• Trees (woodfuels, twigs, leaves, plant residues)

• Agricultural Residues (paddy husk, bran, bagasse, jute stick etc.) and

• Livestock (animal dung). 

Land use pattern and different biomass fuels of Bangladesh are described below in separate subsections. 

Land Use Pattern 

Land Use Pattern of Bangladesh, Base 1996 [FRA, 2000] 

Wood fuel :

Total wood fuel consumption of the country is 8 million m3 where domestic cooking accounts for estimated 5.1 million m3 (63%) annually and the industrial and commercial sectors 2.9 million m3 annually(37%). Overall, tree and fuels provide 48%, agriculture residues 36%, dung 13% and Peat 3% [FMP, 1992]. Though it is commonly thought that reserve forests are the main source of wood fuel in the country, but from statistics it has been found that village forests are supplying 84% of total consumption which has been shown is Figure 5.2 along with other sources. At present there is acute shortages of wood fuel in Bangladesh, due to which poor people opt for other inferior type (not compact, difficult to handle) of biomasses like agricultural residues or animal dung. The future projection of demand and supply of wood fuel by Forestry Master Plan (FMP) 1993 is bleak which is shown in

Table :

 Wood fuel demand-supply projections up to 2013 (in 1000 m3 per annum)