Household responses to fuelwood scarcity: a case study of two villages in Zimbabwe

✍ Scribed by D. Mlambo; H. Huizing

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2004
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 111 KB
• Volume: 15
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1085-3278
• DOI: 10.1002/ldr.614

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Information on household responses to fuelwood scarcity was collected in two villages, one being categorized as large (Shambamuto) and another as small (Svova ‘B’). Fuelwood was found to be scarcer in Svova ‘B’ where about 93 per cent of the respondents indicated that they find it difficult to collect compared to 76 per cent in Shambamuto. The proportion of households collecting fuelwood from non‐woodlands was 60 per cent in Shambamuto and 63 per cent in Svova ‘B’. In both villages, significant alternative sources of fuelwood were found to be cultivated lands, dilapidated or unwanted wooden structures, woodlots and riverbanks. Fuelwood that could be sourced from wooden structures was estimated at 8·4 t household^−1^ in Shambamuto and 7·2 t household^−1^ in Svova ‘B’. Tree stumps in arable lands were found to be coppicing well with about 84 per cent of the coppicing stems having lengths greater than mean fuelwood stick length of 174 cm. Due to fuelwood shortage, non‐traditional fuels were used as supplements and their consumption was estimated at 4·0 t household^−1^ y^−1^ in Shambamuto and 4·3 t household^−1^ y^−1^ in Svova ‘B’ respectively. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.