Project Name: Gambia Mayon Turbo Stove (MTS) Project

Location: Banjul and the Central River District, The Gambia, West Africa

The initial research undertaken for this project in the Gambia was aided by The Gambia Experience who have provided the primary source of funds for the first batch of stoves. Given the current successes of the first year programme, TICOS is seeking to increase its investment in years 2 and 3 through an enhanced programme providing stoves to more communities in Senegal and The Gambia. The main funding company, Gambia Experience, has agreed that TICOS can invite other tour operators who are members of the Association of Independent Tour Operators (AITO) to support this programme through offset contributions from their customers. Please contact TICOS for more information about contributing to this project, quoting its reference number 'TP060' in all correspondence.

Community cooking Tea time

Dick Sisman, founder of the Tourism Industry Carbon Offset Service, made an inspection visit to see the new stoves operation in October 2009, and was delighted to see that not only was this new stoves project hugely popular with rural communities but that it was achieving even greater savings in both CO2 emissions and cooking costs than originally anticipated.

Project Status Table for TICOS Project TP060
Date verified by TICOS:	October 2008
Estimated project cost:	£35,000 (for 1,500 stoves)
Project timescale:	3 years plus
Additional sustainable development benefits:	It is estimated than approximately 1 in 20 households will use the stove for commercial applications, thus creating supplementary livelihoods. Women in the Gambia spend the equivalent of at least one of every three days collecting fuel wood. Reducing this burden will allow time to devote to income-generating activities, food self-sufficiency and household management. Bokashi organic fertilizer can be prepared as a by-product of the fuel residues burned in the stoves. This fertilizer, an excellent alternative to costly chemical fertilizers, can be prepared quickly and easily, and farmers can use or sell it, thus offering an important income generating opportunity. The project creates new employment opportunities related to the manufacturing, marketing and distribution of the MTS systems. The project will encourage the involvement of local small to medium size businesses. The project will empower women through incorporation of women's cooperatives in project activities.

Project Details

In 2008, TICOS signed a 3 year agreement with Resource Efficient Agricultural Production (REAP Canada) to build fuel efficient Mayan Turbo Stoves and to provide these to communities in Senegal and The Gambia, as part of a wider programme to introduce and promote sustainable agricultural practices in rural villages.

The provision of the new cooking stoves, which save fuel and reduce carbon emissions, is seen by TICOS as an excellent way to offset the emissions of flights to The Gambia.

This project aims to manufacture and install subsidised Mayon Turbo Stoves (MTS) for households in Banjul and the Central River District in The Gambia. The MTS is a conical stove with an advanced combustion design. The stoves, which are constantly being improved and modified to suit local conditions, have been adapted to burn the plentiful agricultural by-products of rice husk and ground nut shells. As these are freely available many villages are now becoming “wood free” in their cooking. In addition to the savings in cost and time health improvements are also being reported and monitored as the Mayan stoves can be used in the open air and are virtually smoke free.

Community cooking Stove in action

Annually, the Gambia produces approximately 73,000 tonnes of crop milling residues, including 40,000 tonnes of millet husk, 25,000 peanut shells and 8,000 rice hulls. This project would divert approximately 2.6% of the current crop milling residue production in the country from being a waste product. The project aims to manufacture 500 MTS units annually over a period of three years.

In addition to environmental benefits, this project also offers health advantages. Indoor air pollution from cooking using solid biomass is a major source of respiratory disease and illness in The Gambia, shortening the lives of the women who must perform this daily task, and the children they are responsible for. The Mayon Turbo Stove (fuelled with agricultural residues) can reduce particulate matter emissions by 67%, compared with traditional 3-stone fires. Women will not only experience a reduction in smoke by using the MTS but also decreased exposure to smoke through shorter cooking periods. Decreases in household air pollution lower the risk for family members to develop eye infections and respiratory diseases such as bronchitis, emphysema and lung cancer.

In addition to extending the coverage of the stoves TICOS and REAP will:

Continue to improve and modify design to burn more agricultural by-products such as maize husk
Develop and improve the manufacturing skills including improving manufacturing conditions and tooling
Seek to extend the life of the stoves through a parts exchange, particularly the heating cone
Promote and demonstrate the stoves in tourism areas
Extend the range in The Gambia to south of the River Gambia
Improve the pricing structure of the stoves through increased production and beneficial terms for those in hardship
Recalculate the savings in CO2 on the evidence of usage
Seek to develop the initiative in other countries of interest to TICOS service users

This project results in an estimated offset of 8,700 tonnes of CO₂ at a price less than £5 per tonne.