This project aims to improve the management and consumption of biomass wood fuel energy source in Samoa.
Samoa had been and still is heavily reliant on biomass wood as a primary source of heat energy for cooking within residential homes and communities. 2011 data from the Samoa Ministry of Finance shows that 94% of this energy has been exploited within residential homes in Samoa. A previous field research was conducted on how much biomass wood fuel resource is used in a traditional method of cooking (umu and/or saka). The amount of biomass wood fuel recorded per umu was approximately (50-70kg/umu) depending on the scale of food to be cooked. This would calculate to at least 1,000 tonnes of biomass wood fuel used by every extended family per Sunday as every family would make a umu on Sundays in Samoa. i.e. from an estimated number of families to be 19,000 from a population of 196,000 people with at least 10 people per family. These results have direct impact on land degradation and sustainable forests.
The combustion process has proven to be inefficient as well as low heat energy harness efficiency which is the more reason why more wood is required to heat up the rocks in the first place. As a result, the sustainable nature of forest continues to degrade and the ozone layer continues to be affected from excessive gas emissions; for as long as these methods were used. This is also directly relates to the Country Programme Strategy 2011-2014.

The introduction of the efficient biomass wood fuel oven ?JEZET Burner?; with the innovative design to effectively convert the combustion of wood fuel into heat energy has been developed to accommodate for such impacts. The JEZET oven has been designed according to activities surrounding the traditional methods, with optimizing the use of locally available building materials and well as the incorporation of the cultural and traditional aspects into the design.

Ti?avea is one of the villages which is rich with heritage forests and water catchment areas. This is according the latest community program held at Ti?avea by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MNRE), Ministry of Education Sports and Culture (MESC), and Ministry of Women in collaboration with UNITEC NZ. This is why ALII AND FAIPULE of TIAVEA has offered their commitment and support towards the development of this proposal as well as the engaging in an applied research approach by building of 20 biomass wood fuel (JEZET) ovens to promote measures towards these known impacts. Ovens will be distributed within the village and every family assigned with an oven will be engaged in applied research approach for period of one year. These data will then be analyzed and utilized as critical environmental data to be used globally. Further benefits towards the use to this oven has been discussed within the women committee which can yield the development of a traditional recipe cook book to be published following the successfulness of the project. The project location will be at the village of Ti?avea and will be managed by the village themselves.