Groups united in the Olancho Environmentalist Movement (MAO), led by Catholic priest Andrés Tamayo, won inclusion in a temporary commission that will design the policies of the recently created Forest Conservation Institute of Honduras. René Gradiz, a member of MAO, told Tierramérica that their participation in the commission is part of the commitments by President Manuel Zelaya to move the new Forestry Act forward. The commission will begin sessions in two weeks, he said.

One of the concerns of the MAO activists is that the Institute “must not be taken over by the logging companies, and that is why we are gong to work on drafting profiles and plans for oversight of positions and finances,” said Gradiz.