Ecobreves – HONDURAS: World Bank Finances Protected Areas

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TEGUCIGALPA, Feb 16 2009 (IPS) - The World Bank granted Honduras a three-million-dollar loan to protect its main areas of ecological and forestry preserves. The funds will be managed in cooperation among communities and the private sector, which operates in at least 52 priority protection areas, as well as promoting production practices that respect traditional forms of conservation, Suyapa Otero, head of the Institute of Forest Conservation, told Tierramérica.

The preferential loan will allow the Institute to begin more effective planning in a country that loses some 80,000 hectares of forest each year, according to official figures.