Project type: Efficient cook stoves
Project location: Madagascar
Project status: In operation, credits available
Annual emission reduction of the whole project: 524,714 t
In order to reduce CO₂ and counter the rapid deforestation on Madagascar, myclimate supports the manufacture and distribution of efficient cook stoves. People save time and money and benefit from better indoor air and biodiversity benefits from less pressure on forests.
Forest loss is an urgent problem in Madagascar. Already 90 per cent of the original forest area has been lost. This has a dramatic impact on the island's biodiversity, where more than 90 percent of the animals and about 80 percent of the plants exist only in Madagascar. For example, 94 percent of the lemur species are considered threatened with extinction. The reasons for deforestation, apart from slash and burn, are cooking with wood and coal. However, 97 percent of Madagascar's households cook in exactly this way. This is where the project initiated by a Swiss woman comes in.
ADES founder Regula Ochsner was a development worker in Madagascar from 1972 to 1975. When she visited the country in 1998, she was dismayed by the rapidly progressing deforestation and decided to do her utmost to preserve the forest in Madagascar.
To slow down deforestation, the Swiss-Madagascan non-profit organisation ADES (Association pour le Développement de l'Energie Solaire) produces climate-friendly cookers in Madagascar and sells them to the local population at a reduced price. While the organisation began building solar cookers in 2001, it has also been producing energy-saving cookers since 2010 and was able to register the CO2 savings by the international certifier Gold Standard from 2012 on with the help of myclimate. The energy-saving cookers for wood and coal met with great demand and soon became ADES' main product. Since the number of efficient cookers produced far exceeds the number of solar cookers in the meantime, it was therefore decided that only efficient cookers from this Gold Standard project would generate CO2 certificates, even if solar cookers continued to be supported and distributed.
We were so thrilled with our first energy-saving cooker that we also gave our children, who live in the town of Ambovombe, one each. We even gave a cooker to our son, who is studying in faraway Fianarantsoa. His flat there is very cramped and all the smoke from cooking has caused him lung problems. Thanks to his new energy-saving cooker, this has improved.
The product range consists of various models of solar and energy-saving cookers for private households, restaurants, company canteens, street kitchens and social institutions such as schools, homes and hospitals. The efficient cookers reduce firewood or charcoal consumption by 50 to 70 percent. Solar cookers do not require firewood for the cooking process. The savings allow people to make significant financial savings and reduces the time spent collecting wood. Low-smoke cooking with energy-saving cookers protects the health of women and children in particular, who usually cook in small enclosed rooms.
ADES operates various production and sales centres to reach people in different regions of the island, which is as big as Germany and Great Britain together. Additionally, hundreds of resellers have an income thanks to reselling the energy efficient cook stoves.
I have two sales outlets: one in Ambohimanambola and one in Ankadimbahoaka. In the reseller training, I learned sales and management techniques. The sale of cookers provides income that makes it possible to earn a better living.
ADES continuously conducts various events on site to sensitise th population to environmental and health protection, healthy nutrition and wood-saving cooking. With an innovative environmental education programme, the organisatoin brings school children and their teachers closer to the local flora and fauna and motivates them to behave in an environmentally friendly way. The organisation is also involved in reforestation. Together with partner organisations and village communities, ADES implements larger reforestation projects to preserve the fertility of the soil. Education and reforestation is not financed by CO2 certificates, but it is an important part of the project.
ADES has its own monitoring team to check the use of its stoves. Users are asked about their cooking behaviour (kitchen survey). Each cook stove has a serial number and a barcode that the organisation uses to track its distribution. In annual audits, the cooker sales are checked by external experts.
*as at the end of 2023. Find out how myclimate reports these SDGs in our FAQ.
People benefit from lower fuel expenses. A household saves 23 euros and 431 hours per year.
Mainly women and children benefit from better air quality.
During 11,282 school visits over 126,797 pupils and teachers have been sensitized on climate protection and clean cooking.
Especially women and girls have to spend less time collecting firewood and maintaining the cooking fire.
Over 8 million people benefit from efficient and cleaner cooking, with over 370,000 efficient cook stoves produced and sold.
265 permanent employees and various work experience offers. Another 143 jobs with local suppliers and around 200 independent stoves retailers.
9 different stove models are being locally produced with local material.
Each stove saves around 2 t CO₂ per year and 2 t of firewood.
3.7 million tonnes of wood saved (as of 2022)
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