USE OF WOOD ENERGY IN RELATION TO DEFORESTATION IN WUSHISHI LGA, NIGER STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

Most of the fuelwood consumption is been practice even in advanced nations where more than 75 % of harvested wood in some of these nations is utilized as energy. The over-dependence on wood fuel for energy in Wushishi Local Government Area (LGA) which was used mainly in this area of study since of its prices are moderately low as well as easy availability among additional reasons. In this study, was aim at evaluating the influence of firewood used in the forest resources in Wushishi LGA? About ten (10) wood fuel workshop situated in locations which are strategic within Wushishi LGA were carefully chosen and purposively sampled. However, the technique used was random sampling were adopted to select the households. A major criterion used to choose the households was whether or not they use wood fuel as their major source of energy. Accordingly, 46 households were selected. Information was collected using primary data which was achieved by consultations with wood fuel traders, questionnaire surveys along with field observations. Findings revealed among others that fuelwood/charcoal, kerosene, and electricity representing 83.7%, 15%, and 1.3% respectively are sources of energy used by households in Wushishi LGA. The majority (89%) reported that the ease of use of fuelwood in the forest as well as in the markets has been declining in the area and that the distance they usually travel to collect firewood is increasing. This is an indication that the collection of firewood from the forest is negatively affecting forest resources. Lack of awareness, access and the high cost of unconventional sources of energy are the main reasons the respondents use fuelwood instead of alternative energy sources. The study revealed that there is no tree-planting effort carried out by respondents for the sustainability of forest resources. From the result obtained in this work, some of the suggestion was deduced: since renewable energy resources are obtainable in almost all areas within the nation, the integrated approach needs to be adopted in order to sustain energy improvement by ensuring that technologies bring about improvement on the area of energy to decrease the request on fuelwood. Sensitization programmes should be organized for residents on alternative energy sources and the corresponding alternative energy technologies made available to residents of Wushishi. Furthermore, education on deliberate tree planting is advocated.