The Sustainable Energy project was awarded to IFDC's CATALIST project in January 2009 and appended onto the CATALIST project. This arrangement was made in recognition of the interdependency of the energy (firewood and charcoal) and agricultural sectors.

The overall goal of this activity is to decrease competition for land use between energy and agricultural production by increasing wood production and income from woodlots and agroforestry plantings. The resulting reforestation of the landscape will create conditions that improve the chance for successful environmental conservation and sustainable energy management on land less suitable for crop intensification.

SEW objectives are:

To promote and support private investments in on-farm woodlots and agroforestry, producing wood in addition to crops or as an alternative to crops.
To promote and facilitate the development of the fuel wood and charcoal value chains.

Beneficiaries will include fuel wood-producing farmers, charcoal producers and other stakeholders of the commercial wood value chain, and also consumers of energy from wood, who will benefit from stabilizing fuel prices.

SEW Activities within CATALIST

CATALIST's Sustainable Energy activities will initially focus on areas where IFDC CATALIST has ongoing activities.