Influence of diet patterns on fuelwood consumption in Kenyan boarding schools and implications for data and energy policies

Abstract

A study was devised to inquire into the influence of diet patterns in Kenyan boarding schools on the fuelwood consumption rates in these institutions and the implications of the findings on national data and energy policies. It was found that the incorporation of actual weekly diet patterns into the overall fuelwood estimation procedures reduced the mean daily per capita consumption rate by about 1.5 times compared to the reported rate derived from “spot” measurements. Considering the large number of students in these institutions countrywide, this reduction is significant. It is, therefore, likely that reported data on household fuelwood consumption in developing countries could be overestimated. This has negative implications on the policy making and energy planning processes that are dependent on this information. There is need to formulate policies to guide biomass energy consumption data acquisition and management processes in the country. There is also the need to strengthen institutional frameworks and capacity building schemes for biofuel data acquisition and management, both nationally and regionally.