Ecobreves – HONDURAS: Recycling Project in Garifuna Communities

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

TEGUCIGALPA, Nov 21 2011 (IPS) - Four Garifuna communities (made up of descendants of Caribbean indigenous and African peoples) in the northern Honduran department of Atlántida will begin participating in December in a waste recycling project that encompasses environmental education, the creation of micro-enterprises and the sale of recycled products. The initiative is aimed at incorporating the Garifuna communities in a process of climate change risk reduction in this Caribbean region, Céleo Álvarez Casildo, director of the non-governmental Organization for Ethnic Community Development, told Tierramérica.

In the communities of Sambo