Dear Clive and Forest-listers,
I am sure that there were many parts of the world where a fuelwood crisis
existed 20 or 30 years ago. What I wonder is whether the crisis has
reached the global scale. My impression is that fuelwood supply and demand
operate at a very local scale, within the range of the transportation modes
available to the local population. Up to a point, the global fuelwood
problem would be the sum of all the local fuelwood problems. Although
millions of people might be affected, the impacts would be localized.
However, I suspect some threshold would be reached at which the ripple
effects from local crises would begin to have noticeable impacts on other
products (e.g., lumber and pulp) and on global markets. Above this
putative threshold, the existence of the fuelwood crisis in developing
countries alters the decisions and activities of forstry companies in the
industrial countries, and perhaps may ultimately alter the standard of
living of the inhabitants (I'm getting very speculative here).
My question for you is whether this scenario I have presented is valid, and
whether you think we have already reached this threshold.
Cheers -Jim
At 10:31 8/10/97 -0500, Clive David wrote:
>Concerning fuelwood supply (J. Stewart posting):
> >> a future potential forestry crisis (if it is not
>> already here) is that of insufficient fuelwood supply.
>>
>The crisis of fuelwood supply in the developing countries is not a
>"future" one. Rather, it has existed for at least 20 years. In the
>70's, there was a publication highlighting it by Paul Erlich entitled
>"The other energy crisis". Two issues of UNASYLVA [33(131) and 33(133)]
>in 1981 were devoted entirely to wood energy and fuelwood.
>
>
>Clive David
>Associate Professor of Forestry
>College of Natural Resources
>University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point
>e-mail: cdavid@uwsp.edu
>tel. 715-346-4552
>fax 715-346-3624
>
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James D. Stewart Ph.D.
Ecophysiology and Silviculture phone: (403) 632-8309
Forest Resources Business Unit fax: (403) 632-8379
Alberta Research Council email: stewart@aec.arc.ab.ca
Vegreville, Alberta, T9C 1T4, Canada http://www.arc.ab.ca/
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