The virtuous circle of improved cookstoves & micro-entrepreneurship in Cambodia
In Cambodia, an Alstom Foundation-supported project initiated in May 2016 with GERES NGO comes to a successful conclusion!
Together with NGO “Group for the Environment, Renewable Energy and Solidarity” (GERES) , we set out to deliver a project entitled “Micro-enterprise development and community empowerment in natural resources management in Cambodia”. The main goal of this project was to address the environmental challenge presented by the non-sustainable use of wood fuels as a primary energy source. Moreover the use of inefficient stove and the scarcity of firewood were compromising the off-season income-generating potential of farmers and their families. The idea was to tackle this issue through the market-based dissemination of energy-efficient, multi-fuel productive stoves (IMEPS) along with renewable fuels.
Three village-based farmer associations/rural communities were engaged in identifying the most representative villages to be involved in a pilot scheme. Following this, the project set out to stimulate -through awareness training- sustainable demand for IMEPS among local food producers and to provide tailored access to eco-stoves installers and renewable biomass fuel suppliers. Thereafter, the aim was to create the conditions for a further scale-up and replication of the solution.
The pilot scheme proved the potential for the improved cookstoves usage among Palm Sugar producers in the province of Kampong Chhnang. All the elements are now in place to allow the entrepreneurs to start the cookstove production business which should take off after the rice harvesting season and before the sugar production season (i.e. between September and December). Viable business plans have been established for each IMEPS entrepreneur and supporting documentation (construction manuals; users notices etc.) has been prepared for the benefit of both supplier and user.
Photos courtesy of GERES NGO