis for estimation of residues availability if production information in utilized with other Information about residues per unit of production; anthropological studies can be reinterpreted for estimates of energy supplies and requirements by classy using complementary information from studios of agricultural production and processing.

5.2 Supply estimates for traditional fuels

Because of their diffuse nature, it is difficult and costly to obtain accurate estimates of resources and supplies of fuelwood and other traditional fuels. Statistics on forest area, not to mention production, often differ with the source. In India, forest area statistics differ with the reporting agency. Not only do definitions of forest differ, but purposes for which the statistics are collected also vary.

Fuelwood production statistics are often highly unreliable because so little comes from recorded production. Estimates of standing wood volume are often of only limited value in estimating potential fuelwood production because volume and yield estimates are generally geared to larger roundwood sizes which are relevant for timber uses. The twigs, leaves and small branches which are also used for fuel are seldom measured or estimated. Information on the ratio of total biomass (including leaves, twigs and small branches) to measured stemwood which varies with species, maturity, etc., in limited. This presents a problem in estimating fuelwood supplies and can result in an underestimate of fuelwood potential. The problem is further complicated by the fact that in many situations much fuelwood is obtained not by felling trees, but by removing leaves, twigs and small branches which are then renewed through farther tree growth. The total lifetime contribution of a tree to fuelwood supplies can therefore be much greater than its volume if felled. Estimates in the Bangladesh survey summarised in Annex IV suggest that there it could be many times as great (Douglas, 1981a). However, this aspect of tree production, which is obviously critical to estimation of fuelwood supply potential, has received very little attention to date, and so very little useable information is available.

Consequently, earlier studies, by underestimating supply potential, often overestimate the severity of the fuelwood, problems Another serious difficulty for statistical analyses in that most fuelwood comes from trees in open country, around houses and common areas, along roads, or in other areas not technically defined as forests. Statistics on crown cover outside official forest areas are also frequently not available. Recent work in Bangladesh indicates some approaches and associated estimation problem to both of these issues - the estimation of total tree biomass and the "nonforest" tree resources (Douglas, 1981a; Hammermaster, 1981).

Much of the difficulty associated with estimates of dung and agricultural residue fuel supplies arisen because the supplies themselves derive from another, generally biological, system. Thus, the estimation of cow dung available for use in biogas converters in the residual of that amount produced by the animal, loss that amount not collected, lose that amount used for other purposes. In estimating supplies of dung, the measure of production from my given animal may require careful analysis of diet, time of year, and availability of fodder crops or grazing land. Reliable data an number of livestock are often lacking. Benchmarks for crop and livestock data are often earlier agricultural censuses.

The production of dung per animal has been estimated by a number of authors but in not generally consistent even within one source, let alone among sources,1 Large country-to-country differences in dung production exist because of differences in breeds, diets, and herd management practices. Use of U.S., or other developed country, data for estimation of production of animals in the developing nations invariably leads to overestimation.

1 In the (Indian) National Council of Applied Economic Research Study (1965), cow dung a quoted an 2,092 kcal/kg and 2,444 kcal/kg. The literature contains a wide range of estimates, from the low estimates of the Indian studies to an estimated 3,500 to 3,900 kcal/kg of dry dung in a study of Peruvian dung use (Winterhalder et al. 1974).

The estimation of crop residuals offers much the same challenge. Data on crop residue production, although often better than livestock data, are still unreliable. The amounts of residues left following harvest and/or crop processing are not know and the use of these residues varies significantly. Residues estimates must account for varietal differences, cultural practices and processing techniques. Within South Asia, each variety of rice produces different quantities of grain to stalk. The ratio of the high-yielding varieties (HYV) of grain to stalk is roughly 1:1, that of traditional grain varieties to stalk, 1:3, and that of the floating grains to stalk, 1:4. These ratios become increasingly important in both the analysis of existing production of residuals and likely future supplies of crop residuals as improved rice varieties are introduced.

In many situations, such legitimate differences in residue availability need to be considered, and care must be exercised before using coefficients based on another situation in which the varieties, and/or yields, are quite different. It is also important to note that these coefficients may change over time as traditional varieties of rice and wheat are replaced with HYVs. This will decrease residue production per kg of grain.

Many estimates of crop residuals, dung and firewood supplies are presented independent of any statement of the moisture content. It is not enough to know that there are a specific number of kcal/kg in cow dung or a particular fuelwood species without knowing the moisture content at measurement. Heating values determined in the laboratory would ordinarily be given for dry material, but the actual moisture content of fuel in a specific situation is seldom known. Futhermore, for many fuels of no commercial value, heating values have not been determined, and analysts are forced to use values for "similar" materials. Future analyses should try to maintain internal consistency in the analysis of moisture content and should report the moisture content of all materials used, especially inter-country analysis of one specific traditional fuels.

