[Based on the Project Idea Note of July 2009]

The objective of the project is to present alternative “ecostove” kitchen regimes and cook stoves to the rural forest community members of the South West Community Forestry Network that will allow them to either reduce or shift away from wood-fuel consumption.

Such cook stoves and kitchen regimes will be developed with the participation of community target groups and local manufacturers who will identify a range of cook stoves and kitchen regimes (e.g. reduced fuel wood consumption) that individual households might select depending on what suits their needs best.

The project intends to create a marketable carbon project by bringing together 30 communities, coordinated by the Regional Centre for Development and Conservation (RCDC), which is a Cameroonian NGO with a long history of capacity building in the target communities. These 30 communities represent approximately 3 000 households that consume an estimated 7.4 kt fuel wood per year equal to 14.5 kt CO2e per year. Over a seven year crediting period, this project anticipates a 75% reduction in domestic fuel wood consumption. Carbon finance will provide the means to subsidise the costs of purchasing improved stoves.

In addition to the climate change mitigation potential, improved cook stoves provide the opportunity of more diversified cooking which can be supplied to the market and has the potential to contribute to an increase in income: 36% of women in households cook both for their families and for market use. Furthermore, this would lead to significant time-saving: according to the conventional method, the daily fuel wood collection can take up to two hours.

A major obstacle to wood fuel projects is managing the baseline for woody biomass. This aspect of carbon management will be facilitated here as the target communities have all established formal community forest organisations. The community forest organisations will allow for proper management of fuel collection areas (i.e., the area within which this biomass is produced and supplied, or could reasonably be expected to be produced and supplied) and the determination and estimation of the non-renewability fraction of woody biomass.