TWP’s next chapter will be a beautiful one — marked by new partnerships and alliances, greater impact, and a stronger, more diverse network stretching from the Rocky Mountains to Central America. We’re building on our success as a convener of talented local organizations, and providing them with resources to create change in the communities they serve. We’re betting on the next generation, and developing talent among young people that want to steward the earth, advance equity, and improve their societies from within.

For the past 25 years TWP has been fortunate to call Fort Collins home. This comes with the responsibility and commitment of honoring and respecting the people who lived on the lands before our organizational existence. To honor these people and educate the communities of Northern Colorado, we collaborated with Native western artist, Isaiah Stewart, to revitalize the rich stories of Native Peoples, cultural landmarks and majestic wildlife back into the communities.Through various community meetings and engagement events, the Indigenous community mural came to life in south Fort Collins. "This mural is about forward motion: the three buffalo signifying Native people moving forward towards future generations", Stewart mentions. From now on, this place will be a space for community gathering, Indigenous events and a place to honor the rich values Native peoples bring to our life.

In 2022, Trees, Water & People (TWP) took on the challenge of stepping back to define our priorities, both for internal clarity, as well as to share with our more than 2,000 individual supporters and dozens of foundations and corporate partners. The insightful conversations and reflection led to the definition of our 5 priorities that we hope to achieve through our programs, whether on Tribal Lands in the U.S., or abroad in Central America.

In 2011, over 100 displaced families self-organized to purchase a piece of land. Today, approximately 75 families reside in “La Bendición”, Guatemala and the community continues to stand out for its strong leadership and capacity for self-management. After multiple years of fighting, La Bendición hit a huge milestone in June, 2022, when they finally celebrated having resolved the payment of the agrarian debt of the territory they occupy and own since 2001, a process of community struggle and perseverance.

Our project “Tz’unun: Ending Environmental Violence Against Indigenous Women in Guatemala through Empowerment in Community Forestry, Agroecology, and Collective Healing Spaces ” in partnership with Utz Che’, was selected as one of the winners of the 2020 USAID RISE Challenge, which aims to address gender-based violence (GBV) in environmental programs.

Through our 25 years we have been supported by our host community, Fort Collins, Colorado. To honor the diversity of our local community we entrusted artist Armando Silva with the task of capturing stories of climate migration, indigeneity, and resilience, and portray them through a mural in downtown Fort Collins.

We value cross-cultural exchange, as it helps you gain a deeper understanding of yourself and those around you. In summer of 2022 we had the privilege to take a group of first-generation high school students to South Dakota. Thanks to the ongoing support of Dutch Bros. Coffee, these students from the TRIO Upward Bound Program at Colorado State University were able to visit an Indigenous community for the first time.

In 2017 we created TWP Tours to organize unique trips to the countries and communities we work with and give our donors and supporters the opportunity to see first hand the work they make possible and to meet the people benefitting from it.

We are proud to continually receive top marks in various third-party charity assessment organizations. We currently hold a 99% rating on Charity Navigator, with top marks for Accountability and Finance, as well as for Leadership and Adaptability and a platinum rating on Candid / Guidestar, with an in-depth evaluation of our financial metrics over time.

Our partners at Comité Ecológico Aldea de Suyapa (COEAS) in Honduras have been fighting for over 2 decades to protect the Triquilapa Mountain which is a vital source of water and oxygen to the Aldea Suyapa and Tegucigalpa, Honduras. This year we celebrated alongside them the upcoming declaration by the National Congress of Honduras of the Triquilapa and Cantagallo Mountains as a Wildlife Refuge. This is a big win for the sovereignty of the Indios Laborios of the Aldea de Suyapa.Proud that TWP was able to help get them to this point... and grateful that we get to support these efforts daily!

