WOOD CRISIS
What wood crisis?
Throughout the world, more than 2 billion people rely on fuel wood for cooking or heating. As more trees are cut down, wood is becoming increasingly scarce across large parts of sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Today more than 100 million people energy needs.
Why wood crisis
In many developing countries fuel wood accounts for a large proportion of all energy consumption. More than 90 per cent of the energy used in countries such as Burkina Faso, Tanzania, Nepal, and Ethiopia comes from wood. Wood even provides oil rich Nigeria with 80 per cent of its energy needs.
In the foothills of Nepal women now need to spend a day collecting the firewood that their mothers would have been able to collect in just one hour. Keeping home fires alight in parts of Nepal and Tanzania now takes 230 person days per family per year.
