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 …
With limits set on tree felling, residents in Thimpu, Bhutan, are facing a chilling winter. The forestry services division has specified the tree species to be cut so that indiscriminate tree felling can be curbed. "The aim is to discourage the use of hardwood for long term sustainability of the …
IN RURAL areas, the use of collected biomass continues to burgeon because the availability of alternate sources of energy has increased more tardily than expected. The poorest of the rural poor are far more dependent on non-commercial sources of energy like wood, dung, and agricultural wastes than the urban poor. …
FAR from the shrill cut-and-splice medley of liberalisation, reform and the free market highway to economic growth, some experts have been advocating an alternative approach to alleviating poverty and dealing with energy scarcity in India. They banded together in Bangalore recently to suggest a bioresources strategy for India. Bioresources, essentially …
IN THE early '80s, a tall, straggly alien invaded farmlands across North India. The landscape changed drastically as spindly eucalyptus shot out of what had originally been good agricultural land, redefining the objectives of farm forestry for the implementors of India's tree planting programme. The original purpose of the programme, …
Does rural fuelwood use and more generally rural biomass use cause forest degradation? This question has been debated in scientific and policy circles. The author presents a framework for defining degradation and sustainable use of forests that might help clarify some of the confusion.
When a village watchman self-righteously stopped Navlibehn from cutting firewood in the forests adjoining Kotha village, she retorted, "To kya main apne haath jala kar roti pakaun (Should I burn my hands to cook food)?" In Boriya village, Manibehn and her sister-in-law were caught redhanded cutting wood. The watchmen seized …
THE TRAIN from Londa to Dharwar on the Miraj-Bangalore metre gauge in Karnataka passes through the jungles on the fringe of the Western Ghats. I asked my co-passengers, Hussainbi and Moinbi, a mother-daughter duo which is responsible for denuding these jungles. They are both headloaders. For the past 15 years, …
DURING the '60s and '70s, firewood prices in India shot up dramatically following the gross neglect of the needs of people from forests. The ratio of firewood to food grain prices doubled between 1975 and 1985, says firewood expert N C Saxena. The disastrously short-term but attractive economics of this …
WOOD has again emerged as a popular heating fuel in Germany and France. A programme launched seven years ago in the thickly wooded Landes region of southwestern France to promote wood as fuel has proved remarkably successful. The plan was essentially aimed at clearing waste left behind by loggers and …
DURING the dissemination of an improved, smoke-removing chulha (called nada chulha to honour the women of Nada, a harijan village, who developed it), I visited hundreds of rural kitchens in seven northern states to train local women as chulha mistris (stove repairers). In talking with the Nada housewives using the …
ARAKHAKUDA is a fishing village in Brahmagiri block of Puri district and its residents have been fishing in Chilika lake for generations. What makes Arakhakuda significant is that it is the last village on the Magarmukh channel that links the lake to the Bay of Bengal. Hence, the villagers know …
"Traffic jam on Everest", read a startling headline in The Rising Nepal, Kathmandu's leading English daily. The report went on to say that 34 mountaineers were on the way to the peak following the same route and they would all be jostling their way to the top. The headline, meanwhile, …
Using data from villages in three districts of Western Rajasthan, this paper describes the decline in area and deterioration in quality of common property resources over three decades. The decline of common property resources is associated with institutional changes in the villages. The introduction of land reforms in the early …