Seb started his first day as an intern for TWP almost 2 decades ago. As he himself recalled, he was sent to lead TWP’s stove work in rural Honduras. In the coming years he would contribute enormously to the advancement of the cookstove program and every other aspect of TWPs projects and operations that he could. In 2017 he became our Executive Director, bringing first-hand experience from his days in Central America, an innovative approach to business and non-profit development, dedication to advancing TWP’s goals and our staff’s quality of life and true passion for the communities we serve. Gracias jefe for your commitment and hard-work through the years!

TWP is staffed by a group of dedicated and culturally grounded professionals with diverse backgrounds who get up every day to work for people and the planet, and to help communities manage the natural resources upon which their livelihoods depend. The commitment of our people to our mission makes a difference!

For over 8 years, Chief Henry Red Cloud and tribal community members have planted trees on Oglala Tribal Lands (known as Pine Ridge, South Dakota) to restore areas impacted by wildfires. Since this reforestation effort began, over 160,000 ponderosa pines and other culturally significant species have been planted and distributed in the local community.

TWP’s Indigenous Lands Program was launched in 2003, after a realization that Native American communities in the U.S. struggled with some of the same issues we were addressing in Central America. The program was built to support Native American Tribal communities and organizations in the preservation of their lands, natural resources, and cultural lifeways, while meeting acute household energy needs. From its beginnings with the Oglala Lakota Nation in South Dakota, TWP has worked with Tribal communities across the western U.S., supporting renewable energy, energy efficiency, reforestation, and the creation of economic opportunities for local people to conserve and protect their natural resources.

Back in 2014, I picked up the phone and called a candidate to support TWP’s Central America program. This individual was born and raised in Fort Collins, CO – TWP’s home base – but had been living in Central America after leaving a job with a USAID contractor in the U.S. As soon as he picked up the phone, I tested him by speaking to him in a flurry of Central American Spanish, to see how he would respond. Without missing a beat, he responded with a fluency and panache that made me smile ear to ear. I knew from that instant that I had called the right guy. Lucas Wolf came to TWP during a critical time, and as a master relationship builder, helped set the foundation for the organization’s next generation of leaders. In his three year journey to becoming the Director of the Central America Program, he left an indelible mark on all of us. His passing from heart failure at 36 years old impacted us all in ways we’ll never fully heal from, but inspired us to continue building the program and organization in his memory. - Sebas.

Abilio Garcia is a Maestro Fogonero and coordinator for our partner AHDESA in Honduras. He trains other Maestros Fogoneros so that they can have a stable job that they love. “In Honduras it is hard to find a stable job, so when you have one, you take care of it. I love what I do, I love serving people. It's great to see the happiness in someone's face when they are able to bring food home. The technicians who work with us are happy when they get paid for something they love to do.”

Doña Justa Nunez is one of the rare ones. Fed up with respiratory issues that plagued her and her friends in her community, she launched a women-led initiative to get smoke out of people’s kitchens. Driven by a vision of better health and a cleaner environment, she got the attention of nonprofit organizations working with her local church, who set out to design a better wood-burning cookstove in her village.

TWP is born. Trees, Water & People was cofounded in 1998 by Richard Fox and Stuart Conway, two foresters and friends who saw an urgent need to address the pervasive deforestation in Latin America. This vision quickly evolved as they realized the solution had to address the underlying causes of deforestation and benefit the people most affected by climate change. Twenty five years later, TWP is a leader in the design and implementation of programs that produce tangible benefits for people and the planet. Today, our work is more urgent than ever, as climate change threatens the livelihoods of millions of people in our region.

In the midst of the Guatemalan Civil War in the 1980’s, the Peace Corps continued sending volunteers to areas of the country unaffected by violence. Stuart Conway and Jenny Bramhall were a young married couple, and arrived in Guatemala with the same wide eyes, willing hands, and open hearts as many Peace Corps volunteers. While Jenny focused on the needs of women in their community, Stu leveraged his forestry training from Colorado State University to start local tree nurseries in areas surrounding his village. The seeds planted in those nurseries were the genesis of Trees, Water & People, which would start its work in Guatemala over a decade later.