Climate Action That Helps People and the Planet
When facing a challenge as urgent and far-reaching as climate change, it’s natural to look for seemingly efficient, single-issue solutions. At Trees, Water & People, we’ve learned that the most effective climate action is just the opposite—it grows outward, addressing environmental challenges alongside health, quality of life, and community resilience. As our work continues to evolve, our vision for the future remains the same: climate solutions led by communities themselves, built through local knowledge and long-term partnerships, and designed to support both environmental resilience and human well-being for generations to come.
That vision has guided TWP since our founding in 1998. Early on, our team recognized that protecting forests in Central America could not succeed without understanding the daily realities of the families who depended on them. When climate solutions focus narrowly on one outcome—like forest protection—without addressing human needs, environmental pressure doesn’t disappear; it shifts elsewhere, a dynamic known as environmental leakage. Nearly a third of the world’s population still cooks with solid fuels like firewood, exposing women and children to hazardous smoke and contributing to millions of premature deaths globally, according to the World Health Organization. In Central America alone, nearly 20 million people rely on firewood for daily cooking.
TWP responded by collaborating directly with communities to design solutions that work in real life. Our Justa clean cookstove was developed with the guidance of local women, including its namesake, Doña Justa Núñez, whose insights helped create a stove that fits the specific needs of households using it every day. Each Justa stove reduces a family’s firewood use by 50 to 70%, lowers harmful household air pollution, and avoids at least three metric tons of carbon emissions annually. Just as importantly, stove production and installation are still led by regional partners, supporting local jobs and long-term adoption. These cookstoves remain a cornerstone of our work and an example of what people-centered climate action can achieve.
This approach became the foundation of TWP’s Mesoamerica Program, where we apply the same community-led principles across forest protection, watershed health, and climate resilience in Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean. It has also shaped our Indigenous Lands Program, which supports Indigenous communities in the United States as they advance their own priorities for land stewardship, cultural preservation, and climate resilience. While the contexts differ and require distinct expertise, the guiding belief remains the same: lasting climate solutions are strongest when they honor local leadership, lived experience, and long-term trust.
By supporting TWP, you are part of a climate effort that goes deeper than any single project. Your donorship helps fund work that is practical, transparent, and rooted in partnership. Contributions go straight to the people and programs creating real, measurable impact on the ground—and in the atmosphere—where it’s needed most.
