Fuelwood Species for Humid Tropics

Of the one billion people in the humid tropics, perhaps a fifth live in or adjacent to forests. To provide fuelwood and charcoal for their daily needs, these 200 million people fell acres of trees each year. In addition, much fuelwood is cut for shipment to urban markets. Together with commercial timber logging and expansion of agriculture, the result is depletion of tropical forests at a rate that exceeds any present attempts to replenish them.

This study, the second of two volumes, is concerned with ways of establishing self-replenishing sources of fuelwood. In some countries trees are already being profitably cultivated in energy plantations, and the idea has become more attractive as the price of other fuels rises.

Conditions in the humid tropics promote the growth of many kinds of trees and shrubs, with the heat and dampness ensuring high rates of photosynthesis and short harvest cycles. The question is, which trees are the best candidates for deliberate cultivation?

The first volume of this report described the following species as worth testing for fuelwood crops in the humid tropics:

Acacia auriculiformis Mangroves

Calliandra calothyrsus Mimosa scabrella

Casuarina equisetifolia Muntingia calabura

Derris indica Sesbania bispinosa

Gliricidia septum Sesbania grandiflora

Gmelina arborea Syzygium cumini

Guezuma ulmifolia Terminalia catappa

Leucaena leucocephala Trema spp

This section of the present volume describes further shrub and tree species that hold promise for cultivation in humid tropical regions both for profit and for staving off the threat of fuelwood depletion in developing tropical countries.

Species included in other sections of this volume that are worth testing in the humid tropics are Melaleuca quinquenervia and Robinia pseudoacacia.