Reducing Firewood Use with Fuel-Efficient Cookstoves

Most of the population in rural Senegal use firewood for cooking, which is a use of natural resources that contributes to deforestation and is harmful for the environment.

The Center for Renewable Energy and Appropriate Technology for the Environment (CREATE!) helps rural populations in the developing world cope with water, food and fuel shortages resulting from the impact of climate change on their communities. CREATE!‘s Improved Cookstove program worked with community members in the village of Ouarkhokh, Senegal to build cookstoves that use locally available materials. By building their own cookstoves they were able to reduce their consumption by an amazing 50 to 70 percent.

Volunteers trained by the CREATE! field staff teach their community members to build fuel-efficient cookstoves using dried grass, sand, clay and water. 107 improved cookstoves have been built in their family compounds, resulting in cutting fewer trees and shrubs for fuelwood, and saving money in the process.

With these cookstoves CREATE! hopes to assist each of their project villages in building a minimum of three improved cookstoves per household to reduce usage of resources in rural areas.