Forest resources consumption pattern in Govind Wildlife Sanctuary,Western Himalaya,India

In the present study, forest biomass (fuelwood, leaf fodder, leaf-litter and non-timber forest products) consumption patterns have been evaluated in the villages of Govind Wildlife Sanctuary, Uttarakhand, Western Himalaya, India. The average fuelwood consumption in the selected villages was estimated at 3.14 kg/capita/day and its energy equivalent was found 52.74 MJ/capita/day. The average leaf fodder and leaf-litter consumption was estimated at 2.70 and 2.40 kg/unit/day, respectively, and the same pattern was estimated for energy equivalent. People's perception on impacts of conservation measures and resources utilization rights were also analysed. Our results emphasized the need for regular assessment of forest resources, particularly in protected areas, where access to natural resources have been denied due to legal restrictions. The study could be a pilot to strengthen the conservation measures across the protected area network by understanding the dynamics of anthropocentric activities and their subsequent impacts on forest resources.     

WOODFUEL - A TIME FOR RE-ASSESSMENT

Official statistics and surveys show that woodfuel is the dominant end-use of forest products especially in developing countries. This paper examines the end-use pattern and per capita consumption figures for selected developing countries. In terms of total energy requirements woodfuel, a renewable resource, is the third most important fuel after oil and coal, but may be the primary fuel in terms of number of actual consumers. The future consumption pattern is estimated for the developing and developed countries and it is anticipated that total woodfuel consumption may increase by about 2 per cent per year at least until the year 2000. The supply position shows that while present consumption of all forest products is more or less in balance with the increment of the growing stock, in certain areas the forest capital is being depleted to meet demand. Total demand is likely to double by the turn of the century. Therefore, plantations, especially of fuelwood, will have to be established if the growing stock is not to be depleted and if an energy crisis in developing countries is to be averted.     

Energy and environmental challenges for developed and developing countries

A supply-oriented strategy which accepts current projections of development energy demands, and seeks to satisfy them, based on acquiring capital-intensive technologies requiring imported fuels is doomed to failure. Developing countries which follow such a strategy will be unable to meet either their energy needs or the basic development needs of their people. To the extent that their energy needs are thus met, it will be at horrendous cost of capital desperately needed for economic and social improvement in non-energy sectors and with tragic environmental consequences to the developing countries and to the world [17]. The opposite of a supply-oriented strategy is a demand-control one. Commercially available or near commercial energy efficient technologies will permit the developing countries to raise the standard of living of their people with only a modest increase in per capita energy consumption.     

Life cycle of meats: an opportunity to abate the greenhouse gas emission from meat industry in Japan

The food industry is one of the world's largest industrial sectors, hence a large contributor of greenhouse gases (GHG) which cause global warming. This study evaluates the life cycle of various types of meat to determine if the GHG emission from the meat industry in Japan could be reduced if the population makes different dietary choices. It was confirmed that the GHG emission of beef was greater than that of pork or chicken. The GHG emission from meat in general also depends on the per capita caloric intake (if meat supplies the recommended animal protein or contributes to it at the present rate). In a healthy and balanced diet (9.2 MJ i.e., 2200 kcal in total, where either mixed meat or chicken or pork or beef contributes 2.2%), the GHG emission is estimated to be 0.28 or 0.17 or 0.15 or 0.77 kg CO? eq/person/day, respectively. A change in consumption patterns (from beef to chicken or pork) and the adoption of a healthy and balanced diet would help to abate about 2.5-54.0 million tons (CO? eq) produced by the meat industry each year in Japan.     

