What amount of the global wood harvest is used as a fuel?
Answers
Answer:
Explanation:
Forests have been an important source of energy throughout human history. Traditional forms of forest biofuel include firewood and charcoal for heating and cooking, which it is still used in many parts of Africa, Latin America, and Asia. Forest bioenergy can also include wood residues from the timber harvest and the forest processing industry, such as wood pellets, black liquor (a byproduct of pulp production), or recovered wood waste. Today wood fuel, charcoal, and wood pellets are the most significant types of forest bioenergy being produced and consumed around the globe, and are discussed in greater detail below.
Wood fuel & wood charcoal: Today, more than two billion people depend on wood fuel or charcoal for cooking and heating, and in some parts of Africa wood fuels still account for up to 90 percent of energy consumption. Wood fuel is also relatively important in the Asia-Pacific region as well as Latin America, where wood fuel production accounts for 64 percent and 54 percent of annual roundwood production (wood or timber harvested), respectively. In the year 2014, total global wood fuel production was 1,864 million m³, including 53 million tons of wood charcoal.
Wood fuel harvesting has been linked to deforestation, although there are debates as to the level to which it exacerbates deforestation rates. In many places, wood used for fuel is deadwood collected from the forest (and therefore doesn’t require removal of standing trees) and some recent research has shown that fuelwood consumption is not often a driver of large-scale deforestation, although there are also cases where live cutting for fuelwood occurs as well. However in some places wood fuel extraction and deforestation can lead to resource depletion on a local scale and have led to shortages in areas where rates of extraction outstrip supply. Despite not necessarily causing wide-scale deforestation, wood fuel harvesting can contribute to forest degradation and have negative impacts on forest health and biodiversity, due to chronic removal of small trees or branches over time, including removal of habitat for cavity-dwelling animals and saproxylic species (those that rely on dead wood for survival), and disruption of nutrient recycling processes. Beyond impacts on biodiversity, reliance on wood fuel for cooking has negative impacts for poor households, who are more likely to depend on wood fuel for household energy needs, and may spend up to 10% of their income on fuel, and suffer from health problems due to smoke exposure (when cooking is done indoors over open fires).
Charcoal is fuel produced by the carbonization of biomass (namely wood). Production is most significant in Africa and Latin America regions, where production has increased over the last 5 years, (compared to other regions where production has remained relatively low and unchanged). The drivers of charcoal consumption in these two regions differ however; Africa’s charcoal consumption stems mainly from urban demand for cooking fuel, while in Latin America, Brazil’s steel industry is the main consumer of charcoal. The carbonization of wood into charcoal most commonly occurs in traditional earth kilns, although other types of kilns (such as brick or metal) do exist and are in use.
While there are some efforts and investment to create forest plantations for purposes of charcoal production, most charcoal production originates from natural forests. The dependence on natural forests for charcoal production has led to concern from policy-makers and nonprofit organizations of the role of charcoal consumption in deforestation or forest degradation. The degree that charcoal use contributes to deforestation is debatable however and can vary considerably among countries. Similarly, the ability of natural forests to regenerate, after being cleared for charcoal production depends on a number of factors: forest type, cutting system, climate, as well as disturbances such as fire or grazing. While charcoal production may not always lead to large-scale deforestation, selective cutting for charcoal in tropical Africa can lead to forest degradation, where woodlands gradually transform to bush and scrubland over time.
Residual Forest Biomass/thinning: Compared to wood fuel and charcoal consumption, which has remained relatively stable on a global level, the use of wood pellets for energy has seen a dramatic increase in recent years (in 2014 global production grew by 17 percent.