Tuki Wasi promotes the use of improved cook stoves (ICS) in the rural areas of Peru. By employing ICS the beneficiary families reduce the pressure on deforestation and allow the forests to grow beyond unsustainable exploitation. The ICS are implemented by Peruvian stove manufacturers that have been awarded with respective lots in a competitive selection process by the activity. In the selection process the programme sets out the required specifications for the tendered stoves to ensure suitability, safety, efficiency and pollution thresholds. The stoves promoted by Tuki Wasi are inhouse masonry stoves with two to three fireplaces, that are approved by the national standardization agency.

It is important the awarded lots do not conflict with the activities of the Peruvian social fund FONCODES with a corresponding mitigation activity.

To this end, Tuki Wasi is in exchange with the Ministries of Energy (MINEM) that oversees the monitoring of the emission reductions, the Ministry for Social Inclusion (MIDIS) in which responsibility the operation of FONCODES lies, and the Ministry of Environment (MINAM) that is responsible for the authorization of activities under the bilateral agreement with Switzerland.

The rural population in Peru lives remote from the urban centers, often in self-sustaining communities. As such, cooking fuels are unaffordable, except for firewood that is collected in the forest and shrub and fired in traditional stoves. This practice not only drives deforestation but also leads to indoor pollution and severe respiratory diseases

Improved cookstoves reduce drastically the fuel use and improve the health situation. However, the stoves constitute a major investment for a household, that can not necessarily be afforded. By means of the activity’s support the contracted stove manufacturers offer the stoves at affordable modalities, involving in-kind labor from the beneficiary families to reduce further the stove price.

Despite Peru’s considerable efforts in combating climate change, the state does not have capacity to reach out to every remote place. While the Peruvian FONCODES conducts its activity “Cocinas Mejoradas a Leña”, Tuki Wasi targets those regions that are going to be underserved with governmental support and is thereby enhancing the ambition to fight climate change of both, Peru and Switzerland.