Fuel scarcity or household wealth? Assessing the drivers of cooking energy consumption patterns in rural areas in East Africa

ABSTRACT

Rural households in Tanzania and Mozambique depend mainly on charcoal, firewood and other traditional fuels, such as cow dung or agriculture by-products, to cook. Simultaneously, fuel scarcity is an important phenomenon that leads households to apply coping strategies such as reducing the number of meals or increasing walking distance to collect firewood. Despite the well-known negative health, economic and potential ecologic impacts, the transition away from solid biomass energy sources is not expected in the short run. Thus, understanding the patterns of biomass energy consumption is essential to allow sustainable development in the household cooking sector. In this study, we evaluated the influence of wealth status and fuelwood scarcity on household energy choices in four villages with case study sites in Mozambique and Tanzania. The fuel usage patterns are consistent with the ‘energy stacking’ model as, despite an increase in the consumption of charcoal, firewood remains the principal cooking fuel. Wealth does not necessarily result in a transition toward cleaner fuels, nor does scarcity result in the use of other forms of traditional bioenergy. We suggest the promotion of fuel reduction strategies such as improved cookstoves or the implementation of on-farm trees to reduce the pressure on forests.

KEYWORDS:

• Energy transition
• clean cooking
• biomass-dependent households
• Mozambique
• Tanzania

Acknowledgements

We thank the Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF) in Müncheberg, Germany, for their logistical support in conducting the research in Gurué district, Central Mozambique. The project is supported by funds of the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) based on a decision of the Parliament of the Federal Republic of Germany via the Federal Office for Agriculture and Food (BLE).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/14728028.2022.2153282

Additional information

Funding

his work was supported by the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) based on a decision of the Parliament of the Federal Republic of Germany via the Federal Office for Agriculture and Food (BLE; 2816PROC9 and 2816PROC10)