Fogones Mejorados de Adobe en Nicaragua

“Improved adobe fireplaces and stoves” is carried out through 12 workshops, conceived as spaces of exchange where collective skills are strengthened. Locally obtainable materials will serve as the basis for construction and the community’s knowledge will be the cornerstone of the project. The process is divided into four stages:

1-Diagnosis of the group’s living situation
Taking the collective dream of improving kitchen practices, a critical discourse surrounding the topics of health, the environment, and gender will be encouraged, generating real-life impact and creating change.

2-Participatory design of the improved stove
The process will allow the technology to be adapted to the cultural context, integrating the experiences and aspirations of the participants. There is no predetermined design. Rather, some expertise will be introduced in order to respond to specific necessities that may arise. The stove will be adapted to the local culinary customs while reaching high levels of energy efficiency, reducing the consumption of firewood by at least 50% and carbon emissions by more than 80%. This stage includes a prototype for the stove, from which the efficiency can be measured, as well as a trip to another community to exchange experiences. On both occasions, the women will be allowed to cook and evaluate specific aspects of the stove.

3-Construction Workshop
The members of the community, the majority of whom live in adobe houses, will learn new construction techniques with adobe and, in small groups, experiment with the construction of a model stove. This stage aims at establishing a learning community, not only for the construction of the families’ stoves but also for other possible occasions in the future.

4-Self-construcion of the families’ stoves
The families will construct their stoves with the help of individual technical monitoring, which will continue the passing-on of knowledge and assure the durability of the stoves. To further strengthen construction expertise, a manual that graphically explains the construction steps may be developed.
Upon the conclusion of this process, the community will realize a monitoring process to assure durability and correct usage. We do not define the project’s success by the number of constructed stoves, but by the number of those that stay in use.

In Nicaragua, like in many countries of the world, kitchens with open fires have grave sanitary and environmental repercussions. In light of rising prices for gas and easy access to woodland, firewood continues to be used especially in areas of grave poverty. This is a massive problem; to the extent that in central America alone, more than 20 million people use firewood for cooking. Therefore, it is important to find forms of using biomass from wood more efficiently and sustainably.

The “biomass improved stoves” improve the benefits derived from firewood, by reducing CO2 emissions and diminishing the inhalation of smoke. Since the 1970s, practices of cleaner kitchens have been promoted in the development sector, but in many cases, the primary concern was energy efficiency, while cultural aspects were ignored, often causing the new technologies to be rejected by local populations.

“Improved adobe stoves” responds to a double challenge. On the one hand, it has to find a middle ground between energy efficiency and the local food culture. On the other hand, the response should address the problem in a broad manner. The challenge is planted at the bottom, with users being the principal actors in the process, enabling the generation of a shared and reproduced knowledge.

The project is developing in the “Corredor Seco” of Jinotega, a territory acutely threatened by climate change, and especially affected by problems of deforestation. The rural communities of Walasa, Agua Zarca, Paso Anchoand and Los Calpules are very isolated populations, which have practically no formal social coverage. Conditions of life are marked by extreme poverty mostly due to the limited access to alternative forms of development.
The project directly involved approximately 150 to 180 beneficiaries. Although, it is mostly directed at women since they are principally the ones involved with cooking. In these communities it is generally men who decide about changes in the home, diminishing the priorities of women to the “back yard”. In this context, the project attempts to involve the entire family in the process, strengthening the role of women in inter familial relations.

The objectives of the project are specific to the local population, but its reach may be much broader and may have multiplying effects in time and space. In addition to constructing 30 improved adobe stoves, the project expects to generate technical knowledge and promote practices, which the community may transmit to future generations.
The documentation produced will help to spread knowledge in the network, creating a collective return that may inspire similar projects in other contexts, necessary to address the problem on a global scale.

Short-Term Objectives:

• Improve working conditions of 30 Nicaraguan women in the home through a more efficient use of improved stoves.
• Generate knowledge and capacities for the self-construction of improved stoves, reinforcing knowledge in the use of local materials.

Long-Term Objectives:

• Reduce pressure on the environment in the communities of the Corredor Seco of Jinotega.
• Improve the health of families, especially of women and children.
• Promote the use and culture of improved wood-fired stoves, both in Nicaragua and abroad.

The working team consists of three pillars. The local organization “La Cuculmeca” will allow the establishment of the project in communities which it has been working with since 2008. Colectivo Zompopo will contribute specific knowledge obtained through previous experience in participatory design and self-construction of improved stoves with local materials. The communities will actively participate in the project, contributing their own knowledge and resources. They are not only people with necessites, but also with skills and capacities.

Colectivo zompopo has developed a pilot project of 15 improved adobe stoves in the community of La Prusia, Granada, Nicaragua. This precedent allows the guidance of the present project, including the operative strategies and the successful activities that have resulted from the first project. The
“La Prusia” model is a reference both on technical and design level. It is a base that will be enrichened and perfected by the contributions generating during the new process. The previously developed participatory methodology will be re-contemplated with the ample experience of the local NGO.

The association of education and communication “La Cuculmeca” is an education and communication association that facilitates and impacts sustainable management of the environment and participation of communities in their own development. It is composed of a general assembly of associations, a board of directors, collegiate management for the management of strategic development and the management of administering strategic capacities. Currently, it executes 26 development projects in 160 communities of 7 municipalities in the department of Jinotega. Between them, they are developing the project of “Promotion of Rural Agriculture”, contributing to the nutritional security of the families through several efforts that promote ecological production, environmental protection, and civil participation. The new project compliments this effort to improve the conditions of rural life.

The members of the communities of Walasá, Agua Zarca, Paso Ancho, and Los Calpules are experts on local materials and their applications in construction. Due to isolation and a precarious economic situation, the majority of the houses are built with mud, using adobe or “taquetzal” techniques. This building culture, greatly forgotten by the rest of the country, will constitute an important contribution to the construction and design process. In addition, the families will actively participate in all phases of the project.