Measurement of moisture content and heat value is further complicated by how the data will be used. If what is needed in simply a figure per production unit (per animal, square metro, plant mass, etc.), then dry weight energy value is sufficient. But if data on fuel use is desired, then information on average moisture content at time of use, or potential use, should be collected. Methods of doing so are described by Geller and Dutt in Annex III.

5.3 Measuring fuelwood consumption

In addition to the difficulties for measurement posed by its diffused use, the seasonal variations in this use, and the fact that mat of it does not pass through any organized distribution system subject to record keeping, fuelwood presents a number of measurement problems stemming from its physical nature.

The small, irregular pieces in which fuelwood is usually used are difficult to measure, so that accurate estimates of volume are not easy to obtain. Often a variety of measures such as head load, cart load and, store are used, which themselves vary in size and contents Weight in a more accurate measure but the energy content of a piece of wood will vary with density, itself often a function of species, and with moisture content. As is discussed in more detail in Annex III, the only, measure which is appropriate for determining energy requirements is the weight of fuel consumed corrected for moisture content. The Annex note also deals with measurement of conversion of wood into charcoal which also varies widely.

A further not of issues arises in eliciting accurate information from the users about fuelwood consumption. In many circumstances fuelwood cutting and gathering in done illegally, often under the cover of darkness. This illegality has significant implications with respect to the willingness of those so employed to respond truthfully to enquiries about these activities and other associated efforts. This in but one of a number of factors which can intrude in field enquiries. There are numerous possible errors in consumption measurement and instrument procedures that must be considered in fuelwood surveys. These are discussed in a later paper by Brokensha and Castro, together with means of avoiding such distortions.

6. Wood fuel survey design


6.1 Categories of survey
6.2 Deciding what to do


6.1 Categories of survey

A basic promise of this paper is that wood fuel surveys and studies must be effectively geared to produce the information actually needed, As the information needs can vary widely - from data on aggregate magnitudes at the national level to detailed information at the project level - there is no single survey design or approach which will meet all needs.

Annex I, which in illustrated from experience from a number of surveys which were designed to meet a variety of different information needs, presents a classification of survey types, explaining their strengths and weaknesses in meeting particular information needs. The classification is structured around a few broad categories of past surveys.

Much of past work has been at the national level, to determine overall magnitudes of wood fuel use and its distribution. National, or regional, assessments are likely to need matching information on use of other fuels, and possibly also of wood fuel supply.

The restricted range of such national level information has usually been obtained from low intensity sample survey, using simple data gathering methods (questionnaires and enumerators). Gathering of wood fuel information has often been combined with the gathering of other data - normally forest product, energy or agricultural data.

At the other end of the spectrum have been the studies at the level of the village, group of villages or district. These have been directed at eliciting a broad range of information in order to illuminate the relationships and factors which explain the situation in which wood fuel supply and use is embedded. The bulk of this work has been research oriented, as distinct from project oriented, and has focussed on understanding the present situation rather than on possibilities for changes The tools used have been largely those of sociologists and other social scientists; recently, environmental engineers and systems analysts have made significant contributions.

There are many variations in between. An work has shifted in the last few years towards planning for intervention and change, approaches have began to emerge which draw from both types. Except on a very broad basis, it in not very useful to suggest rules for the appropriateness of survey types. The subsequent discussion suggests that for the purposes of preparing an investment plan, an eclectic approach which utilizes various methodologies, drawing heavily on existing information, is appropriate. But it is possible to make a few broad assertions about the appropriateness of some survey types for specific purposes.

If there is very little or no information about the magnitude and variation of current traditional fuel consumption, then this is a classic situation for a low intensity (small percentage of population) random ample household survey. In most cases, some stratification and even multi-stage techniques in survey design are appropriate. It will be necessary even at this level of information gathering to take account of seasonal change, something neglected in most work, and the various distortions in measurement and estimation which can lead to major inaccuracies in the magnitudes.

In the light of the caveats and difficulties in such approaches discussed in Annex 1, surveys are in most cases more useful if this approach is complemented by some efforts to examine the supply side. The supply analysis should verify that estimated consumption figures are feasible and generally in line with supply provision/offtake estimates, Supply analysis requires knowledge of supply split between lifetime yield from the trees and their ultimate felled volume, another badly neglected issue in most past work.

The next steps in developing an understanding of traditional fuel system will likely necessitate the use of both social science survey types - in depth if there is not an existing body of work, and more limited if there exists much on which to build, and the undertaking of some detailed analysis (based on both survey data and available studies) of resource supplies and current use. One area often overlooked in fuel studies is the importance of information on the complete fuel cycles.

