Fuel-Efficient Stoves for Guatemala

EcoLogic designs all of its project activities with an emphasis on building long-term capacity for local communities to manage forests through proper monitoring, evaluation, reforestation and protection techniques.  After a plan for fuel-efficient stoves and reforestation is implemented in a community, we work with our local partners to monitor the reforested and restored areas to make sure great progress is being made! We set short term milestones for each project that lead to overall goals to improve the livelihoods and natural resources in all the areas we work. 

Our fuel-efficient stove projects significantly reduce the amount of trees cut in the forest because they use less fuel wood. In tandem, as part of our forest protection solutions, we teach farmers an agroforestry technique called “alley cropping” or planting Inga edulis trees along with their crops.  Agroforestry, an alternative to slash-and-burn agriculture, improves the soil and reduces the need for clear-cutting forest land to make new arable farmland.  This year with our partner, APROSARSTÚN in Guatemala’s Sarstún region, our goal is to achieve the following short-term and long-term conservation outcomes:

Short-term:

• By June 30, we will have helped three new communities create a plan for reforestation, leading to the reforestation of 10 hectares of native tree species in water recharge zones of microwatersheds in each community.
• By June 30, these three communities will be aware of the origins of their water in microwatersheds and the limitations of the microwatersheds. They will also have defined a clean water management plan with their community leaders.
• By August 30, thirty families (180 people) in two communities will have reduced their use of fuelwood by 60% through the adoption of fuel-efficient wood-burning stoves.
• By August 30, five communities will have established nurseries growing native tree saplings.
• In addition, these farmers will have received training in agroforestry using the alley-cropping method with guama (Inga edulis).
• By December 30, a total of 25 new acres of agroforestry plots will be established among the 150 farmers now trained in the alley-cropping technique.

Long-term:

• By 2017, at least 320 families, or 90% of families within the Sarstún River Multiple Use Area will be using fuel-efficient wood-burning stoves
• By 2018, the number of farmers in Sarstún communities who have replaced slash-and-burn agriculture with agroforestry practices will have increased by 50%.
• By 2018, all 13 communities that collaborate with EcoLogic and APROSARSTUN have established microwatershed management plans and a system for maintaining clean drinking water for years to come.

We at EcoLogic are excited that these communities are making so much progress conserving their land and water - and we have you to thank for supporting us!