The European Union has donated close to 31 million dollars to Honduras to strengthen the national institutions responsible for the preservation and management of forests, which have been hit by an upsurge in forest fires this year. The aim is to strengthen the legal framework for the conservation of natural resources and in particular the commercialisation of timber, as well as promoting sustainable use of forests, said María Antonieta Guillén of the Central American Bank for Economic Integration, through which the funds will be channelled.

Guillén told Tierramérica that this European assistance is a major boon for Honduras, which is facing an unprecedented wave of forest fires that have destroyed over 54,000 hectares of forests in recent months.

One of the immediate measures will be to reinforce the efforts undertaken by the Forest Conservation Institute, which until now has been unable to control the more than 4,000 forest fires reported so far this year.