Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T07:44:22.107Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Unbelievable but improved cookstoves are not helpful in reducing firewood demand in Nepal

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 October 2010

MANI NEPAL ,
APSARA NEPAL  and
KRISTINE GRIMSRUD
MANI NEPAL
Affiliation:
South Asian Network for Development and Environmental Economics (SANDEE) and the Central Department of Economics, Tribhuvan University, P.O. Box 8975, EPC-1056, Kathmandu, Nepal. Tel: +977-1-500-3222. Email: [email protected]
APSARA NEPAL
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, University of New Mexico, MSC05 3060, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA. Email: [email protected]
KRISTINE GRIMSRUD
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, University of New Mexico, MSC05 3060, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper analyzes the effect of different types of cookstoves on firewood demand at the household level. Using nationally representative household survey data from Nepal, we find that stove type significantly affects the firewood demand for household uses. Traditional mud-stove user households seem to use less firewood than the open-fire stove users. Surprisingly, households with the so-called ‘improved’ stoves seem to use more firewood than the households with mud stoves. Thus, converting traditional open-fire stoves to mud stoves may be a better conservation strategy in the short term rather than installing improved stoves, unless the technology improves. However, in the long run, making cleaner fuel more accessible to rural households is desirable to reduce indoor air pollution.

Type
Research Article
Information
Environment and Development Economics , Volume 16 , Issue 1 , February 2011 , pp. 1 - 23
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Amacher, G.S., Hyde, W.F., and Joshee, B.R. (1992), ‘The adoption of consumption technology under uncertainty: a case of improved stoves in Nepal’, Journal of Economic Development 17 (2): 93–105.Google Scholar
Amacher, G.S., Hyde, W.F., and Joshee, B.R. (1993) ‘Joint production and consumption in traditional households: fuelwood and crop residues in two districts of Nepal’, Journal of Development Studies 30: 206–225.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arnold, J.E.M, Kohling, G., and Persson, R. (2006), ‘Woodfuels, livelihoods, and policy interventions: changing perspectives’, World Development 34 (3): 596–611.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bajracharya, D. (1983), ‘Deforestation in the food/fuel context: historical and political perspectives from Nepal’, Mountain Research and Development 3 (3): 227–240.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baland, J.M., Bardhan, P., Das, S., Mookherjee, D., and Sarkar, R. (2010), ‘The environmental impact of poverty: evidence from firewood collection in rural Nepal’, Economic Development and Cultural Change 59 (1): 23–61.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barnes, D.F., Openshaw, K., Smith, K.R., and van der Plas, R. (1993), ‘The design and diffusion of improved cooking stoves’, The World Bank Research Observer 8 (2): 119–141.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barnes, D.F., Openshaw, K., Smith, K.R., and van der Plas, R. (1994), ‘What makes people cook with improved biomass stoves?’, World Bank Technical Paper 242.Google Scholar
Bazile, D. (2001), ‘Improved stoves for preventing deforestation: myth or reality?’, Boiling Point 46: 33–34.Google Scholar
CBS (1996), Nepal Living Standards Survey Report 1996, Vol. I, Kathmandu: Central Bureau of Statistics.Google Scholar
CBS (2004), Nepal Living Standards Survey 2003/04, Statistical Report, Vol. I and II, Kathmandu: Central Bureau of Statistics.Google Scholar
CBS (2009), Executive Summary, Nepal Labor Force Survey, 2009, Kathmandu: Central Bureau of Statistics.Google Scholar