Metal capital sustaining a North American city: Iron and copper in New Haven, CT

A detailed inventory shows that an average resident of the City of New Haven depends on a per capita capital stock of 9200 kg/c of iron and 144 kg/c of copper in the city infrastructure, buildings, transportation systems, and equipment. Of the iron stock 28% is in items such as rail cars and ships in ocean trade not permanently within the city, and 22% is devoted to receiving and delivering oil fuel to the city and its surrounding communities. Copper is principally used in the distribution of electric power and in water piping within buildings. The city's 9200 kg/c of iron stock-in-use is less than the 13,000 kg/c national average due to New Haven's lack of heavy industry and relatively small number of large buildings. The 144 kg/c of copper stock-in-use is only 58% of the overall value for the United States, but is comparable to that in cities such as Stockholm, Sweden. Attainment of a level of iron and copper services with contemporary technology in less developed countries to the level enjoyed in New Haven would require consumption of the presently identified world copper resources.     

Energy balance and global warming potential of corn straw-based bioethanol in China from a life cycle perspective

As the second largest corn producer in this world, China has abundant corn straw resources. The study assessed the energy balance and global warming potential of corn straw-based bioethanol production and utilization in China from a life cycle perspective. The results revealed that bioethanol used as gasoline and diesel blend fuel could reduce global warming potential by 10%–97% and 4%–96%, respectively, as compared to gasoline and diesel for transport. The total global warming potential, net global warming potential, net energy, and Net Energy Ratio per MJ ethanol generated from corn straw-based bioethanol system are estimated to be 0.20 kg CO₂-eq, 0.012 kg CO₂-eq, 0.60 MJ, and 1.87, respectively. By using sensitivity analysis, we found that the collected coefficient and compressing density of straw have a more obvious influence on energy balance; transportation distance has a more obvious influence on global warming potential emission factor. The by-products may be utilized as fertilizer, animal feed, cement replacement, or high-value lignin chemicals, which make a contribution to offsetting 0.28 MJ per MJ ethanol of energy consumption.     

Fuel substitution in sub-Saharan Africa

Deforestation and decline in agricultural productivity are major concerns over large parts of sub-Saharan Africa. One of the principal causes for both these phenomena is the export of woodfuels from rural agroecosystems to urban markets. This process is noteworthy because of the size of the trade. Wood fuels (fuelwood, charcoal, and agricultural residues) constitute the most important source of energy in these countries, varying from 60% to 95% of total energy consumption. In terms of the environmental impact of the fuelwood trade, solutions typically considered are the introduction of improved cookstoves, fuelwood plantations, and fuel substitution by conventional fuels. This article examines the structure of the fuelwood problem, reviews the successes and failures of past experiences, and focuses on the potential for fuel substitution as an option to reduce the urban demand for fuelwood.     

Emissions from burning biofuels in metal cookstoves

Promoting stoves that burn wood and other biofuels more efficiently is one of the means to reduce fuel consumption, but such efficient stoves may also emit more carbon monoxide and total suspended particulates. In an earlier study, a standard chamber method was proposed to estimate emission factors from burning fuelwood (Acacia nilotica). Here that methodology is extended to measure emission factors from burning of dungcakes and crop residues (Brassica or mustard stalks)—common fuels in many developing countries. The amounts of carbon monoxide (CO) and total suspended particulates (TSP) emitted by four different models of stoves, when using each of the three biofuels, are measured.The CO emission factors range from 13–68 (g/kg) for fuelwood to 26–67 g/kg for dungcakes and 20–114 g/kg for crop residues, for particulates they range from 1.1–3.8 to 4.1–7.8 and 2.1–12.0 g/kg for the three fuels, respectively. On a per unit heat delivered basis, the emissions of CO and TSP from both dungcakes and crop residues are two to three times higher compared to those from fuelwood. While for some improved stove-fuel combinations, the increase in emission factors was offset by the increase in thermal efficiency, this was not always so and causes a dilemma. The more efficient stoves are found to have higher emission factors of both CO and TSP for all three fuels. Emissions per standard task (i.e, on a unit heat delivered basis) is proposed as a criterion to evaluate cookstoves.     

