Er zijn 17 duurzame ontwikkelingsdoelstellingen (SDG’s) van de Verenigde Naties. De SDG’s zijn “een dringende oproep tot actie van alle landen – ontwikkeld en zich ontwikkelend – in een wereldwijd partnerschap. De doelstellingen erkennen dat het beëindigen van armoede en andere ontberingen hand in hand moet gaan met strategieën die de gezondheid en het onderwijs verbeteren, ongelijkheid verminderen en economische groei stimuleren – en dat alles terwijl we klimaatverandering aanpakken en werken aan het behoud van onze oceanen en bossen”. Ze zijn in 2015 door alle lidstaten van de VN aangenomen.
Climate Stewards is in 2007 opgericht om problemen rond klimaatverandering aan te pakken en in het bijzonder om individuen een platform te bieden om hun CO2-uitstoot te begrijpen en te compenseren. Ons werk raakt veel van de SDG’s via de verschillende projecten waar we bij betrokken zijn. Er zijn er zes waarvan we denken dat ze in het bijzonder het werk van Climate Stewards weerspiegelen:
SDG #1 – Geen armoede
All of our projects are based in poor communities where a carbon offsetting project, whether that is new technology such as cookstoves or biosand water filters, or the introduction of tree planting will lead to better financial circumstances for project participants.
Biosand Water Filters and Cookstoves Families that receive either a biosand water filter, a cookstove or a fireless cooker all use less fuelwood (firewood or charcoal). For biosand water filters this is because water no longer has to be boiled to make it drinkable. For fuel-efficient cookstoves and fireless cookers, they simply reduce the amount of fuel required to cook a meal.
Those families that have to purchase their fuelwood are able to make daily savings, leaving money that can be put to other uses, for example paying school fees for the children in the family. Where families gather their fuelwood for free, the reduction in consumption means that either less time is soent on a daily basis to gather fuel, or fuel gathered in one go lasts longer. Either way, time is freed up to allow family members to pursue other activities, including generating income.
Tree planting Our tree planting projects are a mixture of permanent and commercial forestry. The trees that are planted on a permanent basis contribute to SDG #15 detailed below. Commercial forestry allows schools, churches or smallholders to make a return on the initial investment of time spent preparing the ground and planting seedlings. The wood, when harvested at between 12 and 15 years can be sold into local markets at a significant profit (upto 10x the original cost of planting). The money can be re-invested or used for other projects – schools often use the money raised to fund the construction of additional facilities.
As trees are pruned and thinned throughout the project’s lifetime, the wood can be sold as firewood to others in the community. Wood that is sold on this basis is excluded from carbon calculations but does provide an ongoing revenue stream.
In addition to planting trees that can be harvested and sold as timber, planting fruiting trees allows project participants to either benefit from the fruit themselves or sell it for extra income.
SDG #3 – Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages
Biosand Water Filters The biosand water filters that we use in our project in Uganda are based on a design developed by CAWST. They are effective in reducing:
- Up to 100% of worms
- Up to 100% of protozoa
- Up to 98.5% of bacteria
- 70-99% of viruses
(For more information please visit the CAWST website.)
The health implications for families are obvious – reduced incidence of gastro-intestinal problems when clean water is available to the whole family.
Fuel-Efficient Cookstoves Apart from the financial savings that come from the use of a fuel-efficient stove, the health benefits are considerable too. The traditional 3-stone fire, particularly when used indoors, is a source of smoke that harms all those who have to breathe it in. Typically, the women and children in the family are affected the most as they are the ones who do the cooking!
As fuel-efficient stoves are enclosed the danger of burns from an open fire is also eliminated.
Tree planting Trees planted in schools, churches and on smallholder land sequester carbon, provide income, help reduce pressure on local ecosystems and encourage biodiversity. They are also nice places to spend time in and bring the benefit to the well-being of a pleasant environment that can be used by anyone.
SDG #4 – Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all
Education is an important aspect of all of our projects. In Ghana, from 2007, Climate Stewards planted trees at schools around Kumasi, Ghana’s Capital. By 2015 the trees at the sites had grown to the point that the canopy was closed and little further work has been required to manage and protect the trees. However, we considered that continued funding of the school clubs that were set up at the beginning of the project was important.
The schools use the Climate Stewards sites as “outdoor classrooms” where students learn about tree care and management as well as, more generally, creation care. A number of students who have had the opportunity to learn in those forest classrooms have gone on to pursue studies and work in the environmental world.
Our other projects also incorporate training. Participants in our biosand water filter project in Uganda learn about the construction and care of their biosand water filters, and filter buddies (those who help others within the community with their filters) also receive more specialised training in maintenance and repair. For our tree planting projects – staff and children at the schools and members of the churches are all involved with learning about tree planting.
SDG #6 – Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all
Our biosand water filter project in Uganda provides families with a robust, easy to maintain system that gives them access to clean, potable water. Families involved in the project had all been boiling water prior to receiving a filter, but the monitoring survey carried out at the end of Year 1 has shown that families are filtering much more water than they were ever able to boil (mainly due to not being able to afford sufficient fuel). What this means in practice is that those members of the family (typically the children) who didn’t always have access to clean water are now able to drink clean water on a regular basis – leading to fewer gastro-intestinal problems.
SDG #13 – Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts
At the heart of all of Climate Stewards’ activity is the belief that we face a climate emergency and that we need to act now. Climate change is a real problem that is affecting the poorest amongst us first and worst. Communities we work with that are able to embed the use of new technologies that bring financial and health benefits also directly contribute to combatting climate change – through the reduction of carbon emissions, through carbon sequestration and through the reduction of pressure on local ecosystems.
SDG #15 – Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss
All of our projects directly or indirectly address SDG #15. For the tree planting projects the benefits include increased biodiversity as a result of planting native trees and the addition of sustainable forests on land that would previously have been bare or little used. Trees also help stabilise the soil and can help with soil erosion in areas that receive intermittent rainfall in large quantities. The sale of firewood from the process of pruning and thinning also reduces pressure on other local sources of firewood which are often older, more established forests.
Our other projects – biosand water filters, cookstoves and fireless cookers – also reduce pressure on local ecosystems as demand for fuelwood is reduced. These effects can extend across the whole country because, in the case of charcoal used in urban areas, that charcoal is trucked into the city and the production of charcoal contributes enormously to deforestation due to the low conversion rate of wood to charcoal in typical processes – a ratio of 10kg of wood to 1kg of charcoal is not uncommon.
