RIPPLE Africa runs an integrated tree planting and cook stove project in Malawi, Africa. In Malawi, 95% of the population use wood or charcoal for cooking, nearly 100% in rural areas! This relentless demand for firewood is one of the major causes of deforestation in Malawi. RIPPLE Africa’s integrated tree planting and cook stove project fights deforestation by promoting a complete cycle of sustainable wood use, and incorporates three major components:
RIPPLE Africa has worked for years to fight deforestation in Malawi by planting over three million trees, building fuel-efficient cook stoves, promoting forest conservation and more. However, to bring about a permanent change in individual behaviour, we wanted a combined project to help families do all of the above at household level. The integrated tree planting and cook stove project includes some of RIPPLE Africa’s best loved projects combined, an “arc de triomphe” of sustainable environmental practice. The project is delivered at household level, where every home first makes a compost pit and then grows 25 quick-growing trees as a sustainable source of firewood. People are supplied with seeds and tubes, and are taught how to plant and care for their trees so they can use them like crops: coppicing the tree by cutting off the branches for firewood without felling the whole tree, and repeating the same process when the branches grow back. Families also grow 10 fruit trees which provide food and income, and provide a financial incentive to protect their own orchards. Once the trees have been planted and cared for, the householders make 26 mud bricks and then a RIPPLE Africa Community Volunteer installs a Changu Changu Moto fuel-efficient cook stove in the householder’s kitchen which reduces household wood use by up to 66%. The fuel-efficient cook stove also provides critical health benefits and drastically improves the quality of life for the women and children who use them. The combination of these three elements addresses the supply, demand, and personal incentive of adopting a sustainable approach to wood use in Malawi.
RIPPLE Africa’s integrated tree planting and cook stove project is being rolled out at household level, with an ambitious goal of reaching 20,000 homes in the Nkhata Bay District of Malawi. The project is delivered by RIPPLE Africa staff who work in partnership with local communities to target one village at a time, typically 100 households. In each village, RIPPLE Africa staff train one Community Volunteer who is responsible for implementing the project in every home in their own village. Each Community Volunteer is paid a modest fee for each successfully completed stage of the project, and RIPPLE Africa staff carefully monitor each Community Volunteer to make sure the project is being implemented correctly. For the project to be successful, all parties must take ownership of the project. The strength of this system is that it is cost efficient, but most importantly that it utilises the community influence of local people at a grassroots level. Ultimately through community involvement and regular support from RIPPLE Africa, it is hoped that these habits will become a permanent way of life for 20,000 families in Malawi. To learn more details of the project, read our Integrated Project Step-by-step Guide.
Deforestation is one of the greatest issues facing Africa today. The effects of deforestation are tangible: less rain, hotter climates, soil erosion, and drought bring famine, poverty, and starvation. Yet in Malawi, an area of forest the size of a football pitch is cut down every 10 minutes! One of the major factors contributing to deforestation is a nation-wide demand for firewood for use in cooking fires. (To find out more about deforestation in Africa, please read the General Information About the Environment in Malawi page.) RIPPLE Africa is working hard on every front to combat deforestation, and our integrated tree planting and cook stove project is an efficient way of delivering several projects to a single household at once. The project is important because it promotes an entire cycle of sustainable environmental practice, including supply, demand, and personal incentive. By implementing a combined delivery to every household in the Nkhata Bay District in an efficient method, this project is our best hope yet of creating positive and sustainable environmental practice that will change the way people use their local environment, forever.
RIPPLE Africa’s integrated tree planting and cook stove project is extremely cost efficient, and it costs just £4 to implement this project in one home in Malawi.
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