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| Titel |
The Charcoal Trap: Miombo woodlands versus the energy needs of people |
| VerfasserIn |
Lutz Merbold, Maurice Muchinda, Mukufute M. Mukelabai, Robert J. Scholes, Ziegler Waldemar, Werner L. Kutsch |
| Konferenz |
EGU General Assembly 2010
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| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
Englisch
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| Digitales Dokument |
PDF |
| Erschienen |
In: GRA - Volume 12 (2010) |
| Datensatznummer |
250042085
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| Zusammenfassung |
| Miombo woodlands cover the transition zone between the dry open savannas and the moist
forests in Southern Africa and occupy the vast area of 2.7 Mio km2. These ecosystems are
highly disturbed by deforestation, mostly for charcoal production. Charcoal has become the
largest source to satisfy urban energy demands. Even though when charcoal is a less
energy-efficient fuel compared to firewood but by having higher energy densities and thus
being cheaper to transport. Over the last decades, charcoal production has become
a full-time employment for migrant workers, resulting in very different and no
longer sustainable deforestation patterns. Strategies to reduce the pressure on the
miombo woodlands have to take aspects of employment and energy demand into
account.
The objectives of the study were to examine above- and belowground carbon losses from
an intact miombo woodland (protected forest reserve) in comparison to a highly
disturbed surrounding area due to charcoal production. Detection of changes in
carbon concentrations and stocks were made possible by applying biomass- and soil
inventories as well as the eddy-covariance method. These local results were up-scaled to
countrywide estimates of carbon lost to the atmosphere by deforestation in addition
to carbon losses fossil fuel combustion. The results show, that in the worst case
scenario which does not assume any regeneration, a developing country as Zambia,
can easily emit as much carbon per capita as a developed Western world country
such as France, when deforestation is included in the national inventory (up to 9.1
t of CO2 per capita). However, regeneration is very probably when post-harvest
disturbance is low. Further studies on miombo regeneration are highly demanded. |
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