Environmentalists are promoting the use of “eco-stoves” as a more efficient means of cooking, and far less damaging to the environment and human health. Unlike the wood stoves traditionally used in this Central American nation, eco-stoves are equipped with a sealed, insulated combustion chamber, making them far more efficient, as well as a chimney to remove smoke from inside homes.

As well as requiring much larger quantities of wood, traditional stoves create large amounts of smoke that cause high incidences of respiratory and heart diseases in marginalized urban areas and rural regions of Honduras alike, according to the country's health authorities.

Ignacio Osorto of AHDESA, a non-governmental organization in Tegucigalpa that promotes development and microenterprises, told Tierramérica that the goal is to install some 1,400 eco-stoves in the capital over the next two years.

Similar initiatives are being undertaken in other parts of the country, particularly in eastern Honduras, where there are already some 175 families currently cooking with eco-stoves.