Improved Cookstoves for Mathira District Kenya

Improved Mathira East District, Kenya Cookstoves for Mathira District Kenya

Increasing wellbeing for rural Kenyan families and protecting forest ecosystems

This project distributes fuel-efficient cookstoves to rural households in Kenya’s Mathira East District. The stoves are distributed at no cost to families, replacing traditional woodfuel-intensive stoves to reduce household fuelwood use by about 67% annually. The result? Improved local forest biodiversity, better community health and wellbeing, and lower emissions.

southpole.com/projects Project 301 949 | 1324EN, 05.2020 The Context All components of the new Families in Kenya traditionally use three-stone open-fire stoves for cooking, fuel-efficient stoves are featuring neither a grate nor chimney. As well as creating indoor smoke that leads manufactured in Kenya, to respiratory problems, this cooking method relies on the unsustainable collection providing jobs for community of wood from nearby forests. Yet poverty in rural Kenya means that families cannot members and contributing to afford to purchase fuel-efficient stoves – and as fuelwood is largely collected for local economic growth free, there is no incentive to either.

The Project This project distributes efficient, clean cookstoves to rural households in Kenya’s Mathira East district at no cost to households. Instead, recipients enter into an agreement, exchanging the rights to the emission reductions achieved by the new stoves for their installation and ongoing maintenance.

The Benefits The project significantly reduces emissions, but climate change mitigation is hardly its only benefit. Limiting the fuelwood collected from surrounding forests relieves pressure on the local ecosystem. Not only does this protect local wildlife habitat; it also ensures watershed maintenance, regulates the water table and prevents flash flooding. Families also benefit considerably – with time spent not collecting firewood freed up for other activities. The new cookstoves also produce far less smoke, improving community health. Lastly, the distribution, construction and maintenance of the stoves has created jobs, boosting local economies and further alleviating regional poverty.

21,732 6,354 7,689 lives children women positively impacted by the distribution of with better health and wellbeing as of benefiting as of October 2018 – they improved cookstoves as of October 2018 October 2018, as the improved cookstoves no longer spend up to 15 hours a week create less indoor smoke, reducing the collecting firewood for the new, fuel-efficient incidence of respiratory illness cookstoves 4,047 improved 8,000 323,500

cookstoves metric tons of CO2e metric tons distributed to date as of October 2018, mitigated on average annually, as of October of wood saved by the project and growing providing community members with cleaner, 2018 as of October 2018, reducing the impact on more affordable energy for cooking surrounding forest ecosystems

For more information on the UN Sustainable Development Goals, please visit: http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/

Official name: Efficient Cook Stove Programme: Kenya CPA No. 2 Mathira East District co2balance UK Ltd, Kenya | Registry link: http://www.vcsprojectdatabase.org/#/project_details/1082 | Registry ID: 1082

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