Sustenta Honduras’ Air Quality Youth Movement
An OpenAQ Community Impact Story by Matt Lane
Honduras is the second largest Central American country, has amazing biodiversity, is home to part of the world’s second-largest coral reef, and has diverse terrain including vast cloud forests rising more than 3000 feet above sea level. The rugged terrain has resulted in a sparsely populated country, and more than 50% of its people live below the poverty line (Figure 1 below) [1].
Honduras’ populace faces major morbidity challenges, including high rates of heart disease, diabetes, infectious diseases, and violence. One key, somewhat under the radar, driver of the high disease rate is air pollution. I recently sat down with Ricardo Pineda Guzman and María José Martínez from the youth-led non-profit organization Sustenta Honduras to learn how they are tackling poor air quality in their country (Figure 2 below).
As we begin our discussion, Ricardo tells me the Proyecto Aire Limpio (“Project Clean Air”) origin story. It all started during a May 2024 extreme pollution event across Honduras, sparked by wildfires and El-Niño weather patterns. Pollution levels were dangerously high, including San Pedro Sula’s PM2.5 level at ~50 times higher than the WHO (World Health Organization) guidelines [2]. “We were working with the French embassy on climate change programs in the municipalities when the episode hit. Classes were cancelled, and the French ambassador himself was coughing and sick due to the heavy pollution. They suggested, and we agreed, to pivot our focus to the problem of air pollution.” Sustenta Honduras sees air pollution linked hand and hand with global warming. “We have seen longer periods of drought and increased wildfires due to climate change,” María explains. “This has led to huge clouds of pollution, dust, and wildfire smoke, especially in our two largest cities of Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula.”
Ricardo goes on to describe how human-related activities are also major drivers, “Wood stove cooking, mining, agricultural burning, and transboundary pollution from Guatemala and El Salvador create dangerous inhalants throughout Honduras. We estimate that upwards of 50 percent of families use harmful wood stove cooking, which disproportionally affects women and children.” Ricardo notes that the average PM2.5 level is around 25 μg/m³ (five times the WHO target) and air pollution is the #1 environmental factor negatively impacting lifespans in Honduras (their funding partners at EPIC, The Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago, are currently working on a research paper quantifying this latter point).
Proyecto Aire Limpio aims to reverse this health epidemic and create a future Honduras with clean air for all of its citizens. To make progress, Ricardo and María outline three major barriers that need to be addressed: 1) low awareness, 2) a lack of open air pollution monitoring, and 3) the need for a national air quality policy.
Addressing Air Pollution Awareness
Sustenta Honduras’ awareness efforts seek to educate young people and citizens while spurring lawmakers to take action. “Many people don’t believe air pollution is a big issue, or they are focused on other types of illnesses they see in their communities. Politicians often talk about other high-visibility concerns, such as criminal activity,” says María. “Before Sustenta Honduras, nobody was talking about air pollution. We are starting to make a real difference by getting communities and other organizations conscious of the issue.”
The organization’s creative air quality awareness campaign is driven by its staff of young leaders who are in their 20s. María explains, “In addition to school and community events, we are very active on social media. That is what our primary target demographic of young people use these days.” (Figure 3 below)
They seek to influence older Hondurans as well. María goes on, “We also target channels that parents and grandparents frequent to get the word out. For example, Ricardo appeared on Frenta a Frenta [a top morning TV program] to do a live demo on the dangers of harmful air quality.” (Figure 4 below)
Additionally, Sustenta Honduras has an innovative volunteer model to scale their impact. They now have more than 40 volunteers throughout the country who help with everything from social media posts, installing monitors, and communicating poor air quality alerts to the local community (more on this process later).
Starting a Local Air Pollution Monitoring Network
The second pillar of Proyecto Aire Limpio is an ambitious goal to establish a nationwide air pollution monitoring network across Honduras (Figure 5 below). Ricardo comments, “In Honduras, only two out of 298 municipalities had reliable air quality monitors before we began our work. Through this project and prior efforts, we aim to change that reality by expanding air quality monitoring to 80 additional communities.” Real-time monitoring is critical for their educational efforts, local pollution alerts, and evidence for achieving Honduras’ first comprehensive clean air regulations.
María outlines the effort to build out this network of affordable AirGradient PM2.5 monitors, “We are targeting 50 new installations by next year, many of which will be installed at schools. The biggest challenge is often the physical limitations of getting to these remote communities, especially in the rainy season from October to December.”
Once monitors are installed, Sustenta Honduras uses its technology platform, volunteers, and local points of contact to get the most out of the new data. María describes the process, “We have an automated system that sends email alerts to our trained local community lead in that area. The alert contains a status level, the PM2.5 reading, and any recommended actions. We’ve had a great response from our local contacts, who use the alerts to relay critical information to the rest of their community.” (Figure 6 below)
Further, Proyecto Aire Limpio offers strong support for open, transparent data that can be used freely by all for analysis and evidence-based decisions. The data, based on AirGradient monitors, is posted to their website (Figure 7 below) and AirGradient automatically shares the data with OpenAQ, the world’s largest open air quality data set. Ricardo explains, “It is critical to make the data open, accessible, relatable, and actionable. We originally used another company that we later found did not offer open data. Once we started working with EPIC, we decided to stop everything and switch to AirGradient and OpenAQ, which are fully open.” María adds, “Replicating our data into OpenAQ is very important to us as it helps legitimize and highlight the effort globally.”
Sustenta Honduras is also developing a new, derivative platform to make the data even more relatable, understandable, and actionable for students or the average citizen who may not have an extensive formal education. The release is targeted for the end of this year. María remarks, “Getting our youth across 100 schools to understand what they can do to fight air pollution is so important. For example, the platform will have a map showing sad faces where pollution is high and also supports WhatsApp. The children can then go home and have conversations with their parents about actions they take as a family. For example, getting rid of wood stoves or burning less waste.”
Moving Towards a National Air Quality Policy
Finally, Sustenta Honduras is now busy leveraging its awareness and monitoring efforts to aid in the development of Honduras’ first national clean air policy. Ricardo states, “We’re not just installing monitors — we’re building a movement that connects data with policy action. By engaging schools, local governments, and Congress, we’re working to ensure every Honduran’s right to breathe clean air becomes protected by law.” He highlights that the focus is threefold: getting policies in place that require open monitoring, setting air quality targets, and having corresponding mitigation responses. María goes on to explain that they have multiple workshops and draft proposal work planned for the rest of this year, followed by a goal to present the initial policy recommendations by the end of 2025.
As we wrap things up, it is inspirational to witness how much progress these young leaders have made in such a short period of time. María explains, “I love working at Sustenta Honduras. It moves me, and we are seeing big results. 20 years from now, I believe this is what we will be remembered for in Honduras: the first organization that truly cared about air quality.” Ricardo amplifies this message, “It gives me a huge sense of pride that as a youth group, not as scientists or doctors, we are bringing our talents to the table and helping to create a legacy of clean air in Honduras.”
Sources
- “Honduras: El 73% de los habitantes del país son pobres, según el Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas • Semanario Universidad”. Semanariouniversidad.com (in Spanish). July 13, 2022.
- Honduran city’s air pollution is almost 50 times higher than WHO guidelines. The Guardian, May 17, 2024
