Cameroon Women Cut Firewood Use in Half With New Stoves

When heavy rains flooded the river near her village in northern Cameroon, Astha Pabami couldn't venture out to collect firewood like usual. But the mother of 11 wasn't worried because her new cookstove meant the wood stacked behind her hut would last much longer.

Pabami is one of 250 women in Bang, a village of 3,000, who've started using improved cookstoves that need just four pieces of wood per meal instead of the eight to 10 their old three-stone firesides required. The simple innovation is transforming daily life while protecting the forests these communities depend on.

The cookstoves look like traditional ovens with openings for firewood and pots, but they burn cleaner and far more efficiently. Women report spending less time searching for wood during dry season and more time on farmwork and family. Their pots stay cleaner too, and there's far less smoke filling their homes.

That cleaner air matters more than you might think. Around 2.4 billion people worldwide cook with wood and other solid fuels, and the smoke causes more than 3.2 million premature deaths every year from household air pollution.

The project comes from the Center for International Forestry Research, with support from the European Union. Researcher Colette Maba shares a simple message with communities: "Every time you build an improved cookstove, you protect a tree."

The design's simplicity is its strength. Thirty trained women travel between villages teaching others to build the stoves using cow dung, soil from termite mounds, and straw. The materials are free and locally available, and the finished stoves last more than five years. If cracks appear, they're easily patched with the same mixture.

This matters because similar cookstove projects across Africa have often fizzled out after initial excitement. The researchers believe this one will stick because women immediately notice real benefits and the stoves don't require purchasing materials or special repairs.

The Ripple Effect

The impact extends beyond individual families. Firewood harvesting drives major deforestation across Africa, leaving communities vulnerable to floods and high winds when nearby forests thin out. By cutting wood consumption in half, these villages are protecting the natural barriers that shield them.

The cookstoves also fight climate change in unexpected ways. Burning wood releases black carbon, or soot, which stays in the atmosphere for just days but ranks as the second-largest contributor to warming during that time. A quarter of global black carbon emissions come from cooking with solid fuels.

Aoulasa Balandine Dipeleng, 25, helps promote the project and has seen the transformation firsthand. Her husband, the village chief, notes that women now collect firewood just once a week instead of constantly searching for it.

The forests are breathing easier, and so are the families cooking beneath Cameroon's skies.