Biomass resources as energy in Nepal

Nepal's economic activity is dominated by agriculture. The volume of exports is small. About a quarter of the foreign exchange earned from export is required to cover costs of imported fossil fuels. Fossil fuels supply less than 7% of total energy consumption. More than 90% of primary energy consumption is supplied by biomass resources, and forests are the major source of biomass. The sustainable fuelwood yield of forest is far less than the total consumption, which has caused severe forest denudation. Consumption of crop residues and animal dung for fuel are increasing because of fuelwood shortage. The paper outlines the consequences of biomass consumption in Nepal and past efforts at biomass resources management and indicates their effectiveness. A few major practical policy measures have been suggested to correct the situation. The experiences and measures for biomass resources management explained in this paper are expected to be useful to other countries facing a similar situation.     

基于聚类分析的我国各地化石能源足迹与经济发展定量研究

利用改进后的化石能源足迹公式计算了2000—2009年我国30个地区的人均化石能源足迹,并分别对2000年和2009年中国各地区的数据进行聚类分析,发现我国地区人均化石能源足迹由无明显地域特征转变为东部高于中西部,经济发达地区高于欠发达地区,且能源使用效率和经济发展水平间联系逐渐加强。通过对不同类别代表性地区人均化石能源足迹的分析判断,以北京、上海和广东为代表的发达地区化石能源消耗增长开始趋于缓和甚至出现小幅下降。     

Towards a Sustainable Natural Resource Management of Tribal Communities: Findings from a Study of Swidden and Wetland Cultivation in Remote Hill Regions of Eastern India

/ Environmental degradation in many hill forest regions of Asia, inhabited by indigenous/tribal communities is growing at an unprecedented rate. The case of Orissa State in eastern India is no exception. The government is of the view that the local population is responsible for forest degradation as they practice swidden cultivation and forest gathering indiscriminately to sustain their livelihoods. Based on economic merit alone, the government has undertaken some policy initiatives. Such initiatives that are meant to stop swidden cultivation have not been successful. This study recommends an integrated framework for developing a sustainable natural resource management practice for tribal communities. The framework has taken into consideration both economic and noneconomic factors in evaluating various alternatives. Furthermore, it has been applied to two tribal communities in Orissa (Juang and Saora). Based on an economic analysis comparing returns from swidden as well as wetland cultivation, it is observed that where forest degradation is not serious, wetland cultivation does not have a significant economic merit vis-à-vis swidden cultivation. However, in view of the long-term sustainability issue within ecological limits, swidden cultivation may be phased out in favor of wetland cultivation with an appropriate transition period. During this transition, government must adopt suitable policy initiatives to provide tribals tenurial rights to land, help financially in creating settled lands through terracing, introduce certain improved agroforestry techniques and train tribal people in other income-generating activities. Furthermore, all such interventions made by the government should have a strong sociocultural component in order to attract the tribal people to give up swidden cultivation.     

Comparison of energy produced from waste by removing its different components: A case study of the waste landfill in Tehran

In developing and populated cities such as Tehran, a massive amount of municipal solid waste (MSW), both wet and dry, is transferred to landfills daily. Combustion is one of the most common methods of using mixed waste energy from the past to the present. The Dulong formula is widely used to calculate the energy released from MSW combustion. According to the constituent components of Tehran MSW, removing food waste leads to an increase in energy potential, which will be a suitable condition for energy production. In this work, the energy derived from the combustion of mixed and separated dry MSW generated in Tehran was calculated using the experimental Dulong formula and tables in Integrated Solid Waste Management (Tchobanoglous et al. 1993, McGraw‐Hill). The Dulong formula indicates that the use of Tehran mixed MSW (without separating materials for recycling) as a fuel source yields 8,966.40 KJ/kg while the use of Tchobanoglous et al. (1993) tables can generate 8,236 kJ/kg. By removing food waste and recyclable materials, the potential of energy production changes to 22,047 kJ/kg using the Dulong formula and 16,207 kJ/kg and the Tchobanoglous et al. (1993) tables. It indicates increase by 1.46 times and 46%, respectively. Regarding the 200‐ton capacity of the Tehran waste incinerator, the Dulong formula indicated generation of 4,409 MJ/day energy, and the Tchobanoglous et al. table presents 3,241 MJ/day. Therefore, considering that Tehran generates more than 4,000 tons of reject waste daily, it can easily be converted to energy rather than landfilled. This can alleviate the problem of buying land and construction of landfills and leachate generation.     

