Ecobreves – HONDURAS: Activists Demand New Forestry Agency

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

TEGUCIGALPA, Nov 24 2007 (IPS) - The Olancho Environmentalist Movement (MAO) in eastern Honduras is urging the government to create the Institute of Forestry Conservation to execute the related law, approved two months ago. The institute is “key for the new law to succeed, and should involve people who are honest and credible, to avoid the past vices of impunity linked to illegal trafficking of wood in forest preserves,” MAO leader and Catholic priest Andrés Tamayo told Tierramérica.

The institute will replace the Honduran Corporation of Forestry Development, which “is already defunct, and we should open the way for the new baby that has been born, which I hope doesn't get sick and grow into an ignorant adult,” said Tamayo.

The law establishes new forms of exploitation of forest resources, with the broad participation of citizens in forest management.

Honduras loses more than 100,000 hectares of forests annually, according to official data.