Sandbox

• Wood
• Charcoal
• Pellets/Briquettes
• Ethanol
• Biogas
• LPG
• Electricity

Summary	Availability & Cost	Stoves/Appliances	Health, Safety and Environment	Opportunities	Limitations
Biomass and Biomass-based Fuels
Wood
Firewood is a traditional cooking fuel, culturally accepted in many contexts and the smoke produced from the burning of wood can flavour foods	- Firewood not always available to displaced communities - Where readily available, firewood can be collected at high environmental cost and social cost (friction with the community, gender-based violence while collecting etc.) - Where demand for firewood is high and there is limited availability, cost can be relatively high - Firewood bans are becoming a popular tool to reduce deforestation - Where firewood bans are in place, it may be unavailable or relatively expensive as sold through the black market	Stove Types: - Three Stone Fire, Improved Mud Stove, Improved Cookstoves Availability and Costs: - Three stone fires are open fires and although they have no financial cost. - Improved mud stoves can be produced relatively cheaply where appropriate clay soils are readily available and thus, likely to achieve higher adoption. They provide Tier performance and have room for further efficiency improvement to achieve quality standards for clean cooking. (see MTF framework below). - Improved cookstoves can be produced locally or are available from international suppliers relatively cheaply, although generally costs increase as higher quality standards are achieved	- Collection of firewood can put women and children at risk of sexual gender-based violence - Cookstoves with a low tier of performance causes high levels of indoor air pollution and associated health concerns (e.g. respiratory diseases, eye irritation, etc.) - Cooking on open fire poses risk of burns and fires - Uncontrolled exploitation of firewood can lead to deforestation and environmental degradation - Competing demands for a limited resource can lead to friction between the host and displaced communities - In instances where biomass is non-renewably collected, improved cookstoves can contribute positively to climate change by reducing the emissions.	- Improved cookstoves are more available than alternative clean cook stoves in most contexts - Many commercially made improved cookstoves are more efficient than three-stone fires and some (Tier 4) also meet most of the international quality standards   - Improved cookstoves have relatively lower price and higher uptake compared to alternative clean cookstoves	- Most improved cookstoves do not meet the quality standard for clean cooking, particularly if used improperly - Improved cookstoves are dependent on biomass fuel sources, many of which are unsustainably grown and collected - Handcrafted cookstoves cannot guarantee quality standards, and consequently it is impossible to quantify their impact - Although sustainably managed wood lots are possible, the size of the land required is generally prohibitive with regards to meeting the demands of a displaced community in its entirety (this includes households, businesses and institutions)