Story: Trees

The wood Crisis

"Hello! I am Elena the Shisham tree and I represent the trees and forests from all over the World. Today I'll tell you something really interesting"

Do you know that there are more than 2,500,000 poor people that depend upon wood for cooking and heating! More than 100 million people cannot get enough fuel-wood that they require for their daily needs even when the trees are being over-cut. Another 3 million people are able to meet their basic requirements but only by cutting more trees than can be rehabilitated. If a solution is not found in the near future, this fuel-wood crisis could worsen. It is estimated that by the end of this century around 1.8 billion or more people will be excessively exploiting trees for fuel-wood and even then 150 million rural dwellers will not be able to get enough fuel-wood.

In most developing countries virtually every rural family relies on wood for all or some of their cooking and heating. More than 80% of wood harvested in developing countries is used as fuel-wood. Developing countries rely on forests to meet half of their total energy needs.

Usually, it is the women who collect fuel-wood, men and children help in this operation. Dry branches and dead wood is lighter to carry and burns better than green wood. Collecting fuel-wood took lesser time in the past when distances were shorter. Now it takes longer due to the destruction of trees and forests from the villages.

People have free access to wood in the rural areas. They use alternates only when wood becomes scarce. The alternates used by them are cow dung, straw or crop residues. However, the ideal use of cow dung and crop residues is for manure. Burning of cow-dung can develop breathing problems and lung diseases.

The rural poor suffer most from the scarcity of fuel-wood. Generally, well-off farmers grow enough trees and have sufficient crop residues to substitute for fuel-wood. The land owners are now attracted to growing trees as the prices of wood are rising. However, the tenant farmers and the landless are losers.