Ecobreves – HONDURAS: Green Schools Look to the Future

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

TEGUCIGALPA, Jul 22 2006 (IPS) - The Honduran government, backed by the business community, has introduced the “Green Schools” project to recover and preserve the main watersheds near Tegucigalpa. The Honduran government, backed by the business community, has introduced the “Green Schools” project to recover and preserve the main watersheds near Tegucigalpa.

The one-year project, which will eventually extend to other areas of the country, was launched Jul. 14 in three of the capital’s elementary schools, and will next be implemented in high schools. In it, children and youth between the ages of five and 18 will plant more than 2,000 trees.

Businessman Emilio Larach, one of the initiative’s main proponents and financial backers, told Tierramérica that the activity was not “just a field trip, but rather an effort to protect natural resources.”

The first 200 trees were planted near the Los Laureles dam, south of Tegucigalpa — one of the areas worst affected by deforestation.