Contribution of Biogas Technology in Forest Conservation and Carbon Emission Reduction, Gimbi District, Western Ethiopia

Abstract

Lean energy sources have a substantial role for sustainable development. It reduces the threat that climate change poses in human life. However, most rural communities in developing countries rely heavily on biomass for their domestic energy use. In the study site, forest land has been converted to other land uses for the last decades. This situation leads to scarcity of fuel wood. This study was aimed to examine the contribution of biogas technology in forest conservation and carbon emission reduction in Gimbi district, Western Ethiopia. Multi-stage sampling procedure was employed to select sample households. A total of 152 sample households (54 adopters and 98 non-adopters) were involved on household survey. Over more, 25 test subjects were also taken randomly from both adoption categories to conduct Kitchen performance test. Statistical Package for Social Scientist (SPSS 20.0) software was used to analyze the collected data. The result of this study revealed that Eucalyptus camaldulensis was the most commonly used tree species by adopter and non adopter households. Over more, the result shows relatively a higher pressure by non-adopters of the technology on tree species like Cordia africana and Podocarpus falcatus which were considered to be threatened in Ethiopia. The major fuel wood sources were plantation forest, natural forest, crop residues and dung cake which account 46.71%, 30.92%, 15.13% and 7.24% respectively. This study revealed that currently functioning biogas plants (145) have a potential of conserving about 0.79 hectare of forest annually. Furthermore, annual fuel wood saving of biogas technology was found to be 1423.06 kg with emission reduction potential of 1.53 t CO 2 e per biogas digester/year. Accordingly, from all functional biogas digesters found in the study site about 221.85 tons of carbon was saved annually. The result of this study also showed that relatively a higher amount (68.5% and 62.2%) of adopter and non-adopter households have positive attitude respectively. Hence, they are assumed to have a better awareness about the advantages of the technology. To make the role of biogas technology sustainable, experts working on the energy sector should work cooperatively with experts who are working in other sectors like agricultural and health experts.