ABSTRACT
Woodfuel markets influence the price of fuels in the marketplace, and so their use by consumers and their ability to survive affect the harvesting of trees in the forest, both in quantity and location. The effective functioning of woodfuel markets has the potential for touching the lives of a great majority of the people in a country that depends heavily on woodfuel for energy. The government promulgated this situation when they installed a system of limited permits for harvesting wood and producing charcoal. The structure, conduct, performance paradigm as developed for studies of food markets in developing countries has provided in that area a framework for the sort of in-depth analysis that is lacking in the woodfuel literature. The initial goal will be to determine the level of efficiency and competitiveness in the woodfuel markets in Tanzania, looking especially the temporal and spatial pricing strategies of the participants in the markets, from producer to end user.
