• Deforestation for wood and agricultural land can provide numerous economic benefits, but can have damaging environmental impacts on forest ecosystems and can affect local and regional climate.

• Furthermore, biomass used for energy purposes, based on waste by-products of wood/crops or from trees/crops grown expressly for this purpose, has the potential to lead to a reduction in net greenhouse gas emissions by substituting for fossil fuels.

• The fuel wood used from forests is largely for subsistence activities such as cooking and can be reduced substantially through improved wood-burning stoves and more efficient charcoal-making technology.