Trees, Water & People

Background Statement

TWP’s model 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 community-based partners 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. Less wood means less labor for families and less pressure on forests.

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. Many of these trained builders are women, providing an important source of income.

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 – we build holistic systems that will last.