A large proportion of families in BMCT implementation area cook over an open fire. They not only require firewood in order to do this, which is a cause of greater deforestation, but these fires also produce smoke which damages both human health and the environment. This scenario isn’t different from their rural counterparts in other parts of Uganda.
As a conservation organization, BMCT contributes to the national efforts to reduce pollution as well as deforestation through training their community members in energy saving stoves use.
The energy saving stoves built by BMCT trained communities require less firewood to produce the same amount of heat as an open fire because they are well insulated. They also produce less smoke to mitigate the effect of health and environmental damaging emissions like carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide.
Although the local people will continue to collect firewood, for using in the new stoves, the amount collected will within a specific time period, be reduced.