Ecobreves – CENTRAL AMERICA: Forestry Program Mission Accomplished

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

TEGUCIGALPA, Dec 22 2003 (IPS) - The Regional Forestry Program of Central America (PROCAFOR), ended its operations after setting up more than 100 production groups involving Indians and peasant farmers, who now sustainably manage the forests. Financed by the Finnish government, PROCAFOR spent 12 years working with at-risk communities to recuperate forests of evergreens and broad-leafed trees over more than 130,000 hectares in Central America.

The farmers “do not exhaust forest resources because they have new ways to reinvest in maintenance activities with planting, management of natural regeneration and maintenance of roads,” one of the project leaders, Anita Vasa, told Tierramérica.

PROCAFOR in Honduras has called fro an end to illegal logging, which along with fires destroys 100,000 hectares of forest each year, according to the governmental Honduran Corporation for Forestry Development.