Gestione sostenibile delle risorse naturali e dinamiche di genere nella Repubblica Centrafricana

Abstract

Energy access, natural resources management and development are strictly linked. In LDCs wood fuels are often the most used. Biomass use has several consequences, in particular on women users.
Women’s health is severely damaged because of the unhealthy burning processes. Women don’t have time to be involved in income generating activities because they spend many hours to collect wood and young girls cannot go to school because they have to help their mothers in this activity.
Before getting home women have to carry heavy loads of wood damaging their backs. While walking women can fall down or can be raped.
In most cases the use of wood fuel is due to difficult socioeconomic living conditions. In LDCs wood is the most affordable energy source.
This study draws on about 50 interviews carried out in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic- CAR. The target of the interviews were women selected according to their education level, their economic activity, the size of their family. The questions were about the kind of fuel the women used and the reasons of their choice.
Wood and charcoal result to be the most common fuels in Bangui. Gas is used by very few women.
Wood is the cheapest one and women with a lower income and with a large family use wood the most. Cultural reasons and physical access drive also women with higher income to use wood.
Women with a higher education level result to be the most conscious about the environmental impact of massive wood use and when possible they prefer charcoal.
The conviction that cooking with wood can improve the taste of food and the consciousness about environmental degradation influence the fuel choice too. This last factor cannot play yet a major role because of the deep poverty of the population in CAR.
At the policy level, it is clear that serious interventions aiming at the improvement of the living conditions of central African people are necessary to allow them to use better fuels. This study pays a lot of attention to the policy side: the final chapter utilises the survey results to suggest some possible solutions to the problem at the centre of the research.

Keywords: Least Developed Countries- LDCs, sustainable development, natural resources, energy, environmental degradation, gender issues

Parole chiave: Paesi del Sud del mondo, sviluppo sostenibile, risorse naturali, energia, degrado ambientale, questioni di genere.