[Stoves] Forestry and fuel

[Richard Stanley]

Ron, Teddy et all concerned with the Samer's cited FAO report. 

Impressive data sources but it seems to be contrary to my own experience for what its worth.   Having lived in Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya for many years, in the 70's then revisiting for extended periods all of these locations in the first decade of the  2000's I have seen the effects of wood use -primarily for fuel - and it is substantial, and not pretty. Here in mezzo America now it is more widely reported that it is the expansion of large scale industrial agriculture and biofuel farming  that is tearing apart natural forest lands..fine but the destruction of traditional  forested land  for industrial agriculture  is a one time thing.. The steady depletion of the forests, due to, primarily, fuelwood demand in MAlawi Kenya and Tanzania especially is not only ongoing but expanding with population growth. 

The notion of a fuelwood ladder aside, the demographic of the expansion of the mass population in the developing nations favors, sadly, the growth of the more marginalized, less educated, less well employed and more fuelwood dependent segments of the population. Almost everywhere I look I see this to be the case.  Their desperation for fuelwood and decent income at large, is only exacerbated by industrial agriculture and biofuel farming. 

If this is the case, I fail to see how we are not are going to be with fuelwood dependency  for a long time to come. Personally, I see no less use of wood/charcoal  to day than I did in the 70's at lease in amongst the mass population in the mentioned countries. 

Kind regards,
 Richard Stanley
www.legcayfound.org

 
On Jan 14, 2014, at 1:11 PM, Ronal W. Larson wrote:

Teddy:

   1.  Thanks for the cite below.  Slide #36 implies that FAO is not doing a very credible job in reporting on charcoal consumption.  Off by a factor of about 100  (that is 10,000% error).   I was pleased to see the FAO report cite by Samer yesterday (given below).  Now I am not so sure.  Can anyone defend the FAO data collection effort on charcoal?

  2.  The slideshow refers to a special 2013 issue of ESD on charcoal.  Looks good, but I haven’t had a chance yet to see if my library carries it for free.  Anyone able to comment on what that issue is saying about deforestation?

3.   Returning to your recent response about your own char-making stoves not being accepted.  It seemed you might have been testing a stove where the char was both made and used in the same stove.  TLUD proponents would say that is not likely to work.  Can you clarify on what type of char-making/using stove you were producing?

Ron


On Jan 13, 2014, at 11:02 PM, Cookswell Jikos <cookswelljikos at gmail.com> wrote:

> Dear Samer, 
> 
> Thanks for sharing, but if indeed this is fully the case, I wonder why the reduction of deforestation features so heavily on most cookstove marketing pitches. (even mine sometimes!)    
> 
> Further interesting reading that somewhat supports this is a very good presentation done by ICRAF recently, that is aptly titled, "What Happened to the Charcoal Crisis" http://www.slideshare.net/agroforestry/miyuki-iiyamaicrafcharcoal-review2013 
> 
> It is a very good systematic review of many other woodfuel papers in East Africa. It seems to be that on farm woodfuel is becoming more and more of income generating wood energy source.
> 
> All the best, 
> 
> Teddy 
> 
> 
> 
> Cookswell Jikos
> www.cookswell.co.ke
> www.facebook.com/CookswellJikos
> www.kenyacharcoal.blogspot.com
> Mobile: +254 700 380 009 
> Mobile: +254 700 905 913
> P.O. Box 1433, Nairobi 00606, Kenya
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Mon, Jan 13, 2014 at 9:31 PM, Samer Abdelnour <samer.abdelnour at gmail.com> wrote:
> Dear all,
> Just to contribute on the deforestation discussion. A dated (1997) by
> excellent resource by the FAO, which concluded that deforestation
> occurs mainly as a result of pressures for agricultural land, logging,
> and national infrastructure projects, not for cooking.
> 
> http://www.fao.org/docrep/w7744e/w7744e06.htm
> 
> Of course, I applaud efforts to source cleaner, more sustainable fuel.
> Perhaps these should be grounded in location specific challenges (i.e.
> community nurseries), not distorted by general mythologies associated
> with global problems and magic bullets.
> 
> Best,
> Samer
> 
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