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This paper presents a case study of charcoal producers supplying a small town in central Mozambique, as a contrast to the predominant focus of previous work on charcoal supply to major urban areas. It gives an in-depth account of the situations in which people produce charcoal, linking this to the role it plays in their livelihoods. Charcoal is made for a diverse set of reasons ranging from women wishing for financial autonomy from their husbands, through to gaining supplementary income from field opening. Those making charcoal have a wide range of livelihood strategies and produce in a wide range of situations. The findings counter the idea that charcoal production is a livelihood of last resort. Furthermore, the current de-facto licencing regime facilitates this diversity, but stands in contrast to the law. Enforcing the full requirements of the law would possibly reduce the flexible opportunities for income that charcoal provides for many households within the study area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Charcoal kiln soils double the amount of Soil Organic Carbon and Total Nitrogen. • The different woodland types in the study have the same benefits in SOC and TN sequestration. • SOC content found in the studied woodlands is less than half of other semi-arid woodlands. • The findings are important for the SSA countries implementing monitoring, report and verification methods (MRV). African woodland ecosystems function as important reservoirs for soil organic carbon (SOC) and total nitrogen (TN). However, these ecosystem functions are particularly sensitive to social-ecological factors, the impacts of which remain understudied. Here, we examine how SOC and TN and other soil properties vary across woodland types and how charcoal production, the main source of woodland disturbance in the study area, changes these factors in dry woodlands of southern Africa, focusing on three woodland ecosystems that represent the main types in southern Mozambique: Androstachys forest, Combretum woodland and Mopane woodlands. Drawing on data from soil surveys at 0–5 cm and 0–30 cm depth in different vegetation types as well as both distant from and proximate to sites of active charcoal production, we estimate that these woodlands in Mabalane District store on average 19 ± 10 (±SE) Mg ha−1 of SOC, and 2.2 ± 0.9 Mg ha−1 of TN at 0–30 cm, significantly lower than values reported for other woodlands in the region such as Miombo. Our analysis shows that the woodland types do not differ in terms of the amount of SOC and TN stored in soil, and that soil in the charcoal kilns had twice the amount of SOC (30.0 ± 1.8 Mg ha−1) and TN (4.5 ± 0.5 Mg ha−1) compared with non-charcoal soils. This study adds to our understanding of the impact of charcoal production on soil SOC and TN in dry woodlands of southern Africa, and demonstrates some localised impacts of charcoal production. We discuss the implications of our findings in the light of emerging carbon-based payments for ecosystem services programmes in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Charcoal is an important source of energy and income for millions of people in Africa. Its production often drives forest degradation and deforestation which have impacts on the local people that remain poorly understood. We present a novel methodology for analysing the contribution of woodland ecosystem services (ES) to rural well-being and poverty alleviation, which takes into account access mechanisms to ES, trade-offs between ES, and human response options. Using a participatory approach, a set of land use change scenarios were translated into a probabilistic model that integrates biophysical and social data. Our findings suggest that in highly forested areas woodland degradation does not have a critical impact on the local use of the three ES studied: charcoal, firewood and grass. Social factors show the largest impact on the quantity of charcoal produced, e.g. female-headed households experience the greatest barriers to access charcoal production. Participating in forest associations and diversifying income activities lead to greater charcoal production. Results show that charcoal production increases some aspects of well-being (e.g. household assets), but does not decrease acute multidimensional poverty. Great efforts are required to reach a charcoal production system that alleviates poverty, improves environmental sustainability, and provides a reliable charcoal supply. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]