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Coverage

East Africa

Project time

February – May 2005

Objectives/scope

Visualizing current woodfuel supply source levels and consumption patterns in selected African countries in order to improve the understanding of the role played by wood energy in the countries analyzed. Making use of the recent LCCS land cover maps over the 10 countries of East and Central Africa listed above

Institutional settings

Wood Energy Programme, Forest Products and Economic Division (FOPP-WE), FAO

Scale/resolution

Africover vector maps for the Supply Module: 1:200,000 ; Population map for the Demand Module: raster with cells of 30 arc-second (~ 900 m); Balance analysis done in 5 arc-minute cells (~ 9 * 9 km)

Demand features

National woodfuel consumption for 2000 from i-WESTAT study (FAO 2005a) and other sub-national studies; Distribution of 2000 urban and rural population by 30 arc-second cells classified as rural and urban (FIVIMS).

Supply features

Woody biomass stock and productivity for main land cover classes and by ecological zones was based on existing references (forest inventories and other studies). The mapping was done exploiting LCCS land units, which are qualified through a system of classifiers that provide a detailed description of tree, shrub and grass layers. In total, 525 single land cover classes were found in the maps, which gave origin to as many as 2947 individual LCCS map codes.

Integration features

Local balance, within the 5-arcminute cells, between the fraction of the potential sustainable productivity available for energy uses and the total woodfuel consumption. This parameter provides a useful indication of the ease, or difficulties, that poor rural households face in acquiring their daily subsistence energy. In order to visualize these results under the administrative angle, the results by 5 arc minute cells were subsequently aggregated at sub-national unit level.

Woodshed/bio-shed analysis

Not implemented.

Integration with other aspects

Not implemented.

Findings/conclusions

The areas that present a more or less marked deficit in the local demand/supply balance encompass some 12.5 percent of the total area being analyzed.
There are countries literally dominated by deficit areas, such as Burundi and Rwanda, others that present important deficit areas, such as Eritrea, Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya and Sudan.
In the study area over 41% of rural populations face medium-high to high deficit conditions. In absolute numbers this corresponds to some 59.2 million people.
The geostatistical data produced was used in rural development programmes and improved stoves projects in Kenya, Uganda and Sudan.

Publications

Drigo R. 2006. WISDOM – East Africa. Woodfuel Integrated Supply/Demand Overview Mapping (WISDOM) Methodology. Spatial woodfuel production and consumption analysis of selected African countries. FAO Forestry Department - Wood Energy Working Paper. FAO.