MoFuSS was designed to estimate avoided CO2e emissions resulting from a reduction in woodfuels use. It is a GIS-based model that simulates the spatio-temporal impacts of woodfuel harvesting over dynamic landscapes. In the aim of not cutting corners, MoFuSS evolved into a complex modeling tool that integrates various drivers of land change, woodfuel demand sources, and end-user technologies.
The latest version of MoFuSS is capable of calibration with observed dynamics of aboveground biomass, making future projections more robust.
Calculating avoided emissions using MoFuSS departs from any currently approved methodology such as AMS.II.G, and requires information on both past and future deployment of woodfuel-saving devices. However, to ensure applicability, MoFuSS also calculates the fraction of Non-Renewable Biomass in the baseline.
MoFuSS is a freeware developed and maintained by the National Autonomous University of Mexico and the Stockholm Environment Institute. Please check our sponsors below.
Most MoFuSS workshops are organized on demand. Please contact us in case you need specific training or want to conduct analyses over an area of interest in the global south
A handful of papers and commissioned reports on MoFuSS and WISDOM.
• This dataset repository will be accompanying the in-prep manuscript about the MoFuSS's global 1km simulations 2010-2050. The repository could be frequently updated while the manuscript evolves until submission. Main values are not expected to change, but new files and documentation will be added in the process. Download here.
• Ghilardi, A, Bailis R. Updated fNRB Values for Woodfuel Intervention. UNFCCC commissioned study. 2024. This commissioned report presents up to date values of fNRB for many countries in the Global South using the MoFuSS model. Download here.
• Bailis R, Drigo R, Ghilardi A, Masera O. The carbon footprint of traditional woodfuels. Nat Clim Change. 2015;5:266-72. This paper describes the 2015 global WISDOM model. Download here.
• Bailis R, Wang YT, Drigo R, Ghilardi A, Masera O. Getting the numbers right: revisiting woodfuel sustainability in the developing world. Environ Res Lett. 2017;12. This paper compares fNRB estimates from 286 carbon-offset projects in 51 countries to the WISDOM pantropical study. Download here.
• Ghilardi A, Bailis R, Mas JF, Skutsch M, Elvir JA, Quevedo A, et al. Spatiotemporal modeling of fuelwood environmental impacts: Towards improved accounting for non-renewable biomass. Environ Modell Softw. 2016;82:241-54. This paper describes the original MoFuSS model in detail. Some steps have changed, but the underlying concepts are very similar to those described here. Download here.
• Ghilardi A, Tarter A, Bailis R. Potential environmental benefits from woodfuel transitions in Haiti: Geospatial scenarios to 2027. Environ Res Lett. 2018;13. This paper describes an early application of the MoFuSS model in Haiti. Download here.
