Solar Stove Usage Versus Charcoal for Sustainable Environmental Life Cycle of Madagascar Ecology

Abstract

Deforestation poses an immense threat in Madagascar ecology and biodiversity. The vast majority of household recourse to the use of charcoal as a main source of energy. This study examines the advantages and drawbacks from using charcoal and the challenges faced by the Malagasy people. It aims to underpin the traditional cooking habits in hope to combat the non-resolvable deforestation leading into sustainable preservation and conservation of its environment. This research uses a qualitative descriptive method trying to assess the alternatives between the use of charcoal and solar stove based on surveys and questionnaires from various households. Our analysis focuses on the real environmental life cycle of both techniques. Our results indicate that charcoal use seems to be devastative but generally responds the community needs but in decline during dry season in certain areas whereas solar stove is hard to come by in the majority part of the island
and less usable during rainy season despite it was evident that locals would consider to using it as an alternative source. It was noticed that there was an increase of 0.38% in the use of charcoal while solar stove spearheading to 0.55% compared to the last decade. Thus, it was perceived that less impacts on environment occurred due to the use of such technology.