The issue of improved cookstoves: Advantages and challenges of the spread of improved cook stoves

René Massé

Over recent years, a variety of projects aiming to spread the use of improved cookstoves have been realised. The first NGOs introduced the improved cookstoves on a local level in order to reduce the dangers that come with traditional stoves: to prevent children from burn injuries and reduce respiratory problems caused by inhaling smoke from indoor cooking. These projects have progressively been expanded to a greater scale, with the aim of reducing the impact of domestic cooking on the local and global environment.Looking back on several decades of activity on this topic, it is interesting to take stock of the issue of improved cookstoves and the role they can play in a sustainable supply of cooking energy for local communities.

To make a project aiming to spread the use of improved cookstoves successful, it is necessary to first understand the rationale of the different actors; if the project does not respect the rationale of the people involved, it is not likely to succeed or for its effects to outlast the life of the project.Who are the actors interested by such projects and what are their motivations and constraints: National and international institutions that finance projects on improved cookstoves, families with the power of decision (will they or won't they replace their traditional stove with an improved cookstove?), and craftsmen with their power of decision (will they or won't they produce and commercialize improved cookstoves instead of traditional stoves?).

1. The motivation of national and international donors

Cooking accounts for substantial use of energy: wood or charcoal provides about 80% of the energy consumed in Sub-Saharan Africa. Today this macro-economic issue is connected to the issues of locally and globally protecting the environment and of the fight against poverty.

1.1. The use of wood for energy contributes to deforestation and as a result has an irreversible impact on the local environment

By reducing the units of wood energy needed for cooking, improved cookstoves consequently contribute to reducing the impact of such energy consumption on wood depletion. If more wood is harvested from forests than can naturally grow back, the capital of stem wood is destroyed: the year after, the volume of produced wood will be dimished accordingly, and ever further in the following years, at an increasingly rapid rate of destruction of capital, until the forest has disappeared entirely.
This is frequently the case when wood-cutting is meant to supply the urban markets with firefood and charcoal. In contrast, when the wood is only cut for the use of the rural population and a balance between the use and the capacity for regrowth is maintained, the forests do not disappear. It is in the cities where the crisis of firewood in developing countries has its origin. As a result, the priority is to equip urban families with improved cookstoves. Moreover, it is much easier to distribute improved cookstoves in a city than in rural areas. In cities, more families live closer together and are therefore easier to sensitize and supply. In addition, urban families already use manufactured and bought cooking stoves (as opposed to rural families, who use tripods for cooking), making it easier to convince them to choose a more energy-efficient model that will require less wood.
When the forests disappear in these fragile eco systems, desertification sets in as wind erosion takes its toll on the no longer protected soil, rain washes out the ground and the ground water level sinks without the tree roots that held it in place by extracting water from the soil.

However, it is important to note that the harvesting of wood for energy purposes is not the only (nor, often, the principal) cause of deforestation. Quite often, the imbalance between harvesting and natural regrowth is set in motion by the original clearing effort, which instantly reduces the capacity of wood production, and which launches the process of deforestation; afterwards, the annual amount of wood cut for fuel completes the destruction of the remaining forest. A project on improved cookstoves will have no effect on a forest unless its exploitation is managed in a sustainable way.

It is thus a mistake to generalize that the cutting of firewood is the main cause of deforestation. Deforestation in Africa is a complex process, pushed by the demand for land, and in which the cutting down of trees is only one aspect. The best way to protect the forests is to give them a higher economic value than agricultural land: a sustainable use -- for firewood, timber and non-wood products -- could therefore be a defense against deforestation (protecting the local environment) and a key asset for the climate (protecting the global environment).

1.2. The impact of combustion of wood energy on the greenhouse effect makes it a global environmental issue

Taking into account the nature of terrain, ground relief, and wind and rain conditions, deforestation generally involves a degradation of vegetation that is hard to reverse. The washed out soil loses its fertility. Erosion leaves the tops and slopes of the hills naked and unprotected. A growing rate of biomass consumption in these countries therefore isn't sustainable.
The combustion of biomass is only considered climate-neutral on two conditions: first, that the resource will regrow, and second, that the combustion is complete. The population growth stands in the way of the former, while the latter is rarely realised.

The majority of traditional stoves have a poor yield and, used inside the houses, fill living space with smoke. On the one hand, they transform only approx. 30% of the combustion energy into cooking energy. Furthermore, in addition to carbon dioxide, the incomplete combustion releases carbon monoxide, methane and other hydrocarbons which contribute to the greenhouse effect. The stoves also emit harmful soot and dust. Recent studies attribute a critical role to soot, which unlike other aerosols absorbs the light and thus contributes to global warming. Transported over long distances, it diminishes the albedo of snow and speeds up its melting. Many efforts are being made towards the promotion of improved cookstoves, and especially the increasing use of charcoal, but their global impact so far has remained modest.

