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Conference on
GENDER ISSUES IN FARMING SYSTEMS
RESEARCH AND EXTENSION
Assessing Firewood Resources and Labor Requirements
District, Botswana
Janet H. Gritzner, Remote Sensing Institute and
Linda Baer, Department of Rural Sociology,
South Dakota State University
Firewood Situation in Botswana
Firewood supplies over 90 percent of the total domestic
energy in Botswana and over 52 percent of total energy for the
country. The dependence on firewood in this southern African
nation is similar to that of other poor nations of Africa. More
fortunate than several of its neighbors, Botswana currently
produces sufficient firewood to provide the needs of its
population (Tietema, 1984). This is because the country's present
firewood resources are adequate for the existing relatively low
population and population density. By the year 2003, however, the
population will double if the current annual growth rate of 3.3
percent is maintained (Tietema). With increased population, the
demand for firewood soon may indeed exceed supplies.
Today, the primary firewood problem in Botswana is one of
distribution or location. The larger villages and towns are
growing in population at the expense of the small and more remote
village settlements. Table 1 shows percent population changes
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between 1971 and 1981 for villages and rural settlements. Around
these larger settlements, firewood consumption frequently exceeds
local production. Firewood resources are diminishing due to
overharvesting of locally available wood, overgrazing, and the
clearing of land for crops. The problem is compounded around the
rapidly growing capital city, Gaborone. The capitol, established
in 1964 with national .independence, has a population of
approximately 80,000 (Central Statistics Office, 1981). It has an
estimated annual growth rate of about 12.9 percent, making it one
the fastest growing cities in Africa. With rapid urbanization
often comes deforestation. This has become a permanent condition
around the capital cities and other urban areas throughout much of
the continent. Reversing the process of deforestation is a major
undertaking, ultimately involving a number of government and
community action programs. Planning programs to mitigate the
conditions of deforestation require detailed information on what
is presently happening to forest resources and what. may be
expected in the future. Without good planning and management
data, programs for conservation and reforestation have little
chance for success.
Previous Work
Fortunately for Botswana, the firewood situation has received
a good deal of attention and several excellent papers have been
written on the subject. They have been an important source of
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data for the work reported on in this paper, especially those that
contained information directly relevant to southern Kgatleng
District. The majority of studies have dealt with what has come
to be known as the "other energy crisis" on a community basis, or
they have made national projections of potential shortages.
Tietema (1984) looked at supply of and demand for fuelwood on
on countrywide basis. He suggested that the firewood distribution
problem could be solved by means of an organized harvest of
indigenous woodlands and firewood plantations. Arntzen and Kgathi
(1984) examined the determinants of firewood energy consumption in
rural Botswana, emphasizing the various adaptions made to firewood
scarcity.
Jelenic and van Vegten (1981) studied the firewood situation
in Botswana's south-western Kgatleng District. Their concern was
the human-side of the energy issue and how wood shortages were
forcing the gatherers to search for wood at greater distances and
with poorer results. The study focused on two villages in
southern Kgatleng: Oodi and Matebeleng. Arntzen (1985) modeled
his study on the earlier Jelenic and Van Vegten work. He assessed
the firewood situation at Mosomane, which is in a relatively
sparse populated grazing area in southern Kgatleng and compared it
with that of Oodi and Matebeleng, in the more crowded mixed
farming area.
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Van Vegten (1981) addressed the issue of vegetation change in
eastern Botswana's hardveld in Kgatleng District between 1950 and
1975. The study showed the rate of woody vegetation change and
the predicted loss in terms of economically valuable vegetation
biomass.
Project Objectives
The goals of this research were similar to those of previous
works, but with several differences worth noting. Key issues
addressed in this project were:
1. Will there be enough firewood within range of the towns
and villages of Botswana given present and projected
population trends, current firewood distribution and
projected supply and demand?
2. Because traditional firewood collection is basically
women's work, how do the projected supply and demand affect
women's work roles in terms of availability of labor?
3. To what extent can computer technology be used to assess
present and future firewood situations?
The purpose of this research project is to assess firewood
resources in Kgatleng District and the implications of firewood
- 4-
shortages on the allocation of female labor. The research
attempts to be predictive, and has as a long range objective the
development of a monitoring strategy that is able to be duplicated
elsewhere in Botswana. The study utilized quantitative measures,
remote sensing, and Geographic Information System (GIS) technology
to accomplish its objectives.
The technical project objectives are fourfold.
1. To evaluate human-induced vegetation changes in Kgatleng
District from 1950 to 1982;
2. To prepare a model for projecting vegetation change in
Kgatleng district;
3. To develop an interpretive model to evaluate existing and'
potential firewood production and consumption and an interpretive
model to evaluate potential firewood production;
4. To analyze the data for female labor allocations to firewood
collection and to consider implications for labor shortages in
agricultural and domestic sectors.
