Roy, B., Rahman, M.H. & Sarker, P. (2018) The importance of improved cooking stove for forest conservation, economic benefits and climate change mitigation-A Bangladesh case study. International Congress on Engineering and Sustainability in the XXI Century, 84-102, Springer, Cham.
NON-cE3c affiliatedBiomass energy is one of the most primary sources of energy for the poor people particularly for the forest dependent communities. Similarly, forest dependent communities in Bangladesh use different types of forest biomass energy (i.e., wood, trees, leaves, undergrowth and bamboo) as fuels in the traditional cooking stove which results on continuous forest destruction, incomplete combustion of fuels, and environmental and health problems to the users. To minimize the pressure on forest resources, ensuring efficient use of biomass fuels and conserving forest biodiversity, Bangladesh Forest Department with technical support from German Society for International Cooperation introduced improved cooking stoves (ICS) programme in the country’s protected areas (PAs). The present study has been carried out in a PA of northeastern Bangladesh to explore the importance of ICS in forest conservation, generating economic benefits, and as a whole, its potential role to climate change mitigation along with scope in carbon credits. A multistage random sampling method was applied to collect data from 120 ICS users by using a semi-structured questionnaire. Survey revealed that adoption of ICS has reduced consumption of about 0.249 Mg (Megagram) of biomass and saved an amount of USD 1219.5 per month per household (p = 0.000). Almost about 38% households reduced their entrance in the forest and the frequency of entrance drops to almost 69% per month compared to before using ICS (p = 0.000). The average savings of fuelwood per households per year is 3.035 Mg, reduced CO2 emission is more than 8 Mg and the total reduction of emission of all GHGs is almost about 9 Mg/HH/year CO2 equivalent. The study suggests that ICS generates substantial economic saving for the people living in and around of the PA and can play important role in carbon credits of USD 896.2, received by each household. The study suggested that this study will help government, donors, policymakers and academicians to design forest policy related to climate change mitigation.
Bishwajit Roy Ecology of Environmental Change - eChanges
