Balancing Fuelwood Use and Carbon Storage in Ethiopia’s Highlands

Dry forests rarely receive the attention given to tropical rainforests, yet they play a crucial role in supporting both biodiversity and human livelihoods. A new PhD study by Bianca Kassun highlights the critical role of the dry Afromontane forest of Desa’a in northern Ethiopia.

Dry forests are among the most threatened and least studied ecosystems worldwide. They face increasing pressure from climate change, land conversion, grazing, and population growth. They also provide fuelwood, carbon storage, soil protection, wild foods, medicinal plants, and biodiversity.

“These forests may look sparse, but they are providing essential services every day,” PhD candidate Kassun says.

“They help communities cope with drought, they store carbon, and they offer food and energy for thousands of households.”

Ecosystem service distribution

In her PhD, Kassun has mapped how key ecosystem services are distributed across the Desa’a forest, analysed how these services have changed over 35 years, and identified the trade-offs that arise when the forest is used for fuelwood, farming, and climate mitigation.

Her work shows where the forest delivers the greatest benefits, which factors drive these patterns, and how sustainable harvest levels can be planned to balance local livelihood needs with long-term carbon storage.

Many functions

Although Desa’a experiences long dry seasons, it delivers a wide range of ecosystem services. Kassun found that different parts of the forest contribute in different ways:

• Northern high-altitude areas, dominated by dense forest, supply most of the fuelwood, carbon storage, and protection against extreme heat.
• Southern areas, where forests are more open and species-rich, provide more fodder, wild foods, medicinal plants, and overall biodiversity.

These patterns are strongly linked to altitude, vegetation density, and land-use history.

Desse mønstera heng tett saman med høgde, vegetasjonsdekke og landbrukshistorie.

Forest trade-offs

A central aim of the study was to examine how ecosystem services interact, both positively and negatively. Clear trade-offs emerged.

- Services that rely on biomass, such as fuelwood, often reduce services that require intact forest structure, such as carbon storage and soil conservation. At the same time, regulating services like soil and carbon storage often reinforce one another.

The research also found that the trade-off between fuelwood provision and carbon sequestration has decreased over recent decades, potentially due to natural regrowth or changing local harvest patterns.

Kassun explains: “If we focus on a single benefit, we risk undermining others. To manage the forest sustainably, we must understand how services interact across the landscape.”

A multi-method approach

Because conflict made new fieldwork impossible during part of the project, the study relied on a combination of:

• Existing forest inventory data from 303 sample plots
• Satellite images covering 35 years of change
• Machine learning models to estimate biomass and carbon
• Climate and soil information
• Decision-support tools to test forest management strategies

Together, these methods allowed the researcher to map where ecosystem services are produced, how they interact, and how they have changed since the 1980s.

Management options for the future

To explore future management options, the study used a 30‑year simulation model to identify how much fuelwood can be harvested without severely reducing carbon storage.

The results showed that:

• The current business-as-usual pattern, with moderate, steady harvesting, was more sustainable than profit‑maximizing scenarios.
• When a carbon price of 15 USD per ton CO₂ was included, an optimal long‑term harvest level of around 10 megagrams per hectare emerged.

“Local communities already tend to harvest fuelwood in a sustainable way,” Kassun comments.

“Their traditional practices often align closely with what the model identifies as best for the forest.”

Looking ahead

The findings have direct relevance for forest managers, policymakers, and restoration organizations working in Ethiopia and across East Africa’s drylands. They support climate‑smart forest management strategies that recognize both ecological and social realities.

Kassun concludes:

“Dry forests deserve far more scientific and policy attention. They support local livelihoods every day, and they play a quiet but vital role in stabilizing the global climate.”