Remote sensing and Geographic Information Systems (GISs)
technology provide data to calculate firewood production for
existing and projected conditions. Consumption rates are based on
- 5-
information derived from the firewood use studies already
completed for Kgatleng District and the Population and Housing
Census of 1981. Labor requirements for collecting fuelwood are
derived from the same sources.
Study Sites in Kgatleng District
The two village sites with their surrounding firewood
collecting areas are situated in southwestern Kgatleng District,
some 20 30 km northeast of Gaborone. The Mochudi study site is
an urban-suburban area in which a range of settings from urban to
rural (mixed farming) is found within a space of 150 sq km.
Mochudi is the administrative center and, with an estimated
population of 18,386, the largest village in Kgatleng District.
Today the town covers an area of 20 sq kms and is spreading
southward across the river, westward and to the east
Mochudi is experiencing rapid population growth. Since 1971,
the community has grown by some 165 percent. Because of
urbanization, Mochudi offers a complicated pattern of vegetation
degradation due to expansion of cropland, overcutting for
firewood, overgrazing, and progressive bush encroachment.
The Oodi-Modipane village site is a mixed farming (livestock
keeping combined with crop agriculture) area between Oodi and
Modipe Hills. The area is comprised of four villages and their
- 6-
communal lands. Oodi is the largest of the villages with a
population of 1600. Matebeleng has a population of some 400 and
is located 3500 metres from Oodi on the opposite bank of the
Notwane River. More distant Mokatse and Modipane had 1981
populations of 34 and 1225, respectively.
Firewood Production in Kgatleng District
The basic objective of this study is to develop an automated
geographic data base to assess vegetation change and its
implication for potential firewood production in southern Kgatleng
District. This data base was developed at the Remote Sensing
Institute, South Dakota State University, using the AREAS (Area
REsource Analysis System) geographic information system (GIS).
AREAS has the same basic capabilities as other geo-based
information systems. Its functions include accepting and updating
data in a variety of formats, the storage and retrieval of spatial
and tabular data, interpretation and analysis, and output of
results in a variety of formats.
The basic data for the GIS are maps of the two study sites
displaying eight classes of vegetation density for different time
periods. Vegetation density maps for Mochudi include those for
1950, 1963, 1973, and 1982. Oodi-Modipane maps are for 1950,
1963, and 1975. The majority of map data is modified from Van
Vegten's study of man-made vegetation changes in Kgatleng
- 7-
District. Aerial photography is used directly to produce the 1982
vegetation density map for Mochudi. Mapped data were entered into
the GIS by means of a coordinate digitizing table. Once converted
to AREAS program format, basic maps were produced and areal
statistics compiled. Tables 2 and 3 display statistics for
firewood production for the Mochudi study site for 1950 and 1975.
For each of the eight vegetation density classes, percent area and
area in hectares have been calculated. Van Vegten (1981) provides
the statistical basis to convert vegetation density class data to
woody biomass. The calculation of woody biomass production in
metric tons is the result of multiplying the area in hectares of
each density class by the average fresh biomass in kg/ha for that
density class.
Tietema (1984) supplies the means of estimating the actual
amount firewood available from estimates of total woody biomass.
Woody biomass is first converted to dry weight and then to its
useful firewood fraction. Dry weight of four dominant species
(Acacia tortilis, Acacia erubescens, Acacia fleckii, Acacia
mellifera) lies around 70 percent of fresh weight. For
Dichrostachys cinerea, a shrubby species, the dry weight
percentages is 76.6 percent. A useful firewood fraction is
calculated, assuming not all aboveground parts of a tree are
suitable for firewood. All wood thicker than 2 cm diameter is
considered firewood size. Tietema studies of hardveld savannas in
eastern Botswana show the firewood fraction ranges between 50 and
- 8-
60 percent of the total tree fresh weight. Using a useful
firewood fraction of 55 percent and a weight of 70 percent, it is
estimated that about 38.5 percent of the total fresh weight of
tree will present dry firewood. Based on these tables, the
firewood production estimate for the Mochudi study site in 1950 is
80,320 metric tons and for the same area in 1975 a declining total
of 68,636 metric tons.
The map data sets for Mochudi for four different time periods
were interpreted and composite, using the AREAS/GIS composite
functions. Vegetation density classes are interpreted for
enclosure into cropped land, fallow land, and firewood resource
area classes. Composite maps were made depicting the changes in
the three categories of cropped land, fallow land and firewood
resource areas from 1950 to 1982. Table 4 is graph of changes in
hectares of cropped land and fallow land from 1950 to 1982. This
table shows that agricultural land (cropped land plus fallow land)
has increased at the general expense of natural savanna land.
