Regula Ochsner is founder and co-president of Association pour le Développement de l'Energie Solaire (ADES) in Madagascar. In March 2007 in Paris, France, Regula Ochsner received the Yves Rocher Foundation’s international "Women of the Earth" award for her work promoting solar cookers in Madagascar. The award honors women who lead actions benefiting nature and humanity. The award ceremony was attended by Madame Nelly Olin, French Minister for the Environment.
In 2001 Ochsner founded the Association pour le Développement de l'Energie Solaire Suisse – Madagascar (ADES) to help combat rampant deforestation. Ochsner lived in Madagascar in the early 1970s and was shocked, when she visited in the late 1990s, at the amount of deforestation that had occurred in a period of just 25 years. (Madagascan families use about 100 kilograms of charcoal on a monthly basis, amounting to one-sixth of an average monthly salary.) Ochsner researched cooking alternatives that would reduce firewood and charcoal use, and discovered solar cookers. Madagascar, especially in the south of the country, has close to ideal conditions for the use of solar energy.
Ochsner initiated production of solar box cookers by local carpenters in 2001, followed by distribution and sales. In 2003 ADES built a more permanent carpentry workshop in Tulear and another in Ejeda in 2006. ADES currently provides employment to 13 carpenters and trainers. The teaching of the population to use solar cookers is an important part of ADES’ work. Regular demonstrations on how to use the solar cooker take place. The interest level of the population is very high.
Over 1500 solar cookers have been sold thus far. A survey of the usage of the solar cookers conducted by two German students in 2004 showed that 75% of the solar cookers were used regularly.
Ochsner plans to invest the prize money of €10,000 in a further solar cooker pilot project in the south of Madagascar. Future plans include development of regional centers in Morondava and Fort Dauphin.
News and recent developments
- March 2007: Regula Ochsner, was rewarded the international "Women of the Earth Award" by the Yves Rocher Foundation. The award ceremony took place on March 8 2007 at the Institute of France in Paris and was attended by French Minister for the Environment, Nelly Olin, Jacques Rocher, Director of the Yves Rocher Foundation for the environment and Gabriel de Broglie, Chancellor of the Institute of France. Ochsner plans to invest the prize money of €10,000 in a further solar cooker pilot project in the south of Madagascar.
Contact
Regula Ochsner
ADES
Lanzenstrasse 18
CH-8913 Ottenbach
Switzerland
Tel: +41 (0)44 761 20 61