FA info icon.svg Angle down icon.svg Organization data
Type Civil Society Organization
Founded 2002
Location Chiapas, Mexico
Area served Chiapas, Mexico
Site web.archive.org/web/20160714122950/forods.laneta.apc.org/esp/foro_quienes.htm
Green hosting No
Impact 891

Mission statement

Organization Summary[edit | edit source]

Location[edit | edit source]

Nicolás Ruiz 83

29230 San Cristóbal de Las Casas

Chiapas, México.

Contact info[edit | edit source]

Main areas of work[edit | edit source]

  • Collective rights for indigenous communities
  • Sustainable development
  • Gender and the environment

Stove program summary[edit | edit source]

Name of stove[edit | edit source]

Improved Justa

Stove description[edit | edit source]

Foro disseminates what they call an "improved Justa" cookstove. The stove consists of a highly efficient combustion chamber, a plancha style cooking surface and a chimney to direct emissions out of the house. This version of the Justa Stove is distinct from the traditional Justa in that it does not have a rocket box combustion chamber. In place of the rocket box the combustion chamber is essentially the entire space beneath the plancha. There are 2 baffles (steps) within the combustion chamber that direct hot gases to the cooking surface. The base of the combustion chamber has a general rising slope of from the front to back, funneling the hot gases towards the cooking surface and restricting the flow of air for increased efficiency. The fixed costs for each stove are around 127 USD, however it is difficult to quantify the true cost of a stove to FORO because it is part of ongoing capacity building programs.

Dissemination strategy[edit | edit source]

Foro pays 100% of the stove cost in addition to the ongoing support and capacity building programs that are a part of the adoption process. This includes at least three follow up visits for each stove recipient. FORO supplies bricks, stove pipes, cement and lime powder. Community members supply the labor and the base of the stove. FORO also provides long term support in education about stove maintenance and cleaning. They facilitate community meetings about 2-3 times per year and among other things the women discuss the functioning of the stoves.

Stove recipients are usually not required to pay money with the exception of one village which as opted to do so, having 80 USD required from each recipient as a payment. This was used to seed a locally managed micro credit account. All recipients are require to provide the stove base and all labor for the construction of the stove.

In the beginning of the stove program Foro asked stove recipients to pay one-half of the stove cost in order to be able to provide more stoves. However the villagers refused. Their reasoning was that the government gives these stoves away for free so why should they have to pay?

Notes FORO has been working in Jech Entik village in Zinacantan for 7 or 8 years now. It is 100% Maya and the language is Totzil. There are about 200 families in the village and FORO has helped to install 250 improved cookstoves in the community. They first started working in this community in 2003. In addition to the cookstove program, FORO does micro-financing and reforestation programs with the community.

Follow up[edit | edit source]

FORO visits each stove recipient at least three times after they have received their new stove.

Foro observations[edit | edit source]

What is the ideal stove?:

"There is no ideal stove. There is a lot of competition between different stove types. But each place with its cultural context has different needs. We cannot impose one way on the communities. All models could be improved. The minimum requirement is that it improves indoor air quality and reduces the amount of fuel consumed." -Adriana Alcazar, 6/16/2010

What barriers to adoption are you confronted with?:

"It is difficult to change wood consumption patterns. High efficiency stoves tend to take longer to heat and therefore pots take longer to warm. Furthermore many people have traditionally relied on their stoves to heat their homes in the cold months at these high altitudes. For this reason they seem to like the large plancha metal cooking surface of the Justa because it does a good job of heating the home as well...Cooks need time to get used to managing the fuel consumption of the new stove, and burning tortillas is common when they continue to use the same amount of wood as before." - Adriana Alcazar, 6/16/2010

Main objectives of stove program[edit | edit source]

  1. Reduce total household time spent collecting and chopping wood
  2. Reduce fuel consumption and improve household economics
  3. Improve indoor air quality
  4. Forest Conservation

Year started[edit | edit source]

  • 2002

Number of stoves disseminated[edit | edit source]

  • 345

Adoption rate[edit | edit source]

  • 80% (estimated)

Communities served to date[edit | edit source]

  • Ocingo, Chiapas - 15 stoves
  • Zinacantan, Chiapas - 250 stoves
  • Canalum, Chiapas - 60 stoves
  • Navenchow, Chiapas - 10 stoves
  • Benefenito, Chiapas - 20 stoves
  • Huistan, Chiapas - 20 stoves
FA info icon.svg Angle down icon.svg Page data
Keywords improved cook stoves, international development, energy
SDG SDG07 Affordable and clean energy, SDG11 Sustainable cities and communities
Authors Tirian Mink
License CC-BY-SA-3.0
Language English (en)
Related 0 subpages, 3 pages link here
Impact 281 page views
Created September 5, 2010 by Tirian Mink
Modified October 23, 2023 by StandardWikitext bot
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