Contested fuelscapes: Producing charcoal in sub‐Saharan drylands

• Published in: Area (London 1969) 2019-03, Vol.51 (1), p.55-63
• Main Authors: Bergmann, Christoph, Roden, Paul, Nüsser, Marcus
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Access; Appropriate technology; bioenergy; Charcoal; charcoal production; Commercialization; Commodities; Consumers; Cooking; Deforestation; Degradation; Environmental impact; fuelscapes; Heating; Households; Kilns; Landscape; Livelihood; Meaning; Provisioning; Rural communities; stakeholder participation; sub‐Saharan drylands; Sustainability; Urban environments
• ISSN: 0004-0894; 1475-4762
• DOI: 10.1111/area.12394

Universal access to sustainable and modern energy is considered key to a wide range of aspired development outcomes. Related initiatives are particularly contested when it comes to a tree‐based form of bioenergy that is used in large quantities all around the world and that ranks among the most commercialised but least regulated commodities in sub‐Saharan Africa, namely charcoal. Throughout the region charcoal is used for residential cooking and heating by millions of households. While consumers are mainly located in urban and peri‐urban settings, the growing demand for charcoal is largely met by rural dryland populations whose production‐end practices have long been considered a major cause of deforestation and land degradation. Recent charcoal policies aim to create and support sustainable production pathways, especially through the provisioning of appropriate technologies (for instance, more efficient kilns) and improved managerial mechanisms (such as standardised environmental assessments). In order to make local forms of knowledge and practice more relevant to ongoing scholarly and political discussions on the charcoal sector, this paper proposes the notion of fuelscape as a conceptual space where the environmental and livelihood impacts of charcoal production can be revealed, compared and debated. This proposition is developed in three parts. In the first part, we introduce fuelscapes as a critical tool through which to approach (dryland) energy landscapes. In the second part, we explore how local stakeholders in Central Pokot, Kenya, account for the shifting significance and contested meaning of commercialised charcoal production in temporal, material and social terms. The discussion then captures contested fuelscapes more broadly and with reference to three interrelated themes; namely historicity, complexity and diversity. We conclude by suggesting key areas of strategic lesson‐drawing for future charcoal research and policy in sub‐Saharan drylands.