Firewood consumption by rural households in upland of the Caspian forests in the northern Iran and related factors (Case study: Upland villages in southern parts of Kheyrud Forest)

The use of fuelwood has long been the main source of energy for forest dwellers. Although in recent years, it has been diminished due to the ease of access to fossil fuels. Although like many other developing countries, the use of wood is common in community adjacent or in the forest area of Iran, studies to provide a complete insight of the most important aspects of firewood consumption in these communities haven’t been conducted. Therefore, this study has been done using the methods of exploration and field research with unstructured, semi-structured and structured interviews and non-participatory observation. Most important dimensions of fuelwood usage in the forest community, such as the amount of dependence of communities with firewood, supplying of firewood, firewood consumption rates and factors affecting the use of firewood were investigated. The area of case study is forest dependent villages in Southern part of Kheyrod forest in Noshahr, Mazandaran province, Iran, including Barkan, Kolyak and Kohne-deh. The amount of firewood consumption in the village Barkan, Kolyak and Kohne-deh were 1.87, 1.96 and 2.17 cubic meters per household per month, respectively. Also total annual consumption of households in the village Barkan, Kolyak and Kohne-deh were 448.8, 369.6 and 179.8 cubic meters, respectively. According to forests area in customary units of the villages, 1.74 cubic meters of firewood were yearly harvested in average. Also there are corellations between amount of feuelwood consumption in households and family assets, as a proxy for income, distance to forested area, forest density, and the availability of alternative energy sources such as kerosene and liquefied natural gas. Further investigation is required to elaborate various aspects of subsistence wood consuming in the Caspian forests.