Firewood Consumption
The percapita use of firewood needed depends on the amount of
wood, per unit of time, and the total number of individuals.
Table 5 shows the estimated total annual consumption of firewood
for Mochudi. Values for firewood consumption for Mochudi are
derived from Jelenic and Van Vegten studies of Oodi village.
- 9-
There is a consistent correlation between the household size and
the household's firewood consumption. Households of more than 6
members consume from .40 2.99 kg of firewood per person per day.
Higher consumption is found in the smaller households. Households
from 1 5 members use 3.00 7.50 kg per day per person.
Firewood usage also varies by season. Winter consumption of
fuelwood is considerably greater than summer consumption due to
use of firewood for heating. Annual consumption of firewood for
the village of Mochudi is calculated by multiplying the number of
individuals by the rates of usage by household size and season of
the year by number of days. The total firewood consumed annually
by Mochudi's 17,973 fuelwood users is 18,527 metric tons.
Comparison of firewood production and consumption figures for
Mochudi and its firewood collecting areas shows consumption in
1981 based on 1975 production estimates is 26.99 percent. Based
on 1981 production estimates, annual consumption in Mochudi is
26.25 percent.
Firewood Collection
In Kgatleng, all routine activities connected with domestic
fire are carried out by women and children. Typical chores are
fetching firewood, transporting it to the homestead, making the
fire, cooking, and heating the house in the winter time (Jelenic
and Van Vegten, 1981). Girls begin carrying wood from the age of
- 10-
6 years. Boys under 10 help fetch wood. Women from the ages of
15 to 55 regularly collect wood in their domestic routine. The
quantity gathered per collecting trip varies by household needs,
the age and strength of the collector, and time of day during
which the bundle is fetched.
Table 6 is the potential firewood collection in Mochudi.
Age/sex class of potential collectors is described in the table.
Numbers of potential collectors in each class from Mochudi are
listed. The information was provided by the 1981 Botswana
population census. Values given for the average bundle weight in
kg for various age classes are derived from Jelenic and Van
Vegten's study of Oodi village. Numbers of potential collectors
multiplied by the average bundle weight in kgs give the potential
firewood collection per day by age class. The total amount of
potential firewood collection in Mochudi is an estimated 141128
kg. This figure is multiplied by the total number of firewood
collecting days per year to obtain the potential annual collection
of firewood. In Oodi, firewood is fetched an average of once
every three days. If the same schedule applies to Mochudi, there
would be about 122 firewood collecting days in a year. Potential
annual collection for Mochudi is then some 17,161 metric tons.
This amount falls short of the 18,527 metric tons of firewood
consumed in Mochudi village in 1981.
Table 7 is a modification of potential firewood collection in
- 11-
Mochudi to reflect actual conditions. Not all potential
collectors are involved in gathering firewood. Numbers of
collectors indicated in Table 7 are adjusted according to Jelenic
and Van Vegten's profile of collectors by age class in Oodi. The
same calculations used in Table 6 are applied to obtain the
potential firewood collection per day. With a reduced number of
collectors, the potential daily firewood collection for Mochudi is
76,298 kg. Based on collecting firewood every three days,
potential annual collection is 9,282 metric tons. This is not
nearly enough to sustain Mochudi's firewood needs. If
calculations are based on gathering firewood every two days, the
total is 13,924 metric tons. Collecting every day gives a
potential annual collection of 27,849 metric tons.
Summary Comments
Three aspects of the firewood situation in Kgatleng District
have been studied. They are firewood production, consumption, and
collection. The study revealed that firewood production in the
Mochudi area declined from 1950 to 1982. During this thirty-two
year period, a significant increase occurred in the amount of land
devoted to agricultural use. The study further disclosed that
firewood gathering places considerable pressure on existing wood
fuel resources. With an annual consumption rate of 26 percent of
the existing available firewood, it is probable that an increasing
amount of living biomass is being harvested each year, thereby
- 12-
placing the availability of this essential resource in future
jeopardy.
Selected References
Arntzen, Jaap
1983 Firewood
Research
Note No.
Collection in Mosomane: Kgatleng. National
Institute of Development (NIR). Research
11. University of Botswana, Gaborone.
Arntzen, Jaap, and D. L. Kgathi
1984 "Some of the Determinants of the Consumption of
Firewood Energy in Developing Countries: The Case of
Rural Botswana." Pula. Botswana Journal of African
Studies. 4:1:24-44.
Central Statistical Office
1982 1981 Population and Housing Census. Summary Statistics
Central
1983
on Small Areas (for settlements of 500 or more
people). Gaborone, Botswana: Government Printer.
