Latest News

• Press Release
• 26/6/2008

In a county where there is no gas or electricity, the most common way to cook is on open fires using wood. An estimated 72,000 hectares of forest is being cut down in Uganda every year, mainly to provide cooking wood for the growing population.  In natural forests, it can take around 50 years for trees to grow back!

Mud stove

So that’s why simple mud stoves introduced by the New Forest Company are making a real difference to communities in Uganda and their surroundings. Bricks for the stoves are made by mixing mud with water and placing the mixture into a mould.  The bricks are then left to bake in the sun. A double oven with doors is then built with spaces for burning wood and for cooking. The insulation that the stoves provide means that the wood required for cooking will should be halved compared to cooking on an open fire, resulting in a more environmentally sound, sustainable solution, both in terms of the amount of fuel needed and the area of forest being saved.  

Julian Ozanne, Managing Director, NFC says: “Forests are effectively the earth’s lungs.  The loss of this amount of trees each year without any kind of replanting in place is terrible for the future of our planet.  However, we appreciate that the Ugandan population is reliant on wood to eat.  What us a very simple measure will have a powerful impact on the environment and its people. When you see the financial conversion rate of this idea, it shows how the use of a natural existing resource can deliver huge benefits.”