THE CONSUMPTION OF WOOD BY RURAL HOUSEHOLDS IN GOKWE COMMUNAL AREA, ZIMBABWE

The objectives of this paper are to quantify the annual household cons umption of wood for different purposes and to investigate the types of wood used for each purpose. Households in part of Gokwe Communal Area , a rural Zimbabwean study area in which wood is considered plentiful, use a mean 4.8 tons per household per year (t hh(-1) yr(-1)) of wood for fuel, comprising 4.0 t to meet day-to-day requirements and 0.8 t f or special occasions and beer brewing. In addition, building and repai ring wooden structures require 3.5 t hh(-1) yr(-1). The total annual c onsumption is at most 8.3 t hh(-1) yr(-1), depending on the amount of wood in wooden structures that is recycled into new structures or as f irewood. Wide variation around the mean annual consumption is expected because of differences among households and errors associated with ca lculation. The different purposes to which wood is put require wood of different types. Firewood for day-to-day use consists of small dead p ieces collected in headloads. For brewing and special occasions large logs are used. Poles and small branches are freshly cut for wooden str uctures, with poles of particular girths and lengths being used for di fferent components of the structures. Species is also taken into accou nt in the collection of wood for fuel and construction. Disaggregation of the yearly consumption by site and species is important to the ass essment of supply and demand of wood.