Download Free Governance Of Woodfuel Value Chains In Kenya Book in PDF and EPUB Free Download. You can read online Governance Of Woodfuel Value Chains In Kenya and write the review.

Successful woodfuel value chain governance is dependent on the existence of known policies that are implemented, rules and regulations that are enforced and complied with by value chain actors and institutions with capacity to regulate and render support. Kenya has formulated policies nd enacted legislation for guiding, managing and supporting woodfuel value chains. These policies and legal frameworks have evolved over the years, integrating provisions for sustainable production, distribution and use of woodfuel. However, even with well-developed policies and legislative frameworks, charcoal value chains are inadequately governed, beset by illegality, weak institutional arrangements, overlapping mandates and limited coordination and cooperation. Nonetheless, charcoal value chains have remained resilient despite the bans and moratoria throughout the decades and likely to continue in the foreseeable future. Limited knowledge, lack of incentives for sustainable production and limited support for organized efforts to manage woodfuel resources are contributing to low compliance with rules and regulations. Therefore, the development and implementation of interventions coupled with appropriate investments to incentivize and catalyze sustainable woodfuel production and trade cannot be over emphasized.
Key messages Woodfuel, particularly charcoal, is an important livelihood source in Kitui County, with consumption largely in urban areas within and beyond the county, where it is still a critical energy source. While charcoal movement out of the county has been banned since 2018, trade has continued in some form because of inadequate support, guidance and regulation. While briquette production has been promoted, it has not seen substantial demand. Because charcoal production has continued, a sustainable charcoal value chain in Kitui County has to be explored, including i) management of woodlands and sustainable harvesting of trees, e.g. through natural regeneration and enrichment planting of trees on degraded private and public lands; ii) promotion of efficient processing and carbonization; and iii) efficient and clean cooking. Current institutional arrangements for guiding, supporting and controlling the value chain activities and actors can be improved to enhance the sustainability, enforcement, compliance, capacity and competitiveness of local value chains. World Agroforestry (ICRAF), Adventist Development Relief Agency (ADRA) and partners undertook a number of activities in Kitui County and more widely in Kenya as a whole to generate evidence, knowledge and policy options, and to facilitate engagement for more sustainable woodfuel value chains under the project entitled Governing Multifunctional Landscapes (GML) in sub-Saharan Africa launched in 2018. This brief summarises the key interventions and learnings from the project with particular focus on Kitui County.
Key messagesWoodfuel, particularly charcoal, is an important energy source in urban areas and a livelihood source in rural areas.Actors in the Baringo–Nairobi charcoal value chain get between KES 107 and 613 per bag of charcoal depending on their location and role.In most parts of Baringo County, charcoal is produced from the invasive species Prosopis juliflora (mathenge, also known in some countries as ‘mesquite’).Community members, stakeholders and county officials identified priorities for the production and governance of the mathenge charcoal value chain.Strategies include proper management of biomass, efficient processing and effective utilization, and adequately regulated and supported value chains from production to consumption.Good governance of woodfuel value chains will only be achieved when there are transparent, consistent and coordinated regulatory institutional mechanisms that support and incentivize compliance and penalize illegality along the whole value chain. The County Environment Committee initiated a governance process, whilst community members have been engaged in sustainable mathenge charcoal production in Marigat Sub-county.
