Award-winning presents for Xmas: the cookstove

Run out of ideas for Xmas gifts? Why not give an award-winning clean stove to a camping enthusiast?

These highly efficient rocket stoves are a simple but revolutionary technology that burn wood or charcoal and cut fuel use by 40 percent or more, reducing smoke and carbon monoxide emissions by more than 50 percent.

Efficient stoves like these tackle one of the scourges of the developing world. Indoor smoke kills 1.6 million people, mainly women and children, worldwide every year.

In 2009 we awarded our Energy Champion prize to the Oregon-based Aprovecho Research Center and SSM in China who together design and manufacture affordable and efficient rocket stoves used extensively in the developing world. The company that has been set up to sell the stove, StoveTec, has sold over 50,000 in countries like India, South Africa and Chile. They aim to reach the three billion worldwide who cook on smoky open fires and inefficient stoves.

But these stoves are also available in the UK. Order and get more information and reviews from UK retailers: Wild Stoves (all the money goes to Stove Tec)and Bell Tents

Or you could donate a rocket stove to a cook in Haiti for £8.00 or fund a stove in Africa for £6.50.

For more on improved cookstoves, read our 'Stoking up a cookstove revolution' report.

(pic: StoveTec rocket stove)