A social and environmental evaluation of fuel-efficient cook-stoves and conservation in Uganda

A significant factor contributing to deforestation is the expanding human populations' increasing demands on forests and forest products. In many areas, rural households rely solely on fuelwood collected from the forest for their domestic energy supply. Fuel-saving stoves, or improved cook-stoves, have been introduced to reduce fuelwood consumption and thus alleviate deforestation, but there is frequently little or no formal monitoring and evaluation of programmes; their success as both a development and a resource-conservation tool is therefore undetermined. A programme was implemented in communities surrounding two national parks in western Uganda to compare domestic fuelwood consumption of an improved cook-stove and the traditional cooking fire, and assess the attitudes of stove users and non-users towards the improved stove and resource conservation. A kitchen performance test conducted in 100 households in Kiziba, Kahangi and Matayisa/Bundinyama parishes showed that fuelwood consumption did not differ significantly between improved and traditional stoves under actual field conditions. Household surveys showed that respondents in all three parishes had positive perceptions of the improved cook-stove. Perceived advantages of the improved stove included the ability to cook more than one item at once, fuelwood savings, quick cooking, and smoke/accident reduction. Many problems cited with the stove were technical, such as chimney malfunctions and pot-holes being too large or small to accommodate cooking pots. Cost of the stove was the primary reason for non-adoption. Improved-stove users were more concerned with forest conservation than were non-users. The need for monitoring and evaluation of improved-stove programmes is strongly indicated if they are to continue to be implemented as tools for resource conservation.