ECOH: Environment Care with a One Health Approach
Today’s world faces unprecedented environmental, social, and economic challenges—climate change, biodiversity loss, growing inequalities, rapid population growth, migration, and ecosystem degradation—all of which threaten human, animal, and environmental health.
The ECOH project, led by the University of San Francisco Xavier (Bolivia) and the University of San Carlos (Guatemala) with CIH partners in Latin America and Munich, aimed to empower communities to care for the environment through locally driven educational strategies.
In Guatemala (2021), ECOH launched a solid waste management pilot in El Tabacal, Villa Nueva. Community members—children, women, leaders, and waste collectors—were trained in waste separation and recycling. The initiative fostered lasting behavior change, revitalized recreational spaces, and improved living conditions under the One Health approach, promoting human, animal, and environmental well-being.
A solid waste management manual was also created, serving as a guide for future implementation across the country, in line with the 2021 national regulation expected to be enforced nationwide by 2025.
Person in charge of the project Apolonia Rodríguez Gonzales - Universidad Mayor, Real y Pontificia de San Francisco Xavier de Chuquisaca (USFX), Bolivia.
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