Ethanol stoves provided to Malawi with hope of slowing deforestation.

[JohnWxy]

http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-6592658/MALAWI-PROVISION-OF-ETHANOL-STOVES.html

BLANTYRE, Malawi, May 31, 2007 (IPS/GIN) --
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Poverty and population growth in the country are placing escalating pressures on Malawi's indigenous forests, destroying approximately 50,000 to 70,000 hectares of forest every year, according to the ministry of environment.
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Firewood fulfills 93 percent of energy needs in Malawi, where households now consume 7.5 million tons of firewood and charcoal per year.


The United Nations Development Program is hopeful that a new ethanol-based innovation will help to address Malawi's energy problem.

the endemic problem of respiratory diseases due to indoor charcoal use and the deforestation of the country (and attendant CO2 emissions)can be addressed .






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The stove has been developed by a local company, Bluewave Limited, as part of the SuperBlue Project, which is meant to promote the use of ethanol as an alternative fuel for cooking in Malawi.

The project is being implemented with financial and technical assistance from the United Nations Development Programme, through the Global Sustainable Business programme, which is a global initiative operating in nine African countries including Zambia, Tanzania and Mozambique as well as nine other countries in Central America, Asia and Europe.
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Malawi is among the producers of cane ethanol in the region with production emanating from two plants, which are Ethco-owned Dwangwa plant in the central lakeshore region and another one owned by a local firm Press Cane at Nchalo in the southern region.


Malawi Is Burning, and Deforestation Erodes Economy

More than a fifth of Malawi's forests vanished between 1990 and 2000 alone, the World Bank says, and 23 species of trees are considered to be endangered.

In many places, the biggest patches of untouched woods are the ones that protect community graveyards.

Michael Pathungo, the assistant forestry officer in Malawi's southern region, said the nation's heavily populated southern half has now lost up to four-fifths of its tree cover.

[XemaSab]

1. I'm sure charging people for fuel

instead of letting them get it for free is going to be a big winner. :eyes:

[leftyclimber]

2. I have a professor who's doing research down there right now.

I'll see him again in July. Bookmarking this in case he has any interesting insights.

If the government turned down World Bank money in order to subsidize fertilizer, though, it should be interesting to see what they do WRT stove fuel.

[JohnWxy]

3. this is being supported by the U.N The Worldbank sometimes gives their "help" with strings attached.

Please let me know what you find out. Sometimes a lower tech approach to a problem works better than big industrial approaches (like taking 15 years to build a big dam when there is no infrastructure to deliver the electricity to rural people!).