This publication presents the key findings from a preliminary assessment of the policies of African countries relevant to charcoal value chains. The main objective of this study is to assess the extent to which national energy and environmental policies and strategies in Africa have the potential to provide enabling conditions …
Numbers often speak a lot. Sample these. In the ten years between 1991-2001, the number of households in India having toilets within the premises increased by a whopping 95 per cent
Shibu Karmakar was trespassing. He knew the word. But at 11, he was too young to comprehend what it meant and easily breached the fence to the forest. The forest wasn't
Indoor air pollution is potentially a very serious environmental and public health problem in India. In poor communities, with the continuing trend in biofuel combustion coupled with deteriorating housing conditions, the problem will remain for some time to come. While to some extent the problem has been studied in rural …
It is five o'clock in the morning. I am inside Jharkhand's Khellari forest, on assignment. In the first light of morning, the forest looks lush and dark green. Suddenly, a frail frame
What if Phulmai did not exist. You can meet her in the forest; follow her for a day; listen to what she says and so complete half an assignment. The other half lies in accounting for her, and all those like her who spend their lives headloading. Step out of …
Firewood, agricultural residue and animal dung are commonly called biomass fuels. In Bangladesh, biomass is obtained from three sources - trees, field crops and livestock. Biomass is important for the household purpose, mainly cooking. To save fuel consumption and time, and keep the kitchen clean and free of smoke, an …
Dharamgarh in the Kumaon area of Uttaranchal has a long tradition of people's management of forests. Since 1931, a van panchayat had been doing a remarkable job. The association of these forests with various local deities ensured that local community institutions were helped along on their job. However, with increasing …
Legally, Paras Nath doesn’t exist. At the age of 52 he is still clueless about where he hails from. Nath was barely five years old when he began toiling hard to grow sal trees in the forest. “Even my parents were not able to trace their antecedents, but they too …
Ecological impact of joint forest management (JFM) in India was assessed using the studies undertaken at national, state and forest division levels. It was found that there are very few studies that have specifically addressed the ecological aspects under JFM. The study noted that there are significant strides made in …
History has seen the management of Indian forests change from being an instrument of regimented exploitation by the British to its present conservation-centered approach. This transition in forest policy has been all but smooth. India's Social Forestry Programme was launched in 1978 to ease pressure on her impoverished natural forests …
Zambian forests are being threatened due to the large-scale exploitation of their resources for fuelwood. Though Zambia is a major producer of electricity, only seven per cent of Zambian homes are electrified
in the 1980s, a few institutional and community biogas plants were set up in some villages by cooperating centres of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research ( icar )-sponsored All India Coordinated Research Project. Islampur village in Bhopal was one of the villages selected. As in any other village, cowdung …
a group discussion was conducted with the women of Piparala, a village without out any surface irrigation facilities and very limited groundwater. What emerged from the discussion is that the main sources of cooking fuel are crop residue (mainly cotton as other crops like jowar and bajra stalks are used …
The easing of the supply position of firewood in the recent period is an extremely interesting and encouraging development. I am persuaded by Anil Agarwal's hypothesis on the positive supply response from the rural population to the fuelwood crisis as the main explanatory factor beyond the observed improvement, especially in …
Of late, the rural poor have realised that protection of the forest is basic to their survival and they themselves are protecting it. This would imply that creating awareness among the rural poor about the need to protect not merely forests but trees will go a long way in saving …
The firewood crisis has not resulted in a forest crisis. For years, energy experts and foresters have believed that the poor will eat away the forests of the developing world like locusts in order to meet their ever-growing firewood demand. But how much do we really know about the poor …
Given this background, the results of the latest survey on firewood consumption pattern in India's rural areas published by Natarajan in 1995 are quite stunning. This survey generated data for the year 1992-93 whereas the last comprehensive energy consumption survey conducted by the ncaer had presented data for 1978-79. No …
The question today, therefore, is: Is the rosy picture presented by the ncaer survey of 1992-93 equally applicable to these areas? The 1991 census also shows that states with large tracts of hills and mountains like the Northeastern states and those with dry regions like Rajasthan are still heavily dependent …
One factor that no study has been able to analyse is to what extent the farmers of India have reacted to the firewood crisis and started to grow trees on their farmlands and private fallow lands or protect their forests. Surely, one would expect a rational economic response from farmers …
