Ecobreves – HONDURAS: Armed Forces Reforest 11,000 Hectares

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

TEGUCIGALPA, Sep 12 2011 (IPS) - The “green battalions” made up by more than 1,000 members of the Honduran Armed Forces have planted 11,404 hectares of forests in the last five years. Their efforts are not limited to planting trees, but also include controlling illegal logging, fighting forest fires, and community projects, Defense Minister Marlon Pascua told Tierramérica.

The green battalions work primarily in the region of Olancho, in northeastern Honduras, and the Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve, declared a World Cultural Heritage site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

As part of their efforts to protect the forests, they evicted 14 families from inside the biosphere reserve earlier this month, and plan to reforest more than 12,000 hectares of land that had been cleared for use as pasture for livestock.