2. Wood Fuels in Namibia

The woodlands mentioned above provide the majority of the wood fuel used in the unprocessed form by Namibia’s majority population who live in an area which is less than 30% of the whole country. The savannah regions are occupied by less than 20% of the population. Of these more than 60% is under commercial livestock and game ranching and in terms of formal regional and international trade in wood energy, are among the most organised commercial charcoal producers in Southern Africa. The rest of the savannahs are communally owned in regions such as former "East Hereroland or Otjinene" and Aminius, now known as Omaheke Region, in the eastern part of the country.

General

Before Namibia’s Independence in 1990, there were virtually no efforts on the part of central government to address wood fuel both from a supply and policy perspective for the majority of Namibians. Hence reports and data on wood fuels are scanty and do not provide comprehensive scenarios at the national level. In contrast the supply of energy for industrial development in the mines, allied industries, agriculture and services are the envy of many African Countries. The early post-independence reports date from 1992. These will be reviewed shortly. It was not until 1996 that nation-wide studies were attempted through interviews of major urban areas and selected rural communities.

In the rural setting, wood fuel is harvested from communally owned lands where clans or villages use their traditional access rights for grazing and associated gathering of various products.

In the urban areas in the Central and Southern Regions, Commercial farms provide charcoal and unprocessed barbecue wood traded formally in the towns or which are normally sold to middle to upper income households. The lower income households are supplied mainly by informal retailers who sell their wares in open markets. Some households also collect their own firewood.

In the urban areas in the north, there is a formal fuelwood trade under which traders haul wood into the towns where they are then sold to retailers. Unfortunately, there is little control on the harvesting of wood or rather, the systematic management at source. A significant portion of the traded wood, estimated at about 50% is probably harvested illegally, although a permit is required to harvest, transport and market.

Because Namibia’s development priorities in the past under-emphasised rural development, energy policies were biased towards commercial farms, industry and urban areas. Likewise, data on wood fuels used by the rural majority was virtually non-existent.

2.3.1. Namibia Institute for Social and Economic Research (NISER) 1992

The early attempts at comprehensive woodfuel data collection at the national level started in earnest in 1992. In this regard, the major study by Namibia Institute for Social and Economic Research (NISER) is monumental. In the study, a household energy consumption survey and energy marketing and distribution was conducted. The study areas were former Ovamboland in the north and Katutura Community in Windhoek. The findings were as follows:

- In Rural Ovamboland, 90% use firewood for cooking

- 80% would have preferred to use electricity

- Per capita consumption was 0.567 kg per day

- In Katutura most people use electricity for cooking

- Fuel wood use was expected to rise with the influx of more low income and unemployed people into Windhoek

2.3.2. The Directorate of Forestry 1996

The next major study on fuelwood consumption in the major urban areas was commissioned by the current Directorate of Forestry in 1996. The urban areas covered in the survey included Windhoek (Katutura) and Windhoek (middle to upper income neighbourhoods), Oshakati, Ondangwa, Ongwediva, Rundu and Katima Mulilo. The main objective of the study was to collect data on the volumes and prices for six wood products and to estimate the demand for these products for 10 years. The main products included the study were:

1. Firewood

2. Charcoal and Briquettes

3. Mopane Roots (decorative/ornamental roots)

4. Timber

5. Construction and Fencing Poles in Northern Namibia

6. Wood Carvings

The methodology used in the study relevant to wood fuels was mainly the use of Structured Questionnaires. The first set of questionnaires was designed to find the percentage of the population in 5 towns in Namibia that use firewood as the main source of energy for cooking. This enabled the grouping of users as main or occasional.

The second questionnaire was designed to find out how much firewood buyers and the main and occasional spend on firewood.

In total, 973 people were interviewed in the study. From the data collected, analyses were conducted which enabled the estimation of total annual commercial consumption of firewood in the major towns. The figures were also used to estimate the total rural firewood consumption in Namibia. The results are summarised in tables 1 - 5.

In summary,

> In the major towns, there were apparently significantly different consumption rates between main and occasional users (Table 1). In Windhoek-Katutura, main users (0.83 kg) consumed twice as much as occasional ones (0.42) whereas in Ovambo the figures were much closer at 0.69 kg for main users and 0.41 for occasional users.

> Consumption in the major towns was split into commercial (those who buy) and total (including own collections). The average daily per capita rates were 0.55 and 0.69 kg respectively (Tables 2 and 3).

> Consumption in Rural Namibia ranged from 1.0 Kg to 1.5 Kg with an average of 1.6-Kg (Table 4).

