Nepal Energy Gardens Qualitative Dataset and Quantitative Survey Dataset

Biofuels and biomass are important sources of renewable energy, yet implementation of bioenergy programmes has attracted considerable controversy for displacing food production, land-grabbing, loss of biodiversity and greenhouse gas emissions. Creation of large industrial biomass and biofuel production has an important role to play in sustainable energy provision, but the real strengths of using plants for energy is that they can be grown in a wide variety of situations and thousands of different species can be used. These datasets present household survey data and qualitative data- focus group discussions and key informant interviews carried out in three rural villages in mid-hills, Nepal to investigate the possible to establish community-based biofuel production, thereby overcoming environmental and social concerns about biofuels. A stratified random sampling procedure was used to sample the households for quantitative data to ensure that its representative of the villages where research was conducted. The research participants were drawn from different landholding categories, castes, gender and local development experts to obtain views of different section of the community in three project villages viz. Hamsapur (Gorkha), Lakuri Danda (Dolakha) and Khudi (Lamjung) in the mid-hills region of Nepal. Data collected through qualitative research complements those quantitative data collected through household survey. The qualitative research covered aspects such as forest status, local institutions for forests and biomass uses, communal and social capital, and various issues pertinent to local development and how experience from those can be utilised for community-based biofuel projects such as energy gardens. Data generated through qualitative methods will help to explain the differences in the level of fuel consumption, determining local fuel demand and supply and other local level institutions necessary for creation of energy gardens project.

生物燃料与生物质是可再生能源的重要来源，但生物能源项目的实施因挤占粮食生产、土地掠夺、生物多样性丧失及温室气体排放等问题引发了广泛争议。大规模工业生物质与生物燃料生产在可持续能源供应中具有重要作用，但利用植物获取能源的真正优势在于其可在多样场景下种植，且可使用数千种不同物种。

这些数据集包含在尼泊尔中部山区三个乡村开展的家庭调查数据及定性数据——焦点小组讨论（focus group discussions）与关键知情人访谈（key informant interviews），旨在探究建立社区型生物燃料生产（community-based biofuel production）的可能性，从而解决生物燃料相关的环境与社会担忧。

为获取定量数据，研究采用分层随机抽样法（stratified random sampling）选取家庭样本，以确保其对研究所在村庄具有代表性。研究参与者来自不同土地持有类别、种姓、性别群体及地方发展专家，旨在收集尼泊尔中部山区三个项目村庄（即Hamsapur（Gorkha）、Lakuri Danda（Dolakha）及Khudi（Lamjung））社区各群体的观点。

定性研究收集的数据补充了家庭调查所得的定量数据。定性研究涵盖森林状况、森林与生物质利用的地方机构、社区与社会资本、地方发展相关各类问题，以及如何将这些经验应用于能源园（energy gardens）等社区型生物燃料项目。通过定性方法生成的数据将有助于解释燃料消耗水平的差异、确定当地燃料供需，以及明确建立能源园项目所需的其他地方层面机构。