Position: Consultant for local biomass cooking demand assessment in Masai Mara.

Dear all,
I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for young NGO that is opening a wood-energy school in the Masai Mara with support from DANIDA (Danish foreign cooperation).

They write:
“We’re looking for suggestions of how we can get a knowledgeable individual who can lead a baseline study of biomass cooking demands in the three towns surround the conservancy so we can get a good idea of what we need to be planting to supply the hotel industry and local communties.

We would essintially be looking for a very patient and motivated indivudal who can obtain an accurate collection data regarding the use/demand of forest by-products in the greator maasai mara area. But mostly with an emphisis on household biomass energy use (charcoal/firewood). The towns in focus in the mara have easeily trebled in population in the last decade or so with more people transistioning from a pastoral nomadic lifestyle to a sedintary one. case in point are the schools, there are 3 that have over 500 students that eat two meals a day cooked on firewood 300 days of the year.

The holistic Forestry School is a small project to start with, (http://karenblixencamp.com/holistic-forestry-project) and we have a limited budget for technical consultants, but this information is key to being able to focus projected planting regimes for needs of the growing communtiy and tourism industry.

An ideal canidate would be someone flexable enough to work in resonably streneous field conditions, potentially be able to be financialy self supported and able to work well with the local customs and cultures etc.

An experianced environmental auditor would be ideal, espcially if they could do pro bono work, but also for capable grad students studying household energy who could then use this as part of thier studies.

Please forward any info directly to us.

Thanks!

—
Kim

jkimchaix (at) charcoalproject (dot) org