Mud Stoves Reduce Deforestation

Energy-efficient mud stoves are being used throughout the village of Timabig in the Savannah region of Togo. The women in the village have also planted trees to provide wood for the stoves. These innovations have helped to reduce deforestation, thereby stabilising the vegetation and local climate.

One mother in the village, Lare Dounwague, describes how climate change has affected the community and what has been done to improve their situation.

We Felled Too Many Trees: Lare is a farmer, aged 53, and she has two children, both of whom are in school.

How would you describe farming conditions in Timabig?

"Everything has changed in this world and our situation is critical. We have already sowed, but lack of rain is hindering proper growth. But we too have to take responsibility for the changes: we cut down too many trees without replacing them, so we were not protecting our environment. That caused the lack of rain. There are many other reasons too, like bushfires and population growth."

What are the consequences of this? 

"Agricultural production is decreasing despite increased attempts at cultivation. The weather is increasingly hot and diseases are multiplying. People do not eat enough anymore and are not as strong as in the past."

Improved Mud Stoves:

What are you doing to improve the situation?

"There is much we can do to improve our situation. We plant trees, build stone bunds to prevent soil erosion, we dig compost pits to produce manure and construct energyefficient mud stoves. We are also making an effort to send our children to school in the hope that they will return to teach us new ways of living our lives."

The women are very pleased with the improved mud stoves: "In our village, eight women out of ten now use the new stoves in their kitchens and when brewing tchapalot [local cereal beer]. Ata Nounfam, a local woman and expert in the construction of such ovens, teaches us how to build the beautiful, improved mud stoves. Before these new ovens were introduced, we used traditional stoves that used large amounts of wood, even when cooking for small families."

In the old stoves, air was sucked in from all sides, resulting in low energy-efficiency and a high consumption of wood. With the new stoves, considerably less wood is required to prepare the day's food.

We Grow and Protect Trees: You have said that too many trees are felled. But you need wood for your improved stoves as well?

"To satisfy the needs of our improved stoves, we have planted trees in special plantations. The objective is to produce additional firewood to supplement the wood coming from the trees in our fields. Nevertheless, we also want to learn new methods of charcoal production so we can make our wood supply even more efficient."

Isn't this time consuming and doesn't it mean extra work?

"It is and it does. But now we know how to cut the branches off our trees without killing them and we also know how to protect our tree plantations. The use of the improved stoves contributes to the conservation of natural resources and meals are better."

When you built the improved stoves, you dug big holes in the ground. Has this created problems of soil erosion? "The new stoves for the brewing of the tchapalot require a lot of clay and there are large holes to fill. But these holes can be used as compost pits. But we would prefer, if possible, to build our stoves with cement or other solid matter."

Do you believe that your new stoves and tree planting are making a difference? "Yes, the improved stoves should be used countrywide and tree planting should be practiced individually as well as collectively."

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