From Sumi Mehta, Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves
Dear colleagues,
Over the next three years, the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves (Alliance) will support a small, strategic portfolio of targeted research needed to strengthen the evidence base necessary to precisely quantify the benefits of clean cookstoves. For climate research, the initial focus will be on filling gaps in the sector’s understanding of the impact that fuel collection for cooking has on environmental degradation, including deforestation, soil erosion, and other natural resource impacts. More spatially resolved information on the specific areas where collection of firewood could contribute to environmental degradation would help identify areas where scaling clean cookstoves and fuels could provide the greatest environmental benefits. Global mapping of non-renewable fuel collection would be especially useful in identifying the areas of greatest potential environmental impact.
The Alliance is seeking qualified researchers to conduct multiscale geospatial mapping of non-renewable fuel harvesting for biomass fuels. The main objective of this request for proposals is to develop geospatial estimates of the fraction of non-renewable biomass (fNRB) at national and sub-national levels for Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and Latin America, thus enabling clean cookstove and fuel programs to incorporate environmental concerns, including sustainability of fuelwood and potential carbon offsets, into their planning processes.
As much as $500,000 will be available for RFP 12-2. The deadline for submission of proposals is July 30, 2012.