In considering both commercial and non-commercial components of traditional fuel systems, the mix of survey and other approaches will be very dependent on the objectives of the effort and the relative emphasis will be situation specific. In the following section a few general principles are suggested.

6.2 Deciding what to do

Any decision on survey type and methodology is interrelated with the question of survey purposes. But the survey approach is also often markedly influenced by availability of resources - time, personnel and money. The process of determining the scale and resources of a survey may be more open if the survey purpose and design is part of larger energy and/or rural development effort in which decisions regarding the survey are made early and survey resources are a smaller part of the overall budget. Large sample surveys, even if only a small percentage of the population is sampled, require considerable time and effort for the preparation of the survey training of enumerators, field testing, revision, implementation and analysis. As has been stressed earlier, to capture seasonal variation, multiple samples of the same household my be required (this assumes household is sampling unit) to note at least wet and dry season variation.

Even in primarily consumption oriented surveys, sample size in dependent on the area and population to be studied - i.e., local, regional, national - and whether attempts are to be made to have statistical validity based on sample size. If resources are not available, and/or there is considerable existing work to build on, more limited approaches may be considered.

There can be no general answer regarding which approach to utilize. The best approaches are specific to the problem being addressed. The information necessary to make an overall estimate of the level of demand for traditional fuels is different from that needed to assess possible energy technology options in a particular area. But while it is not useful to make recommendations on the specifies to be followed in all situations, a few general principles are apparent:

- Review and make use of existing work elsewhere to suggest hypotheses that can be verified by the survey work.

- Review and make use of work elsewhere on the interrelations between fuelwood and the rest of the agro-economic environment that should be considered.

- Undertake pro-survey groundwork, reviewing other relevant efforts (social science surveys, anthropological and sociological research studies, household expenditure surveys, forest and forest product surveys, agricultural surveys, surveys of industries, earlier energy studies, etc.) to construct estimates, of national, regional, village or household traditional fuel balances, paying particular attention to questions of regional and seasonal variation and class distribution issues.

- If project analysis is part of the focus, make a tentative identification of candidate technologies; review available cost and performance information; review resource assessment information.

- Design the survey effort reflecting what has been learned in the above steps and design the survey to focus on critical information first; consider undertaking some 'quick and dirty' field surveys to farther assist the final survey design.

If the scope is very comprehensive, that is it encompasses both demand and supply questions and is geared to produce a rural oriented energy investment programme, there are none clear requirements that should be met. Development of a detailed rural-oriented investment plan requires an analysis of traditional fuels and renewable-based technologies, geared to rural applications. Such an analysis must be based on an integration of economics physical, technical, and social information, some of which, particularly the economic and social factors, are region or even village specific. Information each as that developed in national demand surveys at the macro level is sufficient to identify the magnitude of the problem, but in too aggregated for the requirements of a detailed investment plan.

The development of a rural wood fuel investment plan requires information of various types.

(a) A limited number of detailed village-specific studies to provide a better understanding of the complexities of village/rural energy systems including the economic and social parameters and constraints of these systems.

(b) Regional survey-based information to determine variations in the demand patterns, resource potential, and economic and social structure of the rural systems.

(c) Technical and economic information (including performance evaluation) regarding the possible old and new technologies and other alternatives that might be considered.

The overall body of work from Bangladesh which is summarized and discussed in Annex II gives some idea how work at the different levels can provide complementary inputs in moving towards the necessary information base for action.

While the discussion above suggests "the pieces" that would be part of a comprehensive effort aimed at understanding the traditional fuels systems, assessing resources and formulating investment plans, in few instances will all theme efforts be part of a single programme effort. Rather, the more likely, and perhaps feasible, approach will be to undertake parts of the effort, either as specific wood fuel focussed studies and surveys, or by integrating more energy related efforts into the ongoing work of both forest services and energy focussed agencies and other groups such as national statistical services, etc. As a body of knowledge develops, the need for large special effort surveys could be loosened and ultimately wood fuel related issues (both demand and supply) would be routinely factored into the planning apparatus.

Planning in this area is in its infancy in comparison with other sectors such as plantation forestry, Agriculture or water supply. One cannot expect a particular survey and associated efforts to be the definitive work in any area, but rather to contribute to an ongoing process. Towards this and the consciousness of the need for the types of information, briefly introduced in this paper, and discussed elsewhere in this publication, must be communicated not just to personnel explicity engaged in questions of fuelwood and rural energy, but also to those with complementary responsibilities in the many areas - forestry, agriculture, rural development, etc. - which intersect with the issues of rural energy.


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