Ecobreves – HONDURAS: Environmental Law Reform Begins

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TEGUCIGALPA, May 17 2010 (IPS) - Honduran ecologists, archeologists and architects are debating in Parliament the reforms to the General Law on Environment, dating back to 1993, in order to adapt it to the new realities of climate change, deforestation and housing construction. Parliamentary president Juan Orlando Hernández told Tierramérica that, given the latest environmental disasters, “the law has come up short and needs reforms that are oriented towards energetically preventing, mitigating and fighting problems like deforestation.”

Hernández set up a Citizen Panel on the Environment that aims to present consensus-based reform ideas in the next three months.

Jorge Varela, of the Gulf of Fonseca Flora and Fauna Defense Committee, said in comments to Tierramérica that “the law does not involve major actions to preserve marine species, which are dying because there is no effective regulation.”