The Honduran Armed Forces announced the creation of a specialized elite military team to defend the forest and fight illegal trafficking of timber. Marco Leiva, of the armed forces forest protection board, told Tierramérica that the group of 1,800 troops will be trained to deal with forest disasters and in forest and watershed protection.

The team will complete its training this year and will begin operations in 2009 with a series of prevention strategies, said the official.

The Honduran armed forces were designated four years ago as guarantors of forest protection. For now they are concentrating their efforts on the Plátano River biosphere in the northeastern departments of Olancho, Gracias a Dios and El Paraíso.