Protect Vital Forests, Air, Health for Hondurans

Our model at Trees, Water & People is built on the belief that lasting solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges come from the people who know those challenges best.

We were founded by two foresters, but having worked closely with local communities for decades, we understand that reforestation is much more complex than planting trees (though we love to do this too!). The challenges communities face are intertwined, and the solutions must look beyond one thread.

Globally, more than half the world’s population cooks every meal over an open fire. In addition to putting pressure on dwindling forest resources, smoke inhalation from indoor open-fire cooking contributes to serious health impacts, most often amongst women and girls.

Since 1998, we’ve worked with our community-based partner, AHDESA, in Honduras to design a clean cookstoves program that attends to health impacts, reduces demand for fuels, and benefits local economies. Our stove design significantly lowers indoor air pollution by funneling smoke out of the home and requires 50-70 percent less firewood than open-fire cooking, significantly reducing carbon emissions. In 2024, ADHESA supported the construction of 1,900 cookstoves, generating a carbon emission reduction of approximately 5500 metric tons. The use of less wood also means less pressure on local forests and less labor for families. 

Within the program, all stoves are designed, produced, and distributed locally, creating economic benefit within the region, and locals are equipped to build and repair them. Last year, AHDESA recruited and trained 30 additional stove builders through their Maestros Fogoneros program The majority of these builders are women, providing an important source of income in an environment where economic opportunity for women is low. 

In attending to local economies, environmental sustainability, health impacts, and leadership of women, our clean cookstoves program keeps a holistic view of the communities with whom we partner. 

Our approach to clean cookstoves, and all of our work, mirrors what we’ve learned from planting trees. We don’t just plant trees and leave. Instead, we work with communities to understand conditions in which those trees will thrive, help develop the economic stability they’ll need to care for them, and grow local capacity to plant more going forward.

We don’t just plant trees or make stoves – with your support, we build holistic systems that will last.

Links:

• Trees, Water & People
• Community-led projects in Honduras
• AHDESA Spotlight