Environmental Implications of Reliance on Biomass Energy in Ethiopia: A Case Study of West Shoa Zone

The primary objective of this study was to elucidate environmental implications of increased reliance on biomass energy in Ethiopia with special focus of West Shoa Zone. To attain the objective, purposive sampling at initial stage and simple random sampling at final stage was employed. Accordingly, 417 households of West Shoa from both urban and rural households were taken. Those data that cannot be accessed at household level was obtained from reliable official reports and country statistics of international organization web sites. It was found that the primary source of domestic energy in Ethiopia comes from biomass such as firewood, charcoal, agricultural residues, animal dung. It was revealed that 79.6% of households were relying on firewood as their primary sources of cooking energy and only 10.3% of households who have higher income were using electricity as their primary source of household energy. Biomass energy is mainly supplied from public forest. Activities related to biomass collection and usage is dominated by women. Therefore, women are victims of physical exhaust, psychological discomfort, and health burden. It was found that total reliance on biomass energy results in local natural resources degradation, drought and finally contributing to climate change. Based on the results, prioritizing green development economic policies, launching biogas development projects, availing and enforcing utilization of energy saving cooking stove were recommended.