Sustainable woody biomass energy trade and impacts on developing countries

Abstract

In developing countries, about 2.6 billion people rely on inefficient, unhealthy and often unsustainable consumption of mostly woody biomass to cover their basic energy needs such as cooking. Despite international and multilateral initiatives reduce the dependency on unsustainable wood supply and use, the amount of people dependent on woody biomass is not expected to change much in the coming years. Currently, most bioenergy comes from forests and is consumed in developing countries, particularly in rural households as fuelwood for cooking and heating, representing the major energy source especially in African countries. Fuelwood describes unprocessed woody bioenergy harvested or collected from forests and woodlands. Woody bioenergy comprises a variety of woody biomass used for energy and fuelwood refers to all types of bioenergy originating directly or indirectly from woody biomass. Use of wood for energy production is a relatively new issue in Turkey. Bio-energy production, biomass energy, however, is located in residential, agricultural, and animal waste is also considered as biomass energy.