Energy

In partnership with CQuest, COMACO has distributed 97,463 fuel-efficient cookstoves that are monitored annually for their use and maintenance.  Rather than extracting logs from local forests to cook with, these stoves use small twigs and are ideal for using off-cuts from agroforestry tree species that COMACO uses, Gliricidia sepium.  From surveys, we estimate as many as 37 trees of varying size are spared from being cut down as a result of these stoves, which are approximately 60% more fuel efficient than open fires that use larger pieces of firewood.  They also give off significantly less smoke and reduce the risk of respiratory diseases caused by inhalation of smoke by mothers and their children when cooking.

Distribution of stoves is currently limited to Eastern Province, as illustrated in the map below.  However, COMACO is actively planning to expand the use of these stoves in all of its operational areas in the coming year.