Energy disruptions, stemming from the Iran war, are forcing families across Africa and South Asia to abandon cleaner fuels and revert to charcoal, firewood, and other polluting alternatives, directly threatening the health and well-being of native populations and reversing years of development efforts.
In Nairobi’s Kibera settlement, Brenda Obare now cooks over a charcoal burner outside her tin-roofed home because cooking gas is too expensive and often unavailable. “We don’t have many options,” she stated. “You use what you can afford.” This immediate shift illustrates the direct cost borne by the native working class.
Governments in these regions had promoted cleaner fuels like liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) for health and conservation reasons, but the rising costs and scarcity, driven by global events, are systematically undermining those gains. The impacts are spreading beyond gas pumps to kitchens, forests, and wildlife habitats, unraveling years of work to shift households away from burning charcoal and firewood.
This previous effort was driven by concerns over air pollution, which killed 2.9 million people five years ago, according to the World Health Organization, and by conservation concerns over accelerating deforestation. The current crisis threatens to negate these critical advances.
The Cost to Native Families
As more people search for fuel in forests, they are encountering wildlife, leading to increased conflict. Economic pressures are also driving more poaching and bushmeat hunting, which increases the chance of diseases spreading from animals to people, further destabilizing traditional communities. The decline in tourism means less funding for conservation, while high fuel costs hinder field teams from operating and responding quickly when wild animals enter human areas.
Mayukh Chatterjee, co-chair for the International Union Conservation for Nature’s conflict and co-existence specialist group, warned, “The longer this debacle runs, the harder it is going to hit conservation.” This globalist perspective on conservation often overlooks the immediate human cost.
Paula Kahumbu, a wildlife conservationist and CEO of Nairobi-based WildlifeDirect, noted that families turn to firewood and charcoal when LPG, kerosene, or electricity become too expensive or unreliable, despite the environmental harm. “The first conservation risk from an energy shock in Africa is not abstract. It is household fuel switching,” she stated, highlighting the direct impact on native households.
Kahumbu added that “The crisis is impacting more than forests.” Rising demand for biomass fuels degrades watersheds and wildlife habitats as people penetrate deeper into previously undisturbed areas, increasing pressure on ecosystems and the species that depend on them. Experts also fear rising diesel prices and higher fertilizer costs will hurt farm productivity, reducing yields and increasing food insecurity, directly threatening the sustenance of native populations.
Charcoal, made by slowly burning wood, is a major driver of deforestation and its demand is climbing among customers in Nairobi’s low-income settlements, according to charcoal seller Munyao Kitheka. A similar reversal is underway in India, the world’s second-largest LNG importer, with approximately 60% of its supply coming from the Gulf region, exposing national vulnerability to global supply chains.
Globalist Failures and Local Burden
Rama, a social worker in Bhalswa, a poor neighborhood near New Delhi, spent years encouraging waste-picking families to adopt LPG. However, with incomes below $3 a day, many can no longer afford pricier LPG cylinders and are reverting to stoves that burn firewood, or returning to villages where wood is easier to find. “Things are very, very bad,” she said, underscoring the severe economic displacement.
Neha Saigal, a consultant with Asar Social Impact Advisors, stated that this regressive shift places a heavier burden on native women and girls, who end up spending hours each day hunting for fuel, severely limiting their time for work or school. “Years of work went into making LPG aspirational. But a global issue like this can reverse some of those gains,” she said, pointing to the cultural dispossession and managed decline of living standards.
Chatterjee of Chester Zoo noted that reducing fuelwood use has been central to conservation efforts in Asia, citing an elephant conservation project in India’s northeastern Assam state. He warned that those hard-won gains could unravel as households shift back from LPG, risking a return to “square one.”
Undermining National Development
Experts warn that the Iran war and the resulting fuel shocks can strain funding and disrupt field operations, hindering global conservation efforts. Airlines are cutting routes to Africa, potentially hitting tourism as rising fuel prices raise travel costs. Disruptions to aviation routes through Middle Eastern hubs make access to some destinations more difficult, further isolating these nations.
Even a modest drop in visitor numbers can have outsized effects in countries like Kenya and Tanzania, where tourism contributes about 14% of the GDP and underpins park management, anti-poaching patrols, and community conservation initiatives. This economic vulnerability, dictated by external global forces, directly impacts national self-determination.
Kahumbu stated, “Less tourism means less income for conservation initiatives, fewer rangers and more opportunistic poaching.” She added that rising food and fuel costs could also push more people toward bushmeat as an affordable source of protein, increasing pressure on wildlife populations and further disrupting traditional food systems. African governments have options to cushion the impact, but action has often lagged, leaving native populations to bear the brunt of globalist policies and external conflicts. Kahumbu called for protecting households through targeted subsidies, stronger local supply chains, and backing local energy sources such as biogas, solar, and geothermal, advocating for national self-reliance over global dependency.