Forest conservation from the perspective of local fuel production and its consumption in the southern part of Kilite Awlaelo district in the Eastern zone of the Tigray Region, Ethiopia

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  • エチオピア・ティグライ州キルテ－アウラエロ郡南部における燃料の生産と消費の視点からの森林保全の検討

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Abstract

<p>For the conservation of natural forest land from the viewpoint of local fuel production and its consumption in the Tigray Region of the Ethiopian Highlands, the purpose of this paper is 1) to determine the types of resources utilized as fuel and their frequencies, and the amount of fuel consumption per household, 2) to estimate the production amount of dung cake and woody plants for analyzing the balance of fuel consumption and production, and then 3) to discuss strategies to preserve forests. The local farmers used dung cake, firewood, crop residue and charcoal as fuel. The average consumption per household (all in kg DM/day/household) from June 2017 until July 2018 was 8.3 (range 0.0-20.7) of dung cake, 2.3 (0.0-8.9) of firewood, 0.1 (0.0-3.5) of crop residue and 0.2 (0.0-2.0) of charcoal. Consumption of dung cake was 3.6 times higher than of firewood. Thus, it became clear that dung cake was the main fuel, and woody plants were also an important resource. It was estimated that a household produced 10.0 kg DM/day/household of dung cake during the dry season, approximately 10 months from September to June for using the dung cake by the average of 8.3 kg DM/day/household throughout the year, with no provision for other households or any excess. Consumption of woody plants as firewood exceeded production by 2.9 times. This indicated that production and consumption of woody plants were not balanced in southern parts of Kilite Awlaelo district, and that consumption was excessive. It is extremely important to introduce solar power generation, increase the number of livestock animals (by addition of one or two adult cattle per household), change the livestock feeding management (conversion of a part of livestock keeping from grazing to barn feeding) and to popularize improved cooking stoves in order for people of the Tigray Region to reduce the pressure on use of woody plants and protect the forest environment, while using a minimum amount of firewood. The local governmental support is indispensable for these trials to reduce the consumption amount of firewood</p>

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