Kulera REDD+ and Cookstoves, Malawi
Creating forest based sustainable livelihoods for 225,000 people, to mitigate threats to forest resources and build climate resilience
Project Type: Natural climate solutions, Forest conservation (REDD+), Health and livelihoods, Clean cooking
Standards: CCB, VCS
Through the combination of forest protection and the distribution of clean cookstoves, the project is using carbon finance to deliver significant emissions reductions, protect an important area of biodiversity value, and address the health risks of indoor air pollution. The project is targeting the conservation of approximately 170,000 hectares of forest and working with 45,000 households to reduce fuelwood use, develop sustainable livelihoods, increase community resilience to climate change, and promote biodiversity.
Nearly 30,000 people have received training on sustainable natural resource management and biodiversity conservation
Sustainable Development Goals
In addition to delivering approximately 210,000 tonnes of emission reductions each year, the project delivers a number of other sustainable development benefits. These include:
- No poverty: The project is developing local enterprises based on sustainably harvested non-timber forest products such as honey, coffee, and macadamia to transform livelihoods away from subsistence. Nearly 30,000 people have received training on sustainable natural resource management and biodiversity conservation, helping them improve the productivity and health of the land for agriculture. More than one third of these were women.
- Zero hunger: A critical part of the project's work is increasing agricultural output and resilience to climate change, while reducing hunting pressures in the project zone. The project has distributed livestock as an important source of protein for farmers, including training on feeding and veterinary care.
- Affordable and clean energy: The project is aiming to deliver a fuel-efficient cookstove to every household in the project zone to reduce fuelwood consumption, and has also planted 8,500,000 trees as an alternative source of fuel wood, benefitting almost 32,000 households. The project has also sold more than 1,250 solar lights to community members.
- Life on land: The project area has a High Conservation Value since it surrounds three wildlife reserves/national parks which contain some of the largest amounts of forest in the country. The project looks to address unsustainable land use caused by mounting population pressures.