Introduction: An Alarming use of wood
Biomass in its simplest form (wood and charcoal) is the most widely consumed energy source in Africa: In Mali, wood and charcoal cover 81% of the country's energy needs. All over the world, 2.4 billion people use wood or charcoal for heating and cooking.
In Africa, put simply, poor people use wood, people with higher income use charcoal and wealthy people use gas or oil for cooking.
Biomass is mainly used through inefficient cook stoves: Charcoal (used in urban areas) as well as timber (mainly consumed in rural and peri-urban regions). In Mali, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) estimates that 9 000 000 out of 12 000 000 inhabitants use three-stone stoves, which is the least efficient method of burning wood. UNFPA estimates that 73% of the Malian population lives in rural areas and 100% of these rural households use at least one three-stone stove.
The consumption of wood strongly and steadily increases (FAO figures). The majority of African regions are, for the last two or three decades, under pressure by a rate of collection that no longer allows for a natural regeneration of forest cover.
These collections have in severe consequences:
According to the FAO report "Forest resources assesment“, these consequences include:
1. Deforestation, including the loss of biodiversity and the following land degradation: between 1990 and 2005, Mali has lost an average of 100 000 hectares of forest per year, which is equivalent to an annual deforestation rate of 0, 8%.
2. Health problems (WHO estimates that every year, cooking fumes are responsible for the
death of 1.6 million people worldwide)
3. Heavy workload, faced by women and children
4. Financial burden for households buying the wood.
Lower wood consumption due to improved cook
There are simple methods proven to reduce wood or charcoal consumption.
The „Rocket Stove“ technology is designed for improved wood stoves and saves around 60% of wood, compared to the three-stone stove. The „Rocket Stove“is a simple model, which can be produced locally.
Why is this technology still not used?
Two reasons explain the incapacity to widely diffuse improved cook stoves:
1. Former projects have only on an experimental scale without entrepreneurial thinking, and the production and diffusion on a larger scale has never been initiated.
2. Furthermore, the costs of acquiring an improved cook stove are not affordable for the target group (low or very low income groups in countries among the poorest of the world).
What is new: The contribution of carbon finance
The Kyoto Protocol allows the creation of carbon credits for certain projects that avoid the emission of greenhouse gases in developing countries.
A recent methodology developed by the Gold Standard Foundation facilitates the evaluation of CO2 savings achieved by the introduction of improved cook stoves. In simple terms, to avoid wood burning is to avoid CO2 emmissons, provided that the wood is "of non-renewable origin“, meaning that the wood collection is not compensated by replanting or natural re-growth.
Main Features of the project
„Kiva-Eco“ cook stoves are intended for poor households in rural areas. They replace the traditional three-stone stoves and provide a better combustion efficiency by preventing heat loss. Furthermore, they will be used in zones where wood is „non-renewable“.
Advantages:
1. A simple cook stove, based on a proven technology (Rocket Stove) saves around 60% of wood compared to traditional three-stone stoves.
2. An experienced partner for the production, which already manufactures and sells another type of improved cook stoves.
3. The use of a recent methodology for the generation of carbon credits (this methodology is developed by the highest standard in the voluntary carbon market (“Gold Standard”)).
And finally, the plan to develop a practical cook stove (tested by women) and designed as a modern household item.