Improving livelihoods and fighting desertification in the Sahel zone
Over half of Mali is covered by the Sahara Desert, and its sparse forests are threatened by further desertification, bushfires and land clearing for farming and firewood – up to 90 per cent of people in Mali’s rely on burning wood and charcoal to meet their energy needs. Traditional cooking methods use open-fire indoor stoves that emit harmful smoke.
To learn more about the Sustainable Development Goals verified by the standard for this project, please check the project's registry link above.
The Bamako Cookstoves, distributing fuel-efficient charcoal cookstoves in major towns and market centres, expanding into the arid Sahel zone. The project distributes more efficient ‘Sewa’ cookstoves, they are locally made and hard-wearing and are designed to last on average 5 years of daily use. The stoves require 30-40% less fuel for cooking and greatly reduce the amount of indoor smoke pollution.
The project reduces wood and charcoal consumption, alleviating pressure on forests while offering families financial relief from rising fuel costs. Women and children benefit from faster and safer cooking, and public health is improved as people are less exposed to harmful smoke from traditional open-fire cooking. Cooking on traditional cookstoves is deeply entrenched in Mali as many people do not have the resources to upgrade to a safer option. With carbon finance, this project is breaking the trend and changing lives by making clean efficient cookstoves accessible to communities around the country.