Against a global backdrop of climate change, widespread food insecurity, deforestation and forest degradation, this paper highlights the role of sustainable woodfuel in improving food security. It provides insights into how this role can be strengthened, including through forest management reforms. The widespread availability of woodfuel can present opportunities for employment and sustainable value chains
Editorial: Tuyeni H Mwampamba, Rob Bailis, Adrian Ghilardi Urbanization, food, and water consumption trends in many tropical countries show that demand for charcoal (as a source of cooking energy), meat, grain and water will rise to proportions that surpass the ability of existing ecosystems to supply these services simultaneously and at desired qualities. Consequently, drastic changes to policy and practice are needed to improve ecosystem potential and/or alter demand trends. Traditional charcoal production in sub-Saharan Africa, South East Asia and Latin America often competes or co-exists with livestock keeping and agriculture and has a tendency to occur in water-limited woodlands. The co-occurrence of charcoal and food production results in complex landscapes characterized by strong interactions between subsystems, managed by multiple sets of actors, with potentially competing objectives. These social-ecological systems provide goods and services that are essential to millions of people throughout the global south. Nevertheless, there have been very few detailed studies of such systems, particularly on the individual and combined effects of charcoal, crop, and livestock production on the hydrological system that maintains them and vice versa. As a result, these multi-use landscapes are typically managed by short-sighted, highly generalized, mono-sectorial policies that ignore important tradeoffs and undercapitalize on synergies. A system-level approach could provide important insights that improve and expand current understanding of this energy-food-water nexus. Tackling urgent and complex problems composed of multiple and interrelated factors lies at the heart of nexus thinking - an approach that “examines the inter-relatedness and interdependencies of environmental resources and their transitions and fluxes across spatial scales and between compartments” (UNU-FLORES 2015) and relies on interdisciplinary research and multi-sector policy teams. It has attracted significant interest from international organizations, the private sector and governments as a way to develop integrated equitable solutions that involve inputs from multiple stakeholders. However, this approach is notably absent in the research arena. Identifying appropriate interventions for achieving sustainable charcoal and food production and maintaining the underlying hydrological system on which they depend requires that the systems are considered simultaneously and that their biophysical, social, and political inter-relations are well understood. Taking charcoal as the nexus entry-point, this Research Topic aims to generate new understanding of charcoal production systems by incorporating agriculture and hydrology into the matrix. We were interested in empirical articles, reviews, meta-analytical articles and perspective papers that address at least two of the three nexus components and which offer provocative and insightful perspectives into the nexus as a whole. We hope that this Research Topic will 1) facilitate identification of research gaps, policy opportunities and priorities for the nexus, 2) kick-start the development of a community of researchers and practitioners working on the nexus, and 3) permit the development of a research agenda that explores the nexus globally across multiple study sites.
As Africa urbanises and the focus of poverty shifts to urban centres, there is an imperative to address poverty in African cities. This is particularly the case in smaller cities, which are often the most rapidly urbanising, but the least able to cope with this growth. This book argues that an examination of the food system and food security provides a valuable lens to interrogate urban poverty. Chapters examine the linkages between poverty, urban food systems and local governance with a focus on case studies from three smaller or secondary cities in Africa: Kisumu (Kenya), Kitwe (Zambia) and Epworth (Zimbabwe). The book makes a wider contribution to debates on urban studies and urban governance in Africa through analysis of the causes and consequences of the paucity of urban-scale data for decision makers, and by presenting potential methodological innovations to address this paucity. As the global development agenda is increasingly focusing on urban issues, most notably the urban goal of the new Sustainable Development Goals and the New Urban Agenda, the work is timely. The Open Access version of this book, available at: http://www.tandfebooks.com/doi/view/10.4324/9781315191195, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.
Charcoal is widely used for cooking and heating in developing countries. The consumption of charcoal has been at high level and the demand may keep growing over the next decades, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. Some preliminary studies indicate that among commonly used cooking fuels, unsustainably produced charcoal can be the most greenhouse gas intensive fuels and simple measures could deliver high GHG mitigation benefits. Through the Paris Agreement on climate change adopted in 2015, countries set themselves ambitious targets to curb climate change, and forest-related measures have an important role to play in climate change mitigation and adaptation. Over 70% of the countries who have submitted their (intended) nationally determined contributions (NDCs) mention forestry and land use mitigation measures. Despite the importance of woodfuel in many countries, few have explicitly included measures to reduce emissions from woodfuel production and consumption. Many of the NDCs that include forestry do not yet provide detailed information on how mitigation is to be achieved. The overall objective of the publication is to provide data and information to allow for informed decision-making on the contribution sustainable charcoal production and consumption can make to climate change mitigation. More specifically, the publication aims to answer the following questions: - What are the climate change impacts of the current practices on charcoal production and consumption worldwide and across regions? - What is the potential of sustainable charcoal production in GHG emission reductions and how such potential can be achieved? - What are the key barriers to sustainable charcoal production and what actions are required to develop a climate-smart charcoal sector?