Deforestation: Nigerian Government Distributes Cookstoves To Curtail Use of Firewood

The Director-General of National Council on Climate Change, Dr Salisu Dahiru has said that one way to mitigate effects of climate change is by reducing deforestation ,adding that the Federal Government, in partnership with the Atmosfair, a German company has unveiled  plans to distribute one million ‘Save80 Clean Cookstoves’ annually to curtail the use of firewood by 80 per cent.

Dahiru stated this while briefing newsmen on the sidelines of a Sensitization programme for North Central Women, held in Keffi Local Government Area of Nasarawa State.

He said: “In Nigeria, we know that one of the ways we harvest and use trees is for cooking. Remember, we have a population of over 200 million, if 80 per cent of these 200 million are relying on firewood as the main source of energy for cooking and heating whether it is direct firewood or you are using charcoal is all firewood. ”

Tell me the area that will be affected every year just to get firewood for cooking is so much that if something concrete is not done, then we will continue to deflect our forests, we will lose the forests and we will lose the soil.

“And it will not be able to support agriculture and then it will become desert and people will migrate and go to the areas where there is still little forest and the community in those places where you have little forests begin to resist them and then communal clashes will come.”

Meanwhile, Dahiru revealed that  the Federal Government, in partnership with Atmosfair, a German company, has  planned to distribute one million ‘Save80 Clean Cookstoves’ annually to curtail the use of firewoods by 80 per cent.

He said that the cookstove had been invented and designed in such a way that it would help families save at least 80 per cent of all the firewoods that they use in cooking a standard meal for any family.

He said: “That is exactly what we are doing and that is why we are partnering with the private sector. Remember this is an invention outside Nigeria but we made it so easy”.

The director-general said that the issue of climate change was one of the most important issues that affect everybody, both the rich and poor, small or developed countries.

Earlier, the Chief Executive Officer of Atmosfair gGmbh, Dr Dietrich Brockhagen, explained that the cookstove not only saves about 80 per cent of cost, but it also has a 10 years guarantee.

He said: “When I first came to Nigeria 10 years ago, I traveled from the South West Lagos up to Katsina and when I saw the beautiful landscape and I met so many Nigerians and I realized how much forest was degraded”.

” I saw many women cooking with firewood and they were suffering from pollution and I said ok there must be a solution to this and some of my Nigerian friends told me that even the tension between herders and farmers sometimes can be linked to erosion and land degradation”.

“So, I said maybe if I bring an efficient cookstove to Nigeria it might be a solution and there could be changed and this is what I have been trying ever since.”

Also speaking, Amb. Faruk Malami-Yabo, the Chairman, Board of Advisory of the company and former Nigerian Ambassador to Jordan, said the cookstoves would not only enhance the cooking process, but also save the environment from the negative effects of climate change.

He revealed that the company would distribute no fewer than 6.7 million cookstoves over the next five years in the country.

Agro Nigeria / F.I