Abstract:
Policies regarding reduced emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD)
currently being developed have the potential to deliver multiple benefits besides the reduction
of GHGs levels such as biodiversity conservation and enhancing rural livelihoods
as well as other ecosystem benefits. Like any other forest conservation policy, the adoption
of REDD policies can result in the displacement of deforestation in non-targeted regions
reducing the net conservation effect. While the Kenyan government largely succeeded in its
efforts to control official deforestation by putting a ban on logging from public indigenous
and plantation forests, illegal forest extraction continues to be a particular problem in the
fuelwood sector as disperse and small scale activities are difficult to monitor. Fuelwood
accounts for 80 % of Kenya’s household energy use and could therefore exert major impacts
on the forest resources. Studies have shown that forest degradation especially from
the cutting of trees for charcoal burning is common in all public forests. We analyse potential
displacement effects of more rigorous policy measures on the illegal fuelwood trade
in Kakamega forest, Western Kenya. We do so by investigating the determinants of household
energy use and estimating the supply and demand functions for communities living
next to the forest. We further analyse the supply chain of charcoal in Kakamega town
and its environs. The results of this study are derived from a stratified random sample
of 300 households living in villages within five kilometres from the forest edge who were
interviewed with a semi-structured questionnaire. To understand the trade in charcoal,
20 % of the charcoal traders were interviewed using a structured questionnaire. The main
source of charcoal for the Kakamega region is the Rift Valley supplemented by some local
production and some importation from Uganda. Preliminary results show that trees from
the public forest account for more charcoal locally produced in this area than trees from
private property. The small scale traders, especially those without a permanent selling
point (hawkers) form the main entry point of charcoal obtained from the forest into the
market.
