Fuelwood Depletion and Alternative Sources of Energy in the Guinea Savannah Ecosystem of Nigeria

Abstract

Population pressure and poverty are the main reasons of firewood depletion in the Guinea Savanna ecosystem of Nigeria. In the near future the fuelwood will be increasingly scarce and expensive. Currently, the acute scarcity and deficit in wood supply has resulted in enormous increase in price either by the way of monetary outlays on fuel for the urban or labour on the part of fuelwood collectors in the rural areas. Over 80% of Nigeria’s population that depend on fuelwood is worsened by the widespread use of insufficient cooking methods, the most common of which is still an open fire. The open fire system has a very low terminal efficiency and the smoke is also harzadous to human health, especially to women and children who mostly do the cooking in homes. Equally, the biomass energy resources of the nation have been estimated to be significant, which can be used for the production of the briquette as an alternative cooking fuel. The contents of this work will provide better alternative on efficient use of biomass resources and other alternative renewable energy devices capable of revolutionizing the cooking systems particularly in the rural areas of Nigeria.

Key words: Fuelwood, Energy, Ecosystem