Influence of Socioeconomic Factors on the Knowledge and Consumption of Firewood in the Atlantic Forest of Northeast Brazil

We aim to evaluate whether socioeconomic factors influence the knowledge, use, preference, and consumption of firewood in a rural community in Northeast Brazil. We conducted semi-structured interviews with heads of households to obtain socioeconomic data and measured daily consumption of firewood using in situ inventories during two distinct periods of the year. We performed GLM analyses to determine if the socioeconomic variables influence the knowledge, use, preference, and consumption of firewood per capita, per residence, and for the community over daily, monthly, and annual periods. The interviewees cited a total of 87 ethnospecies as known, 47 as used, and 29 as preferred for firewood. Age was the only variable that influenced species richness, whereas wood consumption was influenced by income, schooling, and number of residents. Although there is uniformity within the community in relation to cognitive aspects of richness known, used, and preferred, the consumption of firewood was influenced by socioeconomic factors.