Impact of Homestead Forestry on Domestic Energy Supply - A System Dynamic Approach

Abstract

A microlevel study on the homestead forest and energy consumption for cooking was conducted covering three villages. A system dynamics model was developed to identify the impacts of present trend of cutting plant, plantation rate and energy consumption for cooking on the homestead forest for the next two decades from 1990. Two policies, enhanced plantation rate and a ban on cutting plant from outside homestead i.e. natural forest, were incorporated in the model. The results show that if the present trend of per capita consumption of energy continues, homestead forest will be declining. But with the adopted policies natural forest depletion could be stopped and homestead forest would be increasing. An increase of 7.6 per cent per capita energy is observed in the year 2010, though a ban exists on collection of fuel wood from natural forest. For national level planning it is proposed that the availability of energy and its use, and the consequences interfering availability and use can very well be modeled by applying the system dynamics methodology.