Being easier to transport and use than wood blocks, charcoal has become the primary combustible material in urban settings. It has a higher energy density, it smokes less, it is safe. Easier to stock, transport and portion than firewood, it works better for a monetary economy and for the conditions of urban life. Emulating the city, rural demand is also growing. But the charcoal introduces an additional stage in the transformation of cut wood before it is distributed on the market. This is the "carbonisation" of wood (pyrolysis), generally carried out in kilns or pits.

Many rural people also work as charburners to obtain monetary revenue by selling their product at the roadside. Lacking the necessary know-how, they waste a little over eight kilograms of wood for one kilogram of charcoal, while more up to date practices would require only five kilograms. When charcoal is produced illegally starting from the natural resources, the yield is even worse, because the charburner wastes the stem wood ("it's free"), taking only the largest branches and leaving behind two thirds of the green wood. They then carbonise the wood in small kilns with minimal outputs, so that the smoke released in the process does not attract the attention of forestry authorities. Of course, these illegal charburners do not stay on the site to carry out carbonisation, and consequently, significant losses occur during the total combustion.

Carbonization is very polluting because the combustion, deprived of air, leaves many unburnt residues. In general, the process of charcoal production emits six to ten times more greenhouse gases than using firewood directly. Out of all energy sources, charcoal is one of those with the worst climate impact, even if the wood comes from renewable resources, and even moreso if it comes from reckless exploitation[1]. The only possible advantage of charcoal is that it allows for the wood to be taken from wider areas around the markets, because it contains more energy relative to weight and volume than wood, and can economically transported over long distances (as less water is carried).

1.3. The destruction of forest spaces sheltering exceptional biodiversity as a global issue: the example of Madagascar

The destruction of natural forests represents a global environmental issue. In Madagascar, for example, forests cover 11 million hectares and are home to an exceptional richness in biodiversity. Madagascar is a priority case for protecting biodiversity because of its high rate of unique endemic species. Its richness in species (in types and in families) is due to its size and diversity as well as to its long isolation and late arrival of man.

It is estimated that 96% of the ten to twelve thousand species of plants on Madagascar are endemic.

Among animals, the rate of endemism is also considerable. Madagascar counts 209 species of birds, 109 (52%) of which are endemic. Five families can be found exclusively on the island. Among the 340 species of reptiles, 314 (92%) are endemic. Among the batriachians, 197 frog species out of 199 are endemic. As for mammals (except those introduced by man), 101 kinds of land animals are particular to Madagascar, while 18 of the 30 known species of bats are endemic (60%).

These forest areas, which are home to such an exceptional biodiversity, thus represent a world heritage that needs protecting. However, each year 100,000 hectares are destroyed, a fifth of which can be attributed to ill-considered and unconsidering exploitation of wood for energy.

1.4. The exploitation of wood energy brings financial resources to rural areas and promotes a national resource

While being aware of the risks for the environment, national and international donors are very conscious of the fact that pursuing the exploitation of wood energy is a major economic undertaking. Wood energy is often the only non-imported fuel (the consumption of which does not negatively affect the balance of trade), which offers thousands of families an opportunity for paid work, especially in rural areas, where the availability of paid work is so limited. The supply of wood energy in Niamey (Niger) represented a turnover of € 15 million in 2003.

Reducing the impact of wood cutting for energy on deforestation does not mean ceasing to exploit this national resource -- far from it. The aim is to control the modes of production and consumption so as to manage the ecological balance between supply and demand in a sustainable, long-term way, within the local supply areas of major communities.

2. Motivations for families

Families who cook with firewood or charcoal are particularly affected by the proven harmful impact on health and changes in their budget spent for cooking combustibles.

2.1. The health impact of cooking with firewood

As has already been indicated, the incomplete combustion in stoves releases carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, methane and other hydrocarbons. Moreover, these stoves emit soot, which darkens the pots and the inside of houses, and harmful dust, which causes respiratory diseases. The control of the fire, which requires continued presence of the cook during long food preparations, daily exposes mainly women (and frequently the children at their side) to these pollutants, which is very harmful for their health. This inside air pollution is one of the major causes of infant mortality.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates the number of deaths among African children due to wrong utilisation of firefood to be more than 350,000 per year.[2] In general, this is one of the four leading causes of death among the poorest families in the world, together with sexually transmitted diseases, the use of not drinkable water, and hygiene. What makes it different is that this is the only cause of premature death that fails to mobilize major means of redressing its effects. Nearly two thirds of non-smokers who suffer from lung cancer are women!
Cooking affects health in various other ways:
The main staple food needs to be cooked. Therefore, an enduring supply of burning materials is essential for food security.Cooking is used to sterilize water. Given that a majority of Africans are dependent on sterilizing not drinkable water, insufficient access to cooking carries the risk of spreading diseases.

