firewood

The principal fuel for some 2 billion people, mainly in the developing world. In principle a renewable energy source, firewood is being cut far faster than the trees can regenerate in many areas of Africa and Asia, leading to deforestation.

In Mali, for example, wood provides 97% of total energy consumption, and deforestation is running at an estimated 9,000 hectares a year. The heat efficiency of firewood can be increased by use of well-designed stoves, but for many people they are either unaffordable or unavailable. With wood for fuel becoming scarcer the UN Food and Agricultural Organization has estimated that by the year 2000 3 billion people worldwide will face chronic problems in getting food cooked.