SeedTree's Biogas Program

SeedTree also protects forests in Nepal by promoting and implementing energy conserving technology.

Improved smokeless stoves conserve 25% of the firewood needed for a traditional stove. This efficiency saves firewood gathering time and forest resources. The chimneys attached to these stoves remove smoke from the home environment particularly benefiting the health of women and children. The cost of improved smokeless stoves is affordable so they benefit even the poorest homes.

Biogas (methane generated from human and animal waste) has been called  Deep Green Energy  for its many benefits in rural human ecology.

Biogas Systems:

• destroy methane, the highly destructive greenhouse gas, so it does not go into the atmosphere and contribute to global warming;

• provide clean-burning fuel for stoves and lamps instead of using wood or dung which lose their soil building and fertilizing value when burned;

• reduce labor, since women now spend one day a week to collect a backbreaking 60 - 80 lb. load of scarce wood or fodder.

• protect the remaining forests by reducing the need to gather firewood;

• reduce respiratory disorders caused by smoke from cooking with firewood which especially affects women and their small children;

• improve village hygiene, since the attached toilets lead to the pathogen-destroying digestion tanks of the systems;

• yield more potent fertilizer than the original constituent wastes like the dung collected by children at right;

• motivate users to contain livestock which otherwise consume forest regeneration as they graze;

• provide lighting needed for evening study, literacy classes, home and community activities.