ENVIRONMENT-HONDURAS: Probe into Mismanagement of Forests

By Thelma Mejía Reprint | | Print |

Thelma Mejia

TEGUCIGALPA, Apr 30 1999 (IPS) - Irregularities in the administration of forestry conservation projects, which led to the cutting off of U.S. funds, will be investigated by the Honduran Environmental Prosecutors and Comptroller-General’s offices.

The Environmental Prosecutors office will investigate five complaints that the Honduran Forestry Development Corporation (Cohdefor) mismanaged funds and engaged in the trafficking of wood and animals.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) suspended allocations of three million dollars due to suspicions of corruption.

Cohdefor was accused of illegal logging activity, failure to apply plans for the regeneration of forests and a lack of reliable reports on the implementation of the Forestry Management project financed by USAID, said Environmental Prosecutor Claris Vega.

Cohdefor authorities also reportedly authorised the creation of a game farm, from which a large number of animals were allegedly smuggled into the United States, she added.

Cohdefor’s actions have “surpassed the limits of the law,” and thus “we are proceeding to file five lawsuits against its director, Antonio Ortez, for abuse of authority and falsification of public documents, among other offences,” said Vega.

This is not the first time Ortez has been accused of shady dealings. While serving as Cohdefor director five years ago, he was sacked on similar charges of trafficking of wood. But due to political debts, the government of Carlos Flores named him director of the body once again.

Ortez complained of a smear campaign. “I’m going to prove there was nothing irregular. We are working decently on the management of forestry resources.”

But Attorney-General Vera Sofia Rubi said her office would take over Cohdefor two weeks from now, due to the letter USAID sent Ortez, notifying him of the suspension of funds due to “lack of transparency and irregular management” of forestry resources.

The tone of the letter was extremely harsh, said Rubi, who added that “we must investigate, because everything indicates that irregularities were indeed committed.”

“The image of the country must not be deteriorated by the suspension of aid over suspicions of mismanagement of projects,” she stressed. “We cannot permit this at a time when we need foreign aid to rebuild after the damages caused by hurricane Mitch” in late October.

The USAID letter was sent by the agency’s director in Honduras, Elena Brineman, who found that Cohdefor had violated the Law on Agricultural Modernisation, which bars direct sales of wood without a prior auction.

Brineman also found that the plans for the regeneration of forests in the public and private sector were not being implemented, as well as indications that front companies (cooperatives) were set up to allow groups close to the governing party to illegally cut timber.

The U.S. Embassy in Honduras announced that the funds would remain suspended until U.S. authorities received a satisfactory response.

Environmentalists have long complained of the mismanagement of forests in Honduras, and donors have chosen to re-channel funds previously sent to Cohdefor.

Honduras loses 80,000 hectares of forest a year to fires, illegal logging activity, trafficking of wood and household usage of firewood, according to official documents and reports by conservation groups.

“We lose 10 hectares of forests an hour,” said Rene Benitez, with the Association of Forestry Professionals. He warned that if the present rate of deforestation continued, the situation would reach a critical point in 15 years, and called for the passage of laws to effectively protect the environment.