Combating Deforestation? – Impacts of Improved Stove Dissemination on Charcoal Consumption in Urban Senegal

The dissemination of improved cooking stoves (ICS) is frequently considered an effective instrument to combat deforestation. This paper evaluates the impacts of an ICS dissemination project in urban Senegal implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (German Agency for International Cooperation, or GIZ). Based on a survey among 624 households, we examine the effects of the intervention on charcoal consumption. Given a complex cooking behavior in urban Africa with simultaneous usage of different fuel and stove types, the virtue of our data set is that it provides for detailed information on individual stoves and meals. This allows for estimating charcoal savings by accounting for both household characteristics and meal specific cooking patterns. On average, households using an ICS save around 25 percent of charcoal per stove utilization. In total, around 6.1 to 6.9 percent of the Dakar charcoal consumption is saved due to the ICS dissemination project

A Recipe for Success? Randomized Free Distribution of Improved Cooking Stoves in Senegal

Today more than 2.7 billion people rely on biomass as their primary cooking fuel, with profound implications for the environment and people's well-being. Wood provision is often time-consuming and the emitted smoke has severe health effects - both burdens that afflict women in particular. The dissemination of Improved Cooking Stoves (ICS) is frequently considered an eff ective remedy for these problems. This paper evaluates the take-up of ICS and their impacts through a randomized controlled trial in rural Senegal. Although distributed for free, the ICS are used by almost 100 % of households. Furthermore, we find substantial effects on firewood consumption, eye infections, and respiratory disease symptoms. These findings substantiate the increasing efforts of the international community to improve access to improved cooking stoves and call for a more direct promotion of these stoves

The Intensive Margin of Technology Adoption - Experimental Evidence on Improved Cooking Stoves in Rural Senegal

Today 2.6 billion people in developing countries rely on biomass as primary cooking fuel, with profound negative implications for their well-being. Improved biomass cooking stoves are alleged to counteract these adverse effects. This paper evaluates take-up and impacts of low-cost improved stoves through a randomized controlled trial. The randomized stove is primarily designed to curb firewood consumption but not smoke emissions. Nonetheless, we find considerable effects not only on firewood consumption, but also on smoke exposure and smoke-related disease symptoms - induced by behavioural changes at the intensive margin affecting outside cooking and cooking time due to the new stove.Fast drei Milliarden Menschen in Entwicklungsländern kochen auf traditionelle Art und Weise mit Biomasse. Damit einhergehende Folgen sind unter anderem eine verstärkte Abholzung der Wälder und eine ausgeprägte Rauchpartikelbelastung der Haushalte. Kochöfen, die eine effizientere und sauberere Verbrennung ermöglichen, gelten als probates Mittel, negativen Effekten auf die Lebensbedingungen der betroffenen Bevölkerung entgegenzuwirken und den Holzverbrauch zu reduzieren. Dieser Beitrag untersucht die Einführung und in der Folge auftretende Wirkungen von verbesserten und zugleich einfachen Kochöfen anhand einer randomisierten kontrollierten Studie im ländlichen Senegal. Der untersuchte Ofen ist in erster Linie dazu konzipiert den Feuerholzverbrauch zu reduzieren und günstig lokal herstellbar zu sein. Jedoch lassen sich auch erhebliche positive Gesundheitswirkungen nachweisen, die einer geringeren Rauchbelastung zugeschrieben werden, welche wiederum auf Verhaltensänderungen zurückzuführen ist: Haushalte kochen vermehrt im Freien und Köche verbringen deutlich weniger Zeit an der Feuerstelle. Diese Beobachtungen liefern weitere Evidenz dafür, dass die Effektivität von technologieorientierten Interventionen stark von dem Verhalten, wie die neue Technologie genutzt wird, beeinflusst werden kann