Project 2: Forest conservation and improved cooking stoves

Project Summary

Focus Group Discussions in the school at BakacholThe Glacier Trust is working in partnership with Eco Himal Nepal to produce a replicable programme to reduce the dependence of Nepali subsistence hill-farming communities on forest timber as a fuel source. It is intended to achieve this by introducing a forest development and conservation programme in conjunction with an inexpensive, carbon neutral, alternative energy sources. The project was initiated during 2009 in the Lower Solu Khumbu district, focussing upon Lokhim Village Development Committee (VDC) and extended to the neighbouring VDCs of Pawai, Jubu & Bagor, before being replicated on a wider scale.

The problems:
(i) The causes of slope failure in Nepal’s mountainous and dynamic hill farming regions have been debated since the early 1970s. However it is now becoming clearer that the IPCC predicted climate change scenarios for part of this region (longer periods of drought and fewer, but heavier, rainfall events) is rapidly becoming, or has already become, the reality. Soil, dried out after a protracted drought, becomes friable and has the propensity for mass slope failure when inundated by increasingly intense monsoons. Failures of terraced slopes are now being observed annually, often by the end of the second month of the three month monsoon period. There are no indications that this situation will stabilise. Instead, with predicted further increases in temperature, it is likely to become more severe.
(ii) Almost all rural household fuel requirements are met by firewood, most of which is derived from forests and used for cooking. Increased population and tourism are among the impacts placing heavier demands on forest timber, particularly in the higher forests which may regenerate slowly because of their altitude. These forests have vital roles in Nepal’s agricultural terraced field agricultural system, biodiversity, climate amelioration and as carbon sinks. Their importance in preventing the landsliding of terraced slopes cannot be overstated.
A typical Nepali Kitchen ceiling. Cooking on an open fire causes eye infections and respiratory diseases(iii) Traditional cooking takes place on an open hearth (without chimney). This requires the use of more wood than stoves. Ambient household smoke causes respiratory problems, particularly for women and children, whose time is more closely associated with the hearth. Results include premature death, eye infections and child safety hazards.
Solutions:
Trainees learning to install a ventilated stove(i) Conservation of high forest and associated ground cover is seen as increasingly important in maintaining slope stability for the future. Decisions will have to be made by the local community and forest user groups as to whether additional high marginal farmland should be brought under forestation (in order to protect the slopes from heavier rainfall) and also whether forest should be introduced at the expense of some high summer grazing land. A forestry conservation and development programme is intended to improve slope stability and promote education in sustainable exploitation of this resource.
(ii) Contour planting with bamboo has the potential to reduce the propensity for some slope areas to avalanche.
(iii) Demands for fuel wood may be reduced by improved burning efficiency. This includes the introduction of ventilated stoves and smoke hoods. Initially The Glacier Trust supported a programme introduced by Nepal’s Council for Rural Technology to promote fuel known as the biomass briquette. However tests undertaken for the Trust at Nottingham University revealed higher than acceptable yields of carbon monoxide when the briquettes are burnt. (See Articles and Comment) So the focus is now on more efficient ventilated stoves.
Intended Outcomes:
Part of a larger terraced slope failure below Lokhim(i) Forest: -Improved conservation by regeneration and reduction of timber depletion for firewood.
-The reduction of alien invasive plants such as banmara (which can prevent regeneration).
-In some areas, the forest floor can be then used for other herb cash crops.
(ii) Health:
-Greatly improved health by elimination of ambient household smoke.
(iii) Carbon neutral heat source
(iv) Education:
-The longer terms concept of climate change is little understood by these farming communities. An education programme may help decisions over crops and planning. Understanding forest management, biodiversity, health, and financial management are all integral to this programme.
Sustainability & Assessment:
Bamboo can sometimes bring a landslide to a halt by allowing the water to run out of the debrisThe introduction of a new technology in any developing country is no guarantee that it will be adopted long term. It is essential to embed a sustained educational and capacity building programme into the project. An 18 month monitoring period is key both to its successful long term adaptation and to ensure the transfer of learnt skills to other communities and will be monitored by a MSc postgraduate student

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