Benefits & Results
Social Benefits
Practical Gender Needs
When practical gender needs of very poor rural women are solved, this has a terrific impact on their everyday lives. No more do they have to go for 1-2 days every fortnight to scrounge for firewood from fast depleting wooded lands; they do not have to suffer the humiliation and torments of forest guards and other riffraff during these lonely trips. They don't have to constantly suffer sore eyes, a raking cough and other respiratory diseases when “cooking on a gas stove like a town woman”. Their kitchens, homes and everything in it stays clean, free of soot. Cooking is no more an ordeal that takes many long hours; they can warm a cup of milk for an infant, in the middle of the night, in a matter of minutes.
Strategic Gender Needs
Apart from solving practical gender needs, Climate Mitigation Projects undertaken under the aegis of the FCN alter the strategic position of women within their own households. They place them in a central position within their families by actually giving cash compensation as reward for reproductive chores like cooking, clearing, childcare, et al. Monetary recognition of woman's labour has a deep psychological impact on self esteem and self worth.
- Carbon Revenues are not given to the Head of Household, but to the actual End User woman who does the cooking, for environmental services she provides.
- End User women meet in weekly Mahila Meetings to discuss the status of their Project. These in camera meetings give a certain status to the women and, quite naturally, they do not discuss just Biogas and Woodstoves.
Two other spinoffs from domestic Biogas that go a long way to bring women to centre stage in family cultivation and alter their strategic position are:
- Families are motivated to keep a pair of cattle for family cultivation, or a cow and calf that provides additional income through the sale of milk.
- Slurry that comes out of the Biogas digester, after 90% of Methane is captured in the dome, is a very valuable fertilizer.
Results that can be measured
Climate Impact
Climate Mitigation Projects are Data Driven Development efforts based on objectively verifiable Indicators and Means of Verification. They are conceived with a defensible calculation of Baseline GHG Emissions, and conclude with a scientifically valid measurement of Emission Reductions made through the chosen technology. These are certified, at every stage, under international scientific scrutiny by the UNFCCC and/or Gold Standard. The end product is a fungible instrument – Certified Emission Reduction (CER) or Verified Emission Reduction (VER).
Climate Mitigation Projects are not bottomless pits where dole, good intentions and relentless effort are continually poured into with the hope of social transformation.
Social Impact
Even when it comes to measuring strengthening of communities or enrichment of biodiversity, in addition to powerful verbal testimonies, serious academic studies are undertaken to prove impact. FCN facilitates these measurement exercises that are undertaken by various universities and scientific bodies.
Scholars from Columbia University, for example, have done an exhaustive study on the nutritional impact of Biogas units. Please see a study titled Biogas Cook Stoves for Healthy and Sustainable Diets? A Case Study in Southern India.
Scholars from the Earth Institute for Environmental Sustainability, Columbia University conducted a research study on the impact of Biogas interventions on forest biomass and regeneration. They conclude that Biogas intervention results in higher forest biomass and forest regeneration in degraded forests. Click here to access the paper.