2.2. Reasons for a rural family to use improved cookstoves

In rural areas, African women spend up to four hours a day collecting firewood[3]. This burden -- literally and figuratively -- is one of the barriers to social progress and gender equality. The collection of firewood is in direct opposition with schooling for girls. Thus promoting improved cooking conditions in rural area also works towards gender equality.

2.3. Reasons for an urban family to use improved cookstoves

To motivate a woman to choose an improved cookstove when replacing her traditional stove, she needs to be convinced that the improved cookstove will reduce pollution and health risks, but also -- especially -- that she will save charcoal. For modest income urban families in Ouagadougou, the costs of cooking fuels are comparable to their food budget. However, the projected long-term savings will unfortunately not be sufficient for motivating a family to buy an improved cookstove: they still need to be able to pay the full price for it up front. Even if the investment is returned very quickly by the reduced need for fuel, families frequently do not have the savings to make that kind of investment in the first place. The price of such a unit should therefore be very close to that of a traditional stove if a massive spread of improved cookstoves is to be achieved.FA will only be able to reach widespread application if it is economical AND if its purchase is financially possible for a great number of people.

3. The motivation of craftsmen, producers and sellers of FA

The craftsmen who produce traditional stoves are among the poorest craftsmen. Producing a stove requires neither investment nor a fixed workshop, nor electromechanical equipment or important stock and supplies: a few rustic tools are sufficient. As a result they are also among the most vulnerable: they frequently produce at home, with the help of the whole family, for the entire week and then proceed to sell their goods on market day, in order to survive the following week and be able to purchase the resources for the next round of production… It is therefore imperative not to put them in a risky position, as they have no room for manoeuvre.

Certain projects that promote improved cookstoves have chosen not to involve these traditional craftsmen in the new processes of cookstove production and commercialisation, claiming that they do neither possess the equipment nor the know-how required for manufacturing improved cookstoves at reliable quality. All the projects that aimed to create a semi-industrial line of production of improved cookstoves from scratch, certifying every unit for performance before it is put up for sale, had very limited impact during their lifetime and saw their effects disappear after the conclusion of the project. The use of semi-industrial equipment (folding machines, drilling machines, welding sets) requires the use of new sheet metal of high quality and the recruitment of trained employees. This means a higher level of production costs[4], and puts improved cookstoves on the market at prices that are not competitive with those of traditional stoves.

The only projects that saw their effects last beyond their lifespan have been those that have been implemented in cooperation with traditional craftsmen. A central part of these projects has been the improvement of these craftsmen’s skills and standard of living, in order to guarantee the longevity of the project results: for why would a craftsman who earns more with improved cookstoves return to producing and offering traditional stoves?

However, working with traditional craftsmen imposes certain constraints: it is necessary to understand their technical expertise and to take them into consideration for the design and manufacturing process of improved cookstoves. As a matter of fact, the sheet-iron craftsmen use folding and tacking but not welding to put the pieces of a stove together. They use (or quickly learn how to use) marking templates to produce identical pieces of a furnace. They know how to use[recycled sheet-metal, which is less resistant but much less expensive. The less sheet metal is used, the cheaper the improved cookstove gets: optimizing the use of sheet metal will have the greatest impact on the final price of an improved cookstove unit. It is therefore important that the model of each sheet metal part of an improved cookstove is designed with the form and surface conditions of recycled sheet-metal in mind, in order to minimise scrap. All these constraints suggest including the craftsmen from the conception of improved cookstove models onwards, which is also a good way of sensitizing them and win them over as real partners for the success of the project.

[1] In Madagascar, it was calculated that for the same meal, charcoal emits eight times more greenhouse gases than the LPG if it is extracted from trees which are exploited in a non-sustainable way, and 1.6 times more if it comes from renewable resources. Source: p. 37 of the FFEM study “Domestic Diversification of the Energy Sources in Madagascar”. René Massé. October 31, 2005.
[2] “Fuel for Life”; WHO; 2002
[3] Source : "Energy as a key variable in eradicating extreme poverty and hunger: A gender and energy perspective on empirical evidence on MDG 1"; Dutta S.; in Gender as a key variable in energy interventions; ENERGIA; 2005.
[4] This also has an impact on the trade balance, as in developing countries sheet metal is frequently imported.

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