Chengappa, C., Edwards, R., Bajpai, R., Shields, K.N., and Smith, K.R. (2007), ‘Impact of improved cook-stoves on indoor air quality in the Bundelkhand Region in India’, Energy for Sustainable Development XI (2): 33–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clemens, E., Rijal, K., and Takada, M. (2010), Capacity Development for Scaling Up Decentralized Energy Access Programmes: Lessons from Nepal on Its Role, Costs, and Financing, Warwickshire, UK: Practical Action Publishing Ltd.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooke, P., Kohlin, G., and Hyde, W.F. (2008), ‘Fuelwood, forests and community management – evidence from household studies’, Environment and Development Economics 13: 103–135.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edmonds, E.V. (2002). ‘Government initiated community resource management and local resource extraction from Nepal's forests’, Journal of Development Economics 68: 89–115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edwards, R.D., Smith, K.R., Zhang, J., and Ma, Y. (2004), ‘Implications of changes in household stoves and fuel use in China’, Energy Policy 32: 395–411.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Geist, H.J. and Lambin, E.F. (2002), ‘Proximate causes and underlying driving forces of tropical deforestation’, BioScience 52 (2): 143–150.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gustafsson, O., Krusa, M., Zencak, Z., Sheesley, R.J., Granat, L., Engstrom, E., Praveen, P.S., Rao, P.S.P., Leck, C., and Rodhe, H. (2009), ‘Brown clouds over South Asia: biomass or fossil fuel combustion?’, Science 323: 495–498.Google ScholarPubMed
IPCC (2007), Climate Change 2007: Synthesis Report, Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Geneva: IPCC, Switzerland.Google Scholar
Kanel, K.R. (2004), Twenty Five Years’ of Community Forestry: Contribution to Millennium Development Goals, Department of Forest, Government of Nepal.Google Scholar
Khare, A., Sarin, M., Saxena, N., Palit, S., Bathla, S., Vania, F., and Satyanarayana, M. (2000), Joint Forest Management: Policy, Practice, and Prospects. Policy That Works For Forests and People Series 3, New Delhi and London: World Wide Fund for Nature-India, and International Institute for Environment and Development.Google Scholar
Köhlin, G. and Parks, P.J. (2001), ‘Spatial variability and disincentives to harvest: deforestation and fuelwood collection in South Asia’, Land Economics 77 (2): 206–218.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Makame, M.O. (2007), ‘Adoption of improved stoves and deforestation in Zanzibar’, Management of Environmental Quality 18 (3): 353–365.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Malla, M.B. (2009), ‘Revisiting the Need for Improved Stoves: Estimating Health, Time and Carbon Benefits’, SANDEE Working Paper 44–09, The South Asian Network for Development and Environmental Economics, Kathmandu.Google Scholar
Masera, O., Edwards, R., Arnez, C.A., Berrueta, V., Johnson, M., Bracho, L.R, Rioja-Rodriguez, H., and Smith, K.R. (2007), ‘Impact of Patsari improved cookstoves on indoor air quality in Michoacan, Mexico’, Energy for Sustainable Development XI (2): 45–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCracken, J.P. and Smith, K.R. (1998), ‘Emissions and efficiency of improved woodburing cookstoves in Highland Guatemala’, Environment International 24 (7): 739–747.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Palmer, C. and MacGregor, J. (2009), ‘Fuelwood scarcity, energy substitution, and rural livelihoods in Namibia’, Environment and Development Economics 14: 693–715.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pant, K.P. (2008), ‘Estimating Health Benefits when Behaviors are Endogenous: A Case of Indoor Air Pollution in Rural Nepal’, SANDEE Working Paper 34–08, The South Asian Network for Development and Environmental Economics, Kathmandu.Google Scholar
Practical Action (2009), Inventory of Innovative Indoor Air Pollution Alleviating Technologies in Nepal, Kathmandu: Practical Action.Google Scholar
Sinton, J.E., Smith, K.R., Peabody, J.W., Yaping, L., Xiliang, Z., Edwards, R., and Quan, G. (2004), ‘An assessment of programs to promote improved household stoves in China’, Energy for Sustainable Development VIII (3): 33–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sorrell, S., Dimitropoulos, J., and Sommerville, M. (2009), ‘Empirical estimates of the direct rebound effect: a review’, Energy Policy 37: 1356–1371.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
StataCorp (2009), Stata: Release 11, Statistical Software, College Station, TX: StataCorp LP.Google Scholar
Zein-Elabdin, E.O. (1997), ‘Improved stoves in Sub-Saharan Africa: the case of the Sudan’, Energy Economics 19: 465–475.CrossRefGoogle Scholar