Firewood consumption pattern, availability and coping strategies adopted to mitigate firewood scarcity: a case of rural households in Ghana

Abstract

Firewood is the dominant fuel type used by rural households in Ghana. However, the scarcity of firewood species has raised concerns about the sustainable use of this fuel type. This study investigated the firewood consumption pattern, firewood species used by rural households in the past and those presently in use and compared the strategies being adopted by households to mitigate firewood scarcity. Using multistage random sampling technique, 240 households were sampled from 12 rural communities 6 from the semi-deciduous ecological zone and 6 from the coastal savanna ecological zone. Firewood consumption (1.62–2.77 kg/capita/day) is higher than the figure reported earlier (1.0 kg/capita/day) in Ghana and this could be due to changing family size and structure and also to the relatively low quality of firewood in use presently. Geographical location and availability of alternative and complementary fuels are important determinants of firewood consumption pattern. The number of tree species used for firewood by rural households has increased by 12% in the last 20 years in the semi-deciduous zone, but has reduced to 16% in the coastal savanna zone and this reflects the difference in floristic richness of the two ecological zones. In both samples, even though an impressive number of fruit and exotic species was reported being used for firewood, the use of such species was limited to a few households, an indication of less desirability of such species. Tree planting appears to be the most sustainable problem-solving coping strategy adopted by rural households even though this strategy is practiced by a small percentage. Policies aimed at encouraging rural households to engage in tree planting and adopt the use of alternative fuels could ensure sustainable use of biomass for fuel.

Keywords::

• firewood consumption pattern
• firewood scarcity
• coping strategies
• agricultural residues
• tree planting
• rural households
• Ghana

Acknowledgements

We wish to thank the household heads of the surveyed rural communities for cooperating with us during the data collection phase of the study. We are also grateful to the staff of the Department of Botany, University of Ghana, for providing the scientific names of some of the studied firewood species. We are equally grateful to Mr Ntim Gyakari, a retired botanist, who was engaged in validating the botanical and local names of the firewood tree species.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

^1. Email: [email protected].

^2. Email: [email protected].

^3. The exchange rate at the time of the study was GHC3.50 = 1USD.

Additional information

Funding

Generous funding support was provided by the College of Technology Education, University of Education, Winneba.