5.1 Households have a high dependency on woodfuels (firewood and charcoal). dependency rate of 94.8 % for households in Northern Sudan is shown by the 1994 consumption survey. This dependency is also reflected in the total contributions of biomass energy in the household energy budget - which is estimated for 1994 to be 98.3% in aggregate (value for rural households is 97%).
5.2 Woodfuel (firewood + charcoal) annual per capita consumption is 0.67 M3 for Northern Sudan. This national aggregate however varies significantly with urbanization, income class, education level and ecological zone. In general annual per capita consumption firewood is much higher in rural areas (0.46 M3 compared to urban areas (0.14 M3 coal shows the reverse with high urban per capita values (0.57 M3 compared to rural J. 19 M3 These Annual per capita values are affected by the major factors of income and ecological zone. With regards to the interaction of the consumption with these factors the following observations can be made:
(a) While firewood per capita annual consumption decreases with rise in income or education level, charcoal shows the reverse.
(b) The highest woodfuel (charcoal + firewood) annual per capita is shown by the semi-desert and low rainfall zones. An observable trend associating charcoal consumption with aridity and poor conditions of surrounding resource base can be observed. In contrast firewood tend to be associated with high rainfall and relatively rich wood resource base.
(c) Between states wide variation are shown in the annual per capita consumption values ranging between 0.43 M3 to 0.97 M3 Compared to the 0.67 M3 - national aggregate average five states show higher values while eleven show lower values.
(d) In general high woodfuel consumption is associated with either intensive use and firewood (e.g. N. Darfur) or medium - high use of both woodfuel types (charcoal and firewood) e.g. Blue Nile. However it is clear that areas of the highest charcoal annual per capita show the lowest firewood per capita and the reverse is true.
5.3 The 1994 Woodfuel consumption is estimated to be 5.9 million cubic meters of firewood and 1.31 million tons (32.7 million 40 kg sacks) of charcoal. Detailed analysis of the current (1994) consumption levels slowed the following:
(a) 85.5% of the firewood was consumed by the rural households while only 14.5% was consumed b:, the urban households. This is in contrast to the charcoal where 59.6% (19.5 million sacks) were consumed in the urban subsector and 40.4% in rural areas.
(b) Firewood and charcoal distribution patterns by ecological zones showed that:
- Desert zone consumed 3.2% and 1% of the 1994 firewood and charcoal consumption respectively.
- Semi desert zone has 23.4 % and 57.2 % of the firewood and charcoal respectively.
- 73.1 % of firewood and 0.4% of charcoal in the high rainfall areas.
(c) Low income groups consumed 42.7% of the 1994 firewood consumption and 8.6% of the charcoal consumption. High income groups consumed only 22.5% of the firewood but 58.6% of the charcoal.
(d) The Northern Sudan household sector consumed a total of 246 449 M3 of dukhan wood (A. seyal) in 1994. In addition 1.384 million tons of agricultural resides (including small quantities of saw dust) are also consumed.
(e) At state level the distribution of total quantities consumed by state depends on annual per capita consumption values and population densities. Three major features can be observed:
(a) Khartoum and Gezira consumed 53.4% of the 1994 charcoal in Northern Sudan, the rest is distributed among the remaining 14 states.
(b) The three Darfur states consumed 46.6% of the 1994 firewood consumption but only 6.5 % of the charcoal mainly due to high firewood per capita and population density.
(c) Agricultural residues consumption is associated with both rainfed and irrigated agriculture and concentrated in Southern Darfur, Gezira and White Nile states.
5.4 The total wood uptake to supply 1994 woodfuel consumption is estimated to be 12.2 million cubic meters for Northern Sudan states. 49.7% of this quantity is used for charcoal production while the rest is consumed directly as firewood (48.3%) or dukhan wood (2%).
The distribution of those resource needs among ecological zones reveal 56.1 % for the low rainfall zone, 39.6% for the semi-desert, 2.8% for the desert and 1.5% for the high rainfall areas.
5.5 While almost all the wood needed for charcoal production (6.07 million M3 is of the stem and tree branch types posing a high risk to the sustainable management of the forest resource, firewood presents a different picture. Firewood consumed by wood type shows 20% for stem wood, 56% for tree branches and 24% for small branches and twigs.
5.6 Charcoal is a commercialized commodity. Firewood however, is still collected as a free good. In aggregate only 28% is purchased while 72% is freely collected. The percentage distribution of collection versus purchase is affected by urbanization, income, education level and ecological zone. In general purchased quantities increase with urbanization, income and education rise and increased aridity.
5.7 The collection patterns shown tend to confirm the predominant role of women in collection, extended collection periods and increased use of animal transport. Both the latter reflect the accelerated resource degradation and deterioration.
5.8 Of the total 3.6 million TOE consumed in the household sector in 1994, biomass supplied 89.3%. While charcoal consumed more in wood resource terms than firewood (6.07 compared to 5.9 million M3 it provided only 0.94 million TOE supplied by firewood. This reflects the conversion losses associated with the charcoal production processes.
