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Between 2010 and 2021, Honduras has lost 10% of its forests due to deforestation. This was what the country’s president, Xiomara Castro, announced this weekend. Together with Africa, Latin America is the region of the world most affected by the destruction of forests. In Honduras, the current government attributes deforestation to cattle ranching, agriculture and drought. But these are only some of the reasons for the gradual disappearance of forests.
By Justine Fontaine
This Saturday, the president of Honduras, Xiomara Castro, announced a reforestation program for the country and denounced the destruction of forests, especially after the 2009 coup, and until she came to power at the end of 2021.
“Every year more than 100,000 hectares of forest are lost in Honduras, especially due to the intervention of extensive cattle ranching and migratory cultivation,” said the president.
However, these are not the only reasons for deforestation. Gustavo Cabrera is a biologist, general director of the NGO Oficina Cuerpos de Conservación de OMOA (CCO), near the border with Guatemala. He explains that, in recent years, the authorities have been slow to respond to a pest, the pine bark beetle, which has been destroying this species of trees. To this must be added the fact that many native trees have been replaced by monocultures for export.
These are “crops, for example, such as oil palm, pin grass to produce energy, biomass, cardamom and other types of crops that have been encouraged by the government,” says Cabrera.
In addition, he explains that these practices are added to the activities of drug traffickers in the country.
“These people use the territory to launder money because they do it through livestock. So their way of laundering money is by having large plots of land. The government, instead of taking care of the forest at that time, allowed these people to deforest and create large plots of pasture for cattle.”
In this context, defenders of forests and the environment in Honduras have received serious threats from people who deforested and even from public authorities, says Gustavo Cabrera. The environmentalist says that the situation has improved a bit since Xiomara Castro came to power. However, he is not entirely convinced by the reforestation plan announced by the Government.
“It goes in a good way. The problem is if you can count on the resources to be able to carry it out, because there has been so much damage to our forest that in order to recover it, a good investment of money is needed, mainly working with the communities”.
They are communities that in their opinion have been abandoned by the State and that, due to lack of resources, end up destroying the forest to survive.
