FOREVALOR - Multi-country study on conversion of biomass forest residues in Africa

Demand for energy wood (wood charcoal and firewood) in sub-Saharan countries is and has been a direct cause of deforestation and forest degradation. To get a clearer idea of which policies and actions shall be promoted in order to mitigate this challenge, and also how these could be structured and access climate finance, 15 African countries approached the CTCN (Climate Technology Center and Network) through their National Designated Entities (NDEs) for a technical assistance.

In order to address this challenge the CTCN has mandated C&E and S2 Services to conduct a multi-country technical assistance where the overarching goal is to identify the options for economical industrial conversion of forest waste through projects with a significant positive climatic and social impact. Nitidæ’s intervention is to supply a key assistance to the project leaders, by bringing about its experience in West African forest management and in appropriate biomass conversion technologies applied to every study case.

For each country :
OS1. Characterise of the forest biomass supply chain, and identification of the main sources of forest residues
OS2. Determine of the country’s energy requirements and the potential of the residual forest biomass to fill the demand

A1. Development of implementation planning and communication documents.
A2. Identification of the source of forest residues in the forest supply chain. Identification of hot spots of wastes in the supply chain in order to map the sites where the greatest amount of waste is generated.
A3. Determine the requirements for and availability of technologies for converting the identified biomass resources. Bioenergy technologies to be selected must be specific for feasible solutions according to the specific context of each country