The health of our planet is increasingly at risk, and organizations are more aware of their responsibility in managing their emissions. The challenge is knowing where to start!

In the heart of the Opalaca Biological Reserve, nestled between the departments of Intibucá and Lempira in Honduras, Indigenous communities are making significant contributions to conservation through the adoption of the Justa 3D Stove.

Gloribel Bautista is an Indigenous Lenca woman and Justa clean cookstove builder, who exemplifies the transformative impact of community engagement and education.

For 25 years, we have been working with our partners and local community members to design clean cookstoves that greatly reduce deadly indoor air pollution, deforestation, and high fuel costs.The Justa Stove helps protect the environment and improves people’s health and economy.

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.

Have you heard of helicopter research? It basically means researchers from wealthy countries conduct studies in lower-income countries, collect samples, analyze and publish findings with minimal involvement from local experts, and offer no benefits or report-back information for communities. This is also called neocolonial, parachute, or parasitic research and can be found across scientific disciplines. As a multi-disciplinary researcher in Epidemiology and Anthropology, I cringe to write this. It is familiar both within my own experiences and what I know from colleagues.