CO2 capture from coal-fired power plants based on sodium carbonate slurry; a systems feasibility and sensitivity study

In this work the feasibility of a CO₂ capture system based on sodium carbonate–bicarbonate slurry and its integration with a power plant is studied. The results are compared to monoethanolamine (MEA)-based capture systems. Condensing power plant and combined heat and power plant with CO₂ capture is modelled to study the feasibility of combined heat and power plant for CO₂ capture.Environmental friendly sodium carbonate would be an interesting chemical for CO₂ capture. Sodium carbonate absorbs CO₂ forming sodium bicarbonate. The low solubility of sodium bicarbonate is a weak point for the sodium carbonate based liquid systems since it limits the total concentration of carbonate. In this study the formation of solid bicarbonate is allowed, thus forming slurry, which can increase the capacity of the solvent. With this the energy requirement of stripping of the solvent could potentially be around 3.22 MJ/kg of captured CO₂ which is significantly lower than with MEA based systems which typically have energy consumption around 3.8 MJ/kg of captured CO₂.Combined heat and power plants seem to be attractive for CO₂ capture because of the high total energy efficiency of the plants. In a condensing power plant the CO₂ capture decreases directly the electricity production whereas in a combined heat and power plant the loss can be divided between district heat and electricity according to demand.     

LCA of the South African sugar industry

A life cycle assessment of sugar produced in South Africa evaluates the environmental impacts and energy consumption of the different life cycle phases of sugar production. The system studied includes sugar cane farming, fertiliser and herbicide manufacture, cane burning, sugar cane transportation and sugar manufacture. Inventory and impact assessment results show that non-renewable energy consumption is 5350 MJ per tonne of raw sugar produced and 40% of this is from fertiliser and herbicide manufacture. Reduction in the use or impact of fertiliser for cane farming could bring considerable savings in terms of fossil energy consumption and a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.     

Municipal solid waste generation in Kathmandu, Nepal

Waste stream characteristics must be understood to tackle waste management problems in Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC), Nepal. Three-stage stratified cluster sampling was used to evaluate solid waste data collected from 336 households in KMC. This information was combined with data collected regarding waste from restaurants, hotels, schools and streets. The study found that 497.3 g capita(-1) day(-1) of solid waste was generated from households and 48.5, 113.3 and 26.1 kg facility(-1) day(-1) of waste was generated from restaurants, hotels and schools, respectively. Street litter measured 69.3 metric tons day(-1). The average municipal solid waste generation rate was 523.8 metric tons day(-1) or 0.66 kg capita(-1) day(-1) as compared to the 320 metric tons day(-1) reported by the city. The coefficient of correlation between the number of people and the amount of waste produced was 0.94. Key household waste constituents included 71% organic wastes, 12% plastics, 7.5% paper and paper products, 5% dirt and construction debris and 1% hazardous wastes. Although the waste composition varied depending on the source, the composition analysis of waste from restaurants, hotels, schools and streets showed a high percentage of organic wastes. These numbers suggest a greater potential for recovery of organic wastes via composting and there is an opportunity for recycling. Because there is no previous inquiry of this scale in reporting comprehensive municipal solid waste generation in Nepal, this study can be treated as a baseline for other Nepalese municipalities.     

Rapid population growth and environmental degradation: ultimate versus proximate factors

This philosophical review of 2 arguments about responsibility for and solutions to environmental degradation concludes that both sides are correct: the ultimate and the proximal causes. Ultimate causes of pollution are defined as the technology responsible for a given type of pollution, such as burning fossil fuel; proximate causes are defined as situation-specific factors confounding the problem, such as population density or rate of growth. Commoner and others argue that developed countries with low or negative population growth rates are responsible for 80% of world pollution, primarily in polluting technologies such as automobiles, power generation, plastics, pesticides, toxic wastes, garbage, warfaring, and nuclear weapons wastes. Distortionary policies also contribute; examples are agricultural trade protection, land mismanagement, urban bias in expenditures, and institutional rigidity., Poor nations are responsible for very little pollution because poverty allows little waste or expenditures for polluting, synthetic technologies. The proximal causes of pollution include numbers and rate of growth of populations responsible for the pollution. Since change in the ultimate cause of pollution remains out of reach, altering the numbers of polluters can make a difference. Predictions are made for proportions of the world's total waste production, assuming current 1.6 tons/capita for developed countries and 0.17 tons/capita for developing countries. If developing countries grow at current rates and become more wealthy, they will be emitting half the world's waste by 2025. ON the other hand, unsustainable population growth goes along with inadequate investment in human capital: education, health, employment, infrastructure. The solution is to improve farming technologies in the 117 non-self-sufficient countries, fund development in the most unsustainable enclaves of growing countries, break institutionalized socio-political rigidity in these enclaves, and focus on educating and empowering women in these enclaves. Women are in charge of birth spacing and all aspects of management of energy, food, water and the local environment, more so than men, in most countries.     

黑龙江省能源消费碳排放量情景预测

采用联合国政府间气候变化专门委员会规定的碳排放计算方法,测算了黑龙江省2002-2010年的能源消费碳排放量。运用Kaya分解法,预测了黑龙江省2011—2020年在不同情境下的人均碳排放量。研究表明,2002-2010年黑龙江省能源消费碳排放量以年均8％的速度增长,人均碳排量年均增长率为8．18％。在四种经济增长情境下,黑龙江省2011—2020年人均碳排放量的年均增长率均远远低于2002-2010年,但人均碳排放量仍逐年增长,且GDP增长速度越快,人均碳排放量增长也越快。     

An integrated approach to modeling resource utilization for rural communities in developing countries

Resource consumption in developing countries has been the focus of a considerable amount of research. What has been understudied however, has been the feedback affects of resource consumption on resource availability to both households and communities. Heavy reliance on natural resources and intensive smallholder agriculture common to many rural communities in developing countries has forced people to fulfill short-term needs to the detriment of long-term ecological and livelihood sustainability. This paper introduces a conceptual framework to examine how individuals and households fulfill daily caloric needs and the aggregate effects on resource availability and consumption. Data were collected from a large number of published case studies of rural land-use dynamics, growth and yield models, and human livelihoods were reviewed from scientific journals, reports published by NGOs, and government reports. Using inputs defined by the user, the model tracks annual fuelwood and agricultural land use based on meeting individual energy demands. A case-study-based analysis was patterned after smallholder agriculturalists at the family and community level. Three scenarios are presented in this paper using data from Uganda to illustrate the application of this model.     

Household solid waste generation and characteristic in a Mekong Delta city,Vietnam

This study was undertaken to evaluate the quantity and composition of household solid waste to identify opportunities for waste recycling in Can Tho city, the capital city of the Mekong Delta region in southern Vietnam. Two-stage survey of 100 households was conducted for dry season and rainy season in 2009. Household solid waste was collected from each household and classified into 10 physical categories and 83 subcategories. The average household solid waste generation rate was 285.28 g per capita per day. The compostable and recyclable shares respectively accounted for 80.02% and 11.73%. The authors also analyzed the relations between some socioeconomic factors and household solid waste generation rates by physical categories and subcategories. The household solid waste generation rate per capita per day was positively correlated with the population density and urbanization level, although it was negatively correlated with the household size. The authors also developed mathematical models of correlations between the waste generation rates of main physical categories and relevant factors, such as household size and household income. The models were proposed by linear models with three variables to predict household solid waste generation of total waste, food waste, and plastic waste. It was shown that these correlations were weak and a relationship among variables existed. Comparisons of waste generation by physical compositions associated with different factors, such as seasonal and daily variation were conducted. Results presented that the significant average differences were found by the different seasons and by the different days in a week; although these correlations were weak. The greenhouse gas baseline emission was also calculated as 292.25 g (CO₂ eq.) per capita per day from biodegradable components.