Statistical Office
1981 Population and Housing Census. Guide to the
Villages and Towns of Botswana. Gaborone, Botswana:
Government Printer.
Jelenic, N. E. and J. A. Van Vegten
1981 A Pain in the Neck: The Firewood Situation in
South-Western Kgatleng, Botswana. National Institute
of Development and Cultural Research (NIR). Research
Note No. 5. University College of Botswana, Gaborone.
Tietema, Tabe
1984 "Firewood For Botswana. Towards a Sustained Harvest of
Firewood." Paper presented at UNESCO (MAB) Zimbabwe
Regional Workshop on Woodlands and Water Resources.
Harare, Zimbabwe.
Van Vegten,
1981
J. A.
Man-made Vegetation Changes: An Example from
Botswana's Savanna. National Institute of Development
and Cultural Research (NIR). Working Paper No. 40.
University College of Botswana, Gaborone.
- 13-
TABLE 1. PERCENT POPULATION CHANGE IN BOTSWANA BY CENSUS
DISTRICTS SINCE 1971.
% Change % Change Since
Census % in Villages % in Villages Since 1971 1971- Other
Districts 1971 est. 1981 Census in Villages Settlements
Ngwaketse 40 55 + 99 + 13
Barolong 86 88 + 44 + 23
South East 72 79 + 67 + 14
Kweneng 46 51 + 98 + 63
KGATLENG 50 75 +114 29
C. Serowe n.a. 59 + 72 n.a.
C. Mahalapye n.a. 62 + 73 n.a.
and Tuli
C. Bobonang n.a. 45 +116 n.a.
C. Boteti n.a. 50 + 85 n.a.
C. Tutume n.a. 49 n.a. n.a.
North East 34 77 +219 50
Ngamiland 58 52- + 26 + 66
Chobe 82 65 + 25 +191
Ghanzi 45 48 + 70 + 54
Kgalagadi 56 63 + 78 + 35
*Combination of three Census Enumeration Areas
- 0CM PV r. m
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we 4C 0V W 0
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TABLE 4. CROPPED LAND AND FALLOW LAND 1950 TO 1982
HECTARES
DROULTGHT -'/
\/EAR.
L/
1963 1975
7500
7000
6500
6000
5500
5000
4500
4000
3500
3000
2500
1950
1982
TABLE 5. ESTIMATED TOTAL ANNUAL CONSUMPTION OF FIREWOOD FOR MOCHUDI
For individuals living in households 1 5 tn sfze:
5452 x 3.00 kg per day x 165 days (summer)
5452 x 7.50 kg per day x 200 days (winter)
Sub Total
(Firewood)
For individuals living in households 6 1(+:
11521 x .40 kg per day x 165 days (summer)
11521 x 2.99 kg per day x 200 days (winter)
Sub Total
(Firewood)
TOTAL
= 2,698,740 kg
= .8,178,000 kg
10,876,740 kg
= 760,386 kg
a 6,889,558 kg
7,649,944 kg
= 18,526,684 kg
(metric tons)
TABLE 6. POTENTIAL FIREWOOD
Potential
Nos. of Firewood
Age/ Potential Average Bundle Collection
Sex Class Collectors Weight in Kg per Day in Kg.
Females 2608 8 20864
6-14
Males 1270 8 10160
6-10
Females 1030 16.5 16995
15-19
Females 2061 25 51550
20-34
Females 681 39 15000
35-44
Females 600. 25 26559
45-54
TOTAL 8251 141128
121.6 firewood collecting
3 days.
141,128 kg x 121.6 days
days per year--collecting once every
= 17,161,164 kg (or 17,161.164 metric tons)
potential annual collection
COLLECTION IN MOCHUDI
ADJUSTED POTENTIAL FIREWOOD COLLECTION
no. of Potential
No. of Collectors Firewood
Age/Sex Potential Adjusted Average Bundle Collection
Class Collectors by Oodi Data Weight in Kg per Day in Kg
Males 1270 87 8 696
6-10
Females 2608 180 8 1440
6-14
Females 1030 612 16.5 10098
15-19
Females 2062 1591 25 39775
20-34
Females 681 326 39 12714
35-44
Females 600 463 25 11575
45-54___ _
TOTAL 8251 3259 76298
__ __ I __ __
76298 x 121.66 collecting days
76298 x 182.5 collecting days
76298 x 365 collecting days
= 9,282,414 kg ( or 9,282.414 metric tons)
=13,924,385 kg ( or 13,924.385 metric tons)
=27,848,770 kg ( or 27,348.770 metric tons)
- MOCHUDI
TABLE 7.
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