ST. CLEMENTS UNIVERSITY Turks and Caicos Islands, British West Indies. THIS IS A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT FOR THE AWARD OF A DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (PhD) DEGREE IN RENEWABLE ENERGY TECHNOLOGY. TOPIC: BIOMASS RESOURCES ASSESSMENT AND UTILIZATION, ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECT OF BIOMASS REMOVAL AND ITS IMPACT ON GAMBIA ECONOMY. BY NYA JOE JACOB, B.sc Ed(Physics),M.sc (Physics). MATRICULATION NUMBER 10454. FEB, 2013. i APPROVAL PAGE This is to certify that this research project was carried out under my strict supervision and has been approved for submission to the Department in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Renewable Energy Technology of St. Clements University. …………………. …………………………… Dr. Yasmin Yusof Project Supervisor- Academic Adviser St. Clements University … ……………………………………… Professor David Le Cornu Administrator St. Clements University. DECLARATION I, Nya Joe Jacob do hereby declare that this work is entirely my own effort and where works of other persons have been used or referred to, the sources have been duly acknowledged. Nya Joe Jacob. Sign----------------- FEB-2013. DEDICATION. This project is dedicated first and foremost to: Jesus, the Almighty God, who has made it possible for me to access the program and successfully saw me through it to the end; To my parents of blessed memory Elder /Mr. Jacob Nya Udo and Madam Mary Jacob Nya To my lovely wife, Mrs. Martha Joseph Nya. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT My first appreciation and thanks go to Jesus, the Almighty God for His grace and mercy for the time, energy, resources and good health that He granted me throughout the period of the programme.. I give Him all the glory and the honour for the successful completion of the programme. I wish to express my profound gratitude to my Academic Adviser and research supervisor, Dr. Yasmin Yusof of the St. Clements University whose instruction, guidance, encouragement, support and more importantly prompt attention to my work, facilitated this project. She was always there to attend to my calls and enquiries and provided all the support I needed to submit this project report on time and according to the requirements of the faculty. Her invaluable instruction and supervision are highly appreciated. I wish to also acknowledge the support and invaluable contributions of Dr David Le Cornu, the Administrator of St. Clements University. I am also grateful to Mr. Fansu Nyassy chief Geologist and Mr Alieu Jawo Deputy Geologist of the Gambia Geological Survey Department who took time off their busy schedules and separately took me through some of the software programmes for the analysis of my primary and secondary data.I am very grateful to the Village Head and the Forest attendant of the six region of the Republic of the Gambia for making themselves available to be interviewed for the purpose of my research work during my visit to their regions. I am also grateful to Mr Jobe and all other staff of National Agricultural Research Institute (NARI),Ministry of Energy ,Ministry of Agriculture, Department of Forestry, National Environment Agency (NEA), Public Utility Regulatory Authority (PURA) Gambia for their cooperation during my data collection process & who managed to take time off their busy schedules to support me in the field and in the analysis of my field data . I also appreciate all friends who gave me moral support since the beginning of the programme. Finally, I cannot but give special thanks to my lovely wife Mrs Martha Joseph Nya for the love and peaceful atmosphere she created for the successful completion of the programme. iii Abstract. Biomass resources meet about 99.5% of the Gambia population’s energy needs, so they are vital to basic welfare and economic activity. Already, traditional biomass products like firewood and charcoal are the primary energy source used for domestic cooking and heating. However, other more efficient biomass technologies are available that could open opportunities for agriculture and rural development, and provide other socio-economic and environmental benefits. The main objective of this research is to estimate the biomass resources currently and potentially available in the Gambia and evaluate their contribution for power generation and the production of transportation fuels. It intends to inform policy makers and industry developers of the biomass resource availability in Gambia, identify areas with high potential, and serve as a base for further, more detailed site-specific assessments. A variety of biomass resources exist in the Gambia in large quantities and with opportunities for expansion. The study found that these resources are more than enough to cover the country’s annual electricity consumption of 297 GWh and oil 3 consumption of 206 dam . While the contribution of food crop residues, animal manure, and municipal solid waste is small in comparison to other resources at a national level, they could play a valuable role in stand-alone electricity applications and be particularly effective for households in remote rural areas. The survey,data collection and analysis method is used in conducting this research with three working hypothesis tested at 0.05 significant level .Answers to the research problems envisaged in the course of this work are presented The research considers potential biomass resources and the expansion of key existing resources, such as groundnut, rice, coconut and sugarcane, to evaluate their fuel and power production potential on available cropland. It is unrealistic to assume that all of this land would be used for cash crop cultivation. A portion of it may go under afforestation to maintain forest ecosystems and their unique biodiversity, or be used for food crops production and other agricultural activities, or be converted to urban land. Therefore, the research evaluates the fuel and power production potential of biomass resources under three scenarios: using 10%, 25%, and 50% of the available cropland for cash crop expansion. The local production and use of biomass resources as substitute for fossil-based fuels offers many socio-economic and environmental benefits for Gambia including energy security, investment opportunities, job creation, rural development, decreased greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, waste utilization, and erosion control. However, if not managed properly, biomass resource development could have negative impacts, particularly to the environment. These include deforestation, increased GHG emissions, loss of biodiversity, and soil erosion. The socio-economic and environmental implications briefly described in this dissertation should form the basis of a more detailed study on the impact of biomass resources development in order to guide appropriate national policies and measures. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS. CHAPTER ONE ................................................................................................ 1 1.0 GENERAL BACKGROUND........................................................................ 1 1.1 INTRODUCTION AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK.........................10 1.2 GAMBIA FOREST INFORMATION AND DATA -----------------------------15 1.3 THE GAMBIA; GENERAL BACKGROUND------------------------------------20 1.4.0 SECTORAL TRENDS,POLICIES AND INITIATIVES--------------------------28 1.5.0 GENERAL OVERVIEW OF BIOMASS ENERGY UTILIZATION IN THE GAMBIA-39 1.6.0 THE OBJECTIVES OF THE RESEARCH---------------------------------------39 1.7.0 THE STUDY AREA--------------------------------------------------------------------40 1.8.0 RESEARCH PROBLEMS------------------------------------------------------------41 1.9.0 WORKING HYPOTHESIS-----------------------------------------------------------41 1.10.0 RESEARCH SCOPE AND METHODOLOGY----------------------------------43 1.11.0 REVIEW OF SUBSEQUENT CHAPTERS ..................................................44 CHAPTER TWO..................................................................................................45 2.0 REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE.......................................................... 45 2.1 INTRODUCTION ..............................................................................................45 2.2 BIOMASS RESOURCES ASSESSMENT AND UTILIZATION-----------------54 2.3 ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECT OF BIOMASS REMOVAL-------------------------65 2.4 CONCLUSION.................................................................................................. -66 CHAPTER THREE....................................................................................................70 3.0 DATA COLLECTION AND PRESENTATION.................................................. 70 3.1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................. 71 3.2 METHOD OF DATA COLLECTION---------------------------------------------------82 3.3 DESCRIPTIVE DATA----------------------------------------------------------------------106 3.4 QUANTITATIVE DATA------------------------------------------------------------------138 3.5 CONCLUSION------------------------------------------------------------------------------141 CHAPTER FOUR.........................................................................................................142 4.0 ANALYSIS OF DATA AND TEST OF HYPOTHESIS......................................142. 4.1 INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................................142 4.2 QUANTITATIVE DATA ANALYSIS--------------------------------------------------265