DETERMINANTS AND PATTERNS OF URBAN HOUSEHOLD FUELWOOD MANAGEMENT APPRAISAL IN BAMENDA III MUNICIPALITY NORTH WEST REGION, CAMEROON

Globally, more than three billion people depend on solid fuels, including biomass, to meet their most basic energy needs: cooking, boiling of water and heating. In Africa, large concentrations of people have no access to electricity and rely on traditional forms of energy sources to meet their basic energy needs. This study brings to focus the determinants and choices of fuelwood consumption patterns in Bamenda III Municipality. The study adopts both purposive and random sampling techniques in ten quarters with the used of primary and secondary data. Primary data focused on field observation, questionnaires and interviews, while secondary data were obtained from past literature reviews, internet websites and institutional reports. Data collected were analysed with descriptive approach with the help of Microsoft Excel version 2016 and Arcgis 10.3 software was used for spatial analysis. Findings revealed that, firewood (75%), and gas (37%) remain the main type of fuelwood used in Bamenda III Municipality. Whereas, diet type (49.43%), family size (28.41%), availability (6.82%), income level (6.2%), social status (6.25%) and household resident location (2.84) are the main determinants which influenced fuelwood consumption pattern. More so, the outcome discloses a gap in the fuelwood management policy that perturb users’ satisfaction and yield no income to state. Consequently, low income level highly impedes the urban households from adopting cleaner fuels options such as liquefied petroleum gas and pressure bag. Accordingly, this paper submits that, bioenergy development should be used to curtail firewood expense and could perchance be of great benefit to the community and institutions through job creation and rise in household income.