Ecobreves – HONDURAS: Peasants Protect Natural Resources

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

TEGUCIGALPA, Jan 5 2004 (IPS) - Some 271 families of the Rio Platano biosphere and the Tawahka Asagni reserve, along the northeastern Honduran Atlantic coast, are leading projects to preserve one of the main stretches of the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor. Sustainable agriculture, forest conservation and management, and recovery of endangered species are the focus of the initiatives carried out by peasant farmers and Indians, with backing from the PPD, a small donations program, and from the Global Environment Facility (GEF), an agency of the World Bank.

“The results so far are encouraging. The people decide what they want to do, and have learned to present projects and to negotiate with the donors,” Hugo Galeano, of the PPD, told Tierramérica.

The sums for each project range from 10,000 to 30,000 dollars over 18 months, channeled through local watershed councils, associations, cooperatives and women's groups.