Ecobreves – HONDURAS: Ecologists Demand Forest Law

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

TEGUCIGALPA, Feb 4 2006 (IPS) - Civil society organizations in the Coalition for Environmental Justice have asked the Honduran government of president-elect Manuel Zelaya Rosales to immediately pass a forest law, which has been frozen in the files of the National Congress for four years Efraín Díaz, of the Democracy Without Borders Foundation, which coordinates the coalition, said the law has not been approved because groups with logging interests have made their moves in Congress.

Díaz told Tierramérica that the government's initiative to earmark one percent of the the national budget for reforestation is a good start, but that “it will not be effective if there is no transparent and credible legal instrument.”

The law regulates the use of the forest and creates community-based forestry, which gives broad participation to local residents in the preservation of natural resources.