The overall objective of this project is to build capacity among the beneficiary communities and schools on issues related to climate change with emphasis on mitigation and adaptation. one major contributor to deforestation in this area is the use of wood as cooking fuel. To limit this, 31 individuals were trained on the technique of constructing and using local cooking mud stoves. These stoves have proven very energy efficient and considerably reduce the amount of tree wood being used for cooking. The skills are easily transferable and the trained individuals are expected to train other community members. Bushfires are also big contributors to deforestation in the area, thus to address this and kindle community action, an anti-bushfire management workshop was held for farmers and VDC members. This resulted in the development of action plans that will become operational at village and district level. To enhance understanding on the importance of the forest and raise awareness on the effects of deforestation, a study tour was conducted for a cross section of the community to selected forest areas. It is envisage a greater awareness on how individual and collective actions negatively impact the forest, can change attitudes and shift paradigms to more environmental friendly activities relating to the forest.

This project is a built up on the success of a prior SGP project in the beneficiary communities. The communities were consulted and involved in the project identification and design phase. thus there was considerable collective participation and ownership from the onset. Individual farmers, women groups, school environmental club members, village heads and the VDC members showed the greatest interest and motivation. The communities efforts and active participation particularly in the anti-bushfire activities , resulted in the drafting of annual action plans for combating bushfires in each beneficiary community.