> The total commercial consumption of woodfuels in Namibia including charcoal production, is estimated as 152 864 tons per year and the subsistence consumption in the rural and urban areas is estimated as 519 467 tons per year (Klaeboe and Omwami, 1997)

Table 1. Commercial Consumption of Firewood Per Person in the 5 Towns Surveyed

Table 2: Total Commercial Consumption of Firewood in Windhoek, Oshakati, Ondagwa, Ongwediva and Rundu

Table 3: Total Consumption (Including Own Collections) in Windhoek, Oshakati, Ondangwa, Ongwediva and Rundu

Table 4: Total Consumption of Firewood in Rural Namibia 1996

Table 5: Total Firewood Consumption in Namibia (1996 Estimates)

2.3.3. Ministry of Energy 1997

The next major study also looked at energy consumption pattern in Namibia (Wamukonya 1997). This report will only deal with biomass energy. The study also used structured questionnaires in 7 out of the 13 political regions of Namibia. The Regions covered were: Kavango, Karas, Erongo, Omaheke, Omusati, Oshana, Oshikoto

The questionnaire was divided into six sections to reveal data on socio-economic status, lighting fuels, cooking fuels and appliances. In each village, at least 10 randomly selected households were interviewed. A total of 100 households were interviewed in the whole study. It is interesting to note that the study also collected information on the use of cow dung, which is a biomass fuel among some communities in Namibia. The study did not collect data on charcoal production and trade as in the earlier one. However, it formed a good basis for the comparison of per capita consumption of fuelwood by households in

Namibia. From the study, it was revealed that the average daily per capita consumption of firewood ranged from 0.3 to 0.6 kg (Table 6).

Table 6: Daily Per Capita Consumption of Firewood by Regions.

Firewood is used in 90% of the households selected. On average, households consume about 3.8 kg of firewood for meals per day taking an average family size of 6 persons. Hence the average daily consumption works out to 0.587 kg.

2.4.1. Production

Namibia does not have much of a tradition for the extensive use of charcoal for domestic energy needs, as is typical in for example, East African Cities. In the past, the mining industry consumed 24,000 tons of charcoal per year before the market was overtaken by coal (Klaeboe and Omwami, 1996)

Wood for charcoal is harvested mainly from the acacia dominated commercial livestock farms in much of central Namibia but especially in the Otjiwarongo, Grootfontein, Outjo and Gobabis Districts. Harvesting is generally labour intensive with box saws, axes and in some cases power or chain saws. Mechanical harvesting has been tried before but has proved damaging to soils. On most farms harvesting is done by contractors who are paid piece rates, say by the hectare, harvested.

2.4.2. Manufacture

The harvested wood is neatly stacked to enable the estimation of volume. The manufacturing or carbonisation process is done in mobile kilns, which are preferred to fixed kilns to reduce wood transport costs. After kilning, the charcoal is shifted, graded and packed. In general, one needs 5 tons of wood to manufacture 1 ton of charcoal on the basis of a recovery or conversion rate of 20 %.

In addition to the kilning process, Namibia in 1996 commissioned a giant Retort Kiln (AIGAMS 1997) with an annual capacity of 18,000 tons of charcoal. There is a smaller retort kiln in use in Gobabis. In the process, wood is heated to temperatures of over 400 ⁰C to expel volatile gases which in themselves provide further energy (570 - 620 ⁰C) for carbonisation. Their advantage over the ordinary kilns is that they ensure a high production or recovery rate, consistent quality control, and can yield others useful products such as tars and others. The disadvantages include high capital costs, low employment per unit production cost and high costs in wood transport.

2.4.3. Summary of Production

According to AIGAMS (1997),

-There were 100 charcoal producers employing 2000 small entrepreneurs, earning an average of N$ 430.0 per month from burning charcoal.

-Producers earn a net profit of N$ 217.00 per ton

-Marketing agents earn profits of N$ 210.00 per ton

-The Industry was producing 12,000 tons of charcoal per year marketed as follows:

-5000 tons exported to Germany

-2500 tons exported to the UK

-3000 - 4000 tons exported to South Africa

-1000 tons consumed locally

The charcoal is retailed locally at N$ 1 500 per ton. and sold wholesale in Europe at N$ 1 700 per ton. However retail prices in Europe are a lot higher than in Namibia.

It has been estimated (AIGAMS 1997) that the charcoal industry has the potential of creating 10 000 jobs locally. However since 1997, the European Market has become more difficult to penetrate and maintain because certification overseen by the Forest Stewardship Council has rapidly become a market requirement by consumer organisations.