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UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON FACULTY OF ENGINEERING AND THE ENVIRONMENT Centre for Environmental Sciences The Charcoal Sector in Southern Malawi: A Livelihoods Perspective by Harriet Elizabeth Smith Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy December 2016 The Charcoal Sector in Southern Malawi: A Livelihoods Perspective Harriet Elizabeth Smith UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON ABSTRACT FACULTY OF ENGINEERING AND THE ENVIRONMENT Centre for Environmental Sciences Doctor of Philosophy The Charcoal Sector in Southern Malawi: A Livelihoods Perspective Harriet Elizabeth Smith Charcoal has rapidly become the most widely used domestic source of urban energy for cooking and heating in sub-Saharan Africa, yet much of the sector is informally, or not at all regulated, with consequential detrimental impacts on livelihoods and the environment. Across Africa, 75% of urban growth is occurring in urban areas with populations of less than 1 million. Yet, these charcoal markets, their value chains, and the actors’ livelihood outcomes are severely under researched. This thesis focuses on Zomba, a city of 164,000 people in southern Malawi. The research applies questionnaires, semi-structured interviews and a suite of rapid rural appraisal techniques to investigate actors’ motivations, roles and livelihood outcomes along the charcoal value chain, examining processes at market, community and individual scales. By viewing the charcoal sector through a livelihoods lens, this thesis attempts to provide evidence and examine its implications for debate surrounding emerging charcoal policies across sub-Saharan Africa. The core findings of this thesis demonstrate that engaging in the production and transportation of charcoal strengthened actors’ financial assets and delivered other benefits, such as improved access to goods and services and opportunities for livelihood diversification. These benefits contributed to reducing actors’ vulnerability and improved their livelihoods. However, benefits were dependent on resource availability and a lack of charcoal resource management in the region has led to unsustainable harvesting practices. This resulted in localised forest degradation and charcoal-livelihood benefits were subsequently unsustainable in the longer-term. Lack of an environmentally sustainable commercial sector and enforcement of punitive regulations increased actors’ vulnerability to reduced income, undermining market and livelihood security whilst having little positive impact on forest resource protection. This thesis provides original insights into the rural components of the value chain of small urban charcoal markets, the motivations of actors and livelihood outcomes. Combining a Value Chain Analysis with the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework supported an analysis of livelihood outcomes amongst actors along the chain and within the same node. The findings identify gendered nuances in participation and livelihood outcomes and in the distribution of enforcements amongst actors. This study confirms the importance of the charcoal sector for rural income generation, provides new context-specific insights into the contribution of charcoal to forest degradation and raises concerns over the levels of rent-seeking activities by authorities. Declaration of Authorship I, Harriet Elizabeth Smith declare that this thesis and the work presented in it are my own and has been generated by me as the result of my own original research. The Charcoal Sector in Southern Malawi: A Livelihoods Perspective I confirm that: 1. This work was done wholly or mainly while in candidature for a research degree at this University; 2. Where any part of this thesis has previously been submitted for a degree or any other qualification at this University or any other institution, this has been clearly stated; 3. Where I have consulted the published work of others, this is always clearly attributed; 4. Where I have quoted from the work of others, the source is always given. With the exception of such quotations, this thesis is entirely my own work; 5. I have acknowledged all main sources of help; 6. Where the thesis is based on work done by myself jointly with others, I have made clear exactly what was done by others and what I have contributed myself; 7. Parts of this work have been published as: i. Harriet Elizabeth Smith, Malcolm D. Hudson and Kate Schreckenberg (2017). Livelihood diversification: the role of charcoal production in southern Malawi. Energy for Sustainable Development, 36, 22-36, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.esd.2016.10.001. ii. Harriet Elizabeth Smith, Felix Eigenbrod, Dalitso Kafumbata, Malcolm D. Hudson and Kate Schreckenberg (2015). Criminals by necessity: the risky life of charcoal transporters in Malawi. Forests, Trees and Livelihoods, DOI: 10.1080/14728028.2015.1062808 iii. Harriet Elizabeth Smith, Felix Eigenbrod, Dalitso Kafumbata, Malcolm D. Hudson and Kate Schreckenberg (2015). The impact of informal forest product trade on economic outcomes: A case study of charcoal transporters in Zomba, Malawi. XIV World Forestry Congress proceedings, Durban, South Africa. 8. Part of this work have been submitted for publishing as: i. Harriet Elizabeth Smith, Felix Eigenbrod, Malcolm D. Hudson and Kate Schreckenberg (2016). Socio-economic factors affecting the spatial-temporal dynamics of charcoal extraction in Zomba, Malawi. Submitted to the Journal of Rural Studies. Signed: ............................................................................................................................................... Date: ............................................................................................................................................... Table of Contents Declaration of Authorship ............................................................................................................. vii Table of Contents ............................................................................................................................. i List of Tables ................................................................................................................................. vii List of Figures ................................................................................................................................. ix List of Appendices .......................................................................................................................... xi Currencies ...................................................................................................................................... xi Abbreviations ............................................................................................................................... xiii Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................................... xv Chapter 1: Introduction ......................................................................................................... 3 1.1 Overview ................................................................................................................................ 3 1.1.1 Research problem ........................................................................................................... 4 1.1.2 Research questions ......................................................................................................... 5 1.1.3 Report structure ............................................................................................................. 5 Chapter 2: The charcoal sector in sub-Saharan Africa ........................................................... 11 2.1 Charcoal: A complex, socio-ecological issue ....................................................................... 11 2.1.1 Ecosystem services and livelihood resilience ............................................................... 12 2.1.2 Benefits and tradeoffs .................................................................................................. 13 2.2 The charcoal sector in sub-Saharan Africa .......................................................................... 14 2.2.1 Trends in domestic charcoal consumption ................................................................... 14 2.2.2 Governance of the charcoal sector in sub-Saharan Africa ........................................... 15 2.2.3 Environmental impacts of the charcoal sector ............................................................. 19 2.2.4 Socio-economic impacts of the charcoal sector ........................................................... 21 2.2.5 Gaps in charcoal-livelihood literature .......................................................................... 22 i 2.3 Malawi’s charcoal sector ..................................................................................................... 24 2.3.1 Formal governance of Malawi’s charcoal sector ......................................................... 25 2.3.2 Implications of Malawi’s formal governance structures and processes ...................... 31 2.3.3 Malawi’s charcoal value chain ..................................................................................... 33 2.3.4 Charcoal-based livelihoods in Malawi .......................................................................... 34 2.4 Research expectations ........................................................................................................ 35 Chapter 3: Theoretical background and research methodology ...........................................