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 the basic need for domestic fuel, and the few substitutes available, it seems that the only way out of this problem in the short and medium term is to treat fuelwood like food and grow it as a subsistence crop. This is best done through employing various agroforestry techniques, some of which have, in fact, been used for generations. (see Chapter 5.)

72. But in most rural areas, simply growing more trees does not necessarily solve the problem. In some districts where there are many trees, fuelwood is not available to those who need it. The trees may be owned by only a few people. Or tradition may dictate that women play no role in the cash economy and cannot buy or sell wood. The communities concerned will have to work out local solutions to these problems, But such local issues mean that governments and aid and development organizations that want to help the fuelwood situation in developing countries will have to work harder to understand the role fuelwood plays in rural areas, and the social relations governing its production and use.

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&#x2164;. RENEWABLE ENERGY: THE UNTAPPED POTENTIAL
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73. Renewable energy sources could in theory provide 10-13 TW annually - equal to current global energy consumption. Today they provide about 2 TW annually, about 21 per cent of the energy consumed worldwide, of which 15 per cent is biomass and 6 per cent hydropower. However, most of the biomass is in the form of fuelwood and agricultural and animal wastes. As noted above, fuelwood can no longer be thought of as a 'renewable' resource in many areas, because consumption rates have overtaken sustainable yields.

74. Although worldwide reliance on all these sources has been growing by more than 10 per cent a year since the late 1970s, it will be some time before they make up a substantial portion of the world's energy budget. Renewable energy systems are still in a relatively primitive stage of development. But they offer the world potentially huge primary energy sources, sustainable in perpetuity and available in one form or another to every nation on Earth. But it will require a subsantial and sustained commitment to further research and development if their potential is to be realized.

75. Wood as a renewable energy source is usually thought of as naturally occurring trees and shrubs harvested for local domestic use. Wood, however, is becoming an important feedstock, specially grown for advanced energy conversion processes in developing as well as industrial countries for the production of process heat, electricity, and potentially for other fuels, such as combustible gases and liquids.

76. Hydropower, second to wood among the renewables, has been expanding at nearly 4 per cent annually. Although hundreds of thousands of megawatts of hydropower have been harnessed throughout the world, the remaining potential is huge. In /…