TITLE:
Papyrus, Forest Resources and Rural Livelihoods: A Village Computable General Equilibrium Analysis from Northern Zambia
AUTHORS:
Steven Gronau, Etti Winter, Ulrike Grote
KEYWORDS:
Papyrus, Bioenergy, Forest Resources, Village Computable General Equilibrium Model
JOURNAL NAME:
Natural Resources,
Vol.9 No.6,
June
28,
2018
ABSTRACT: Papyrus is increasingly suggested as an alternative bioenergy
source to reduce the pressure on forest ecosystems. However, there are few
studies on the economic viability of papyrus wetlands and the benefits for
local communities. We construct a village Computable General Equilibrium (CGE)
model to examine whether papyrus harvesting and processing has the potential to
improve local livelihoods and simultaneously counteract pressure on local
forest resources. We apply the CGE model to a village in northern Zambia where
overexploitation of forest resources to produce energy from firewood and
charcoal poses a serious problem. The analysis is based on survey datafrom 105 households
collected in 2015. The model results show that papyrus briquetting would be a
possiblealternative biofuel and
that this technology improves household income and utility throughlaborreallocations. Higher
opportunity costs lead to households switching from firewood extraction and
charcoal production activities to papyrus harvesting and processing to produce
bioenergy. Replacing energy supplies from firewood and charcoal with papyrus
briquettes results in substitution effects between forest land and wetland and
thereby reduces the pressure on local forest resources. The CGE approach allows
for an economy-wide ex-ante analysis at village level and can support
management decisions to ensure the success of papyrus bioenergy interventions.