Map Projection

Interrupted Goode's Homolosine

Notes

Wood energy includes fuelwood, charcoal, and black liquor, measured in thousand metric tons of oil equivalent (TOE). Wood energy consumption is expressed as a percentage of total final energy consumpption from all energy sources in thousand TOE.

Map Description

Fuelwood, charcoal, and other wood-derived fuels (collectively known as woodfuels) are the world’s most important form of nonfossil energy. Production and consumption are concentrated in low-income countries, with five countries -- Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, and Nigeria -- accounting for about 50 percent of the total. In addition to direct sources, wood residues from the forest products sector are also commonly burned as fuel. Statistics from the International Energy Agency (IEA) show the importance of wood energy in the lives of hundreds of millions of people. Biomass energy, which includes woodfuels, crop residues, and animal wastes, provides on average nearly 30 per cent of total primary energy supply in developing countries. Over 2 billion people depend directly on biomass fuels as their primary or sole source of energy. Although woodfuels are the dominant form of biomass energy, the current state of global data does not allow analysts to distinguish wood from other forms of biomass in many countries. The available data suggest that woodfuels account for more than half of biomass energy consumed in developing countries, or 15 percent of their total energy supply. If China is excluded (where agricultural residues are an important fuel), woodfuels provide about 20 percent of total energy supply in the developing world (IEA, 1996: II.289-308, III.31-187). In some countries, for example, Nepal in Asia, and Uganda, Rwanda, and Tanzania in sub- Saharan Africa, woodfuels provide 80 percent or more of total energy requirements.