The Cameroon Heat Retention Cooker Project

The goal of the project is to alleviate energy poverty, to improve the health and the lifestyle of the poor and to reduce the deforestation, and therefore protect the natural ecosystem, of Cameroon’s South-West, West and Littoral regions through the subsidized dissemination of Heat Retention Cookers (HRCs) to rural and peri- urban households who rely on fuelwood as a primary source of cooking energy. The working mechanism of heat retaining cooking is simple. The pot containing the food is brought to the boiling point. The temperature accumulated by the pot and its contents at the boiling point is enough to continue and end the cooking process in an insulated environment. The initial type of HRC technology that will be used is the “Wonder Cooker” (WC). Wonder Cookers are bags made of cotton fabric that establish the insulated environment through the use of small polystyrene beads sewn into compartments of the bag. The owner and implementer of the project is the Cameroonian NGO Pro Climate International (PCI). PCI will produce, sell and distribute a minimum of 6,000 heat retaining cooking bags at a subsidized price to rural and peri-urban households of the project region who rely