- Title
- Fuelwood in South Africa Revisited: Widespread Use in a Policy Vacuum
- Creator
- Shackleton, Charlie M, Sinasson, Gisele, Adeyemi, Opeyemi, Martins, Vusumzi
- Subject
- To be catalogued
- Date
- 2022
- Type
- text
- Type
- article
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10962/402275
- Identifier
- vital:69837
- Identifier
- xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.3390/su141711018"
- Description
- South Africa has experienced massive urbanisation and socioeconomic development over the past two decades. Concomitantly, the national energy policy focuses on the provision of modern fuels, notably electricity, for domestic use. Given this policy environment and socioeconomic development, we examine pertinent literature and policies from South Africa on fuelwood use, value, and sustainability to understand how it might have changed in tandem with the national shifts in urbanisation and socioeconomic development over the last 20 years. Recent literature shows that fuelwood is still used to some extent by 96% of rural households and 69% of low-income urban ones. We also estimate that the use of fuelwood by rural households alone is valued at approximately ZAR 10.5 billion (approx. USD 700 million) annually, with the probability of an equally high value to low-income urban households. However, despite the extensive use and high value, our analysis of cognate national policies related to energy, forestry, environment, and social development, show that fuelwood and its use is hardly considered, indicating a policy vacuum. This policy vacuum means that there is no strategic or apposite support or interventions in any localised areas where fuelwood demand might exceed supply, thereby undermining the livelihoods and energy security of affected citizens, most notably the poor.
- Format
- computer, online resource, application/pdf, 1 online resource (14 pages), pdf
- Publisher
- MDPI
- Language
- English
- Relation
- Sustainability, Shackleton, C., Sinasson, G., Adeyemi, O. and Martins, V., 2022. Fuelwood in South Africa Revisited: Widespread Use in a Policy Vacuum. Sustainability, 14(17), p.11018, Sustainability volume 14 number 17 p. 11018 2022 2071-1050
- Rights
- Publisher
- Rights
- Use of this resource is governed by the terms and conditions of the MDPI Open Access Statement (https://www.int-res.com/journals/terms-of-use/)
- Rights
- Open Access
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Collections
RU DST/NRF SARChI for Interdisciplinary Science in Land and Natural Resource Use for Sustainable Livelihoods
RU Department of Environmental Science
Shackleton, Charles Michael (Distinguished Prof)
SDG 11. Sustainable Cities and Communities
SDG 16. Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
SDG 15. Life On Land
| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details | SOURCE1 | Fuelwood in South Africa Revisited.pdf | 306 KB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details |