Abstract:

The role of fuelwood in rural development has often been overlooked despite its importance to many people. This seems to be true of Botswana and several other developing countries. An attempt is made to address the problem of fuelwood shortage which was identified in Northeast District of Botswana by analyzing the supply and demand of the fuelwood to find the extent, causes, and the effects of the shortage; and also, to establish people’s perception of the problem. These issues have not been investigated in previous fuelwood surveys carried out in the District. An in-depth study was conducted in Mulambakwena village area which was considered representative of the district in terms of the fuelwood situation. The methods used in the data collection were questionnaire survey, fuelwood consumption measurements, direct observation, informal interviews and group interviews, aerial photograph interpretation, vegetation sampling, and ground truthing. Although the use of possible indicators of and responses to declining fuelwood availability shows that there is no fuelwood shortage, the people themselves perceive fuelwood shortage as a problem, but not most serious compared to shortage of water and lack of income. The study also revealed that the main causes of the fuelwood shortage are the increase in demand of fuelwood and the decrease in supply of the wood. The demand increases because of the rise in consumption level of fuelwood due to population increase of the village, the increase in household size, and the increase in household income. The supply of fuelwood available to the people decreases because of lack of dead preferred species of trees for fuelwood, moreover the little supply available is less accessible due to distance. The land use and land management through the arable destumping scheme temporarily increases the fuelwood supply, but the ultimate consequences of this are a reduction of the growing stock of the woodland. The fuelwood shortage has a negative impact on some households which suggests that as the shortages increase; more households will become affected by the diversion of labour and income in order to obtain it. However, the fuelwood shortage seems to have very little effect on deforestation. The solutions to the problem of fuelwood shortage suggested including increasing supply of fuelwood by planting more trees and increasing the productivity of the existing woodland through its proper management, reducing the demand of fuelwood by introducing fuelwood saving cooking stoves, and by encouraging people to shift to alternative sources of energy such as coal, gas and paraffin. All the above suggested solutions should be based on the peoples’ felt needs, on their priorities in dealing with what they perceive as the most important problem.