Chiapas, El Ocote Biosphere Reserve

Chiapas Community Members Protect their Natural Resources through New Stove Project*

Local entrepreneurs and community members in Chiapas, Mexico are being trained to build fuel-efficient, wood-burning cookstoves that consume up to 50% less fuelwood and cost under $15 per stove. This work marks the completion first phase of a fuel-efficient stove project developed by the Center for Resource Solutions, a San Francisco-based NGO, in partnership with the Southern Mexico Office of The Nature Conservancy, in the buffer zone communities of El Ocote Biosphere Reserve.

In addition to the conservation goals achieved through the fuel-efficient stoves, the project also features an important restoration component. The El Ocote Reserve staff has organized a program by which community members commit their time to tree planting. These reforestation efforts will not only provide a future firewood supply but will also restore degraded areas near the reserve borders.

In the initial phase of this project, stove specialists from the Aprovecho Research Center of Cottage Grove, Oregon, worked with local women last summer to develop a “Rocket Stove” that can be manufactured from local inexpensive materials. The stove is designed for maximum efficiency while taking into consideration the cooking habits of the users. El Ocote personnel and The Conservancy’s Chiapas partner organization, Instituto de Historia Natural y Ecologia, were then trained in the construction of “Rocket Stoves” and approximately 50 stoves were constructed during this first phase of the project.

The project will result in measurable benefit to the natural environment and the local Chiapas community members. The conservation benefit is to reduce fuel wood collection in the forest understory which alters the structure of the forest reducing habitat for certain birds and animals. It is estimated that 7.5kg (~16.5 lbs.) of firewood per family per week can remain as healthy understory in the buffer zone surrounding these communities. In addition, families can reduce the time spent collecting wood (now averaging 2 to 3 hours per day per family). Also, the design of the new stoves produce less smoke or sends the smoke out of the house thereby improving the health of those responsible for cooking.

The project hopes to provide fuel-efficient stoves for most of the 800 families (6000 people) in the 30 communities that surround the El Ocote Biosphere Reserve. Each of these families will then be responsible for planting fuelwood trees and trees on degraded sites over the next few years in exchange for the stoves.

This is one of several energy projects being conducted by the Renewable Energy Partnership of the Center for Resource Solutions (CRS) and The Nature Conservancy. This project has been supported by grants from the Greenville Foundation and the Shell Sustainability Foundation. For more information, contact: Jim Welch, CRS Program Manager: (JWelch@aol.com or 415-561-2100 for CRS home office).

*Village Power Newsletter, Issue #15 Thursday, January 31, 2002