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Abstract
This study tries to examine the determinants of the choice of fuel wood sources in rural
Ethiopia. Survey data collected from a sample of rural households in the East Gojam and
South Wollo zones of the Amhara region of the country were used for the analysis. A
multinomial probit model that allows correlation between the residuals has been
employed to address the question of whether household’s socioeconomic, environment
and institutional variables affect the choice of fuel wood source in rural Ethiopia. The
result of the analysis shows that household characteristics such as age and education
level of the household head are important determinants in the choice of fuel wood
sources. The surprising result from this study is that local level institutions, tenure
insecurity and possession of land certificate are all found to be insignificant. Finally, our
findings suggests that there are some kind of substitution possibilities between fuel wood
from forest and other sources (private and market) as indicated by the positive and
significant impact of distance to the forest on the probability of fuel wood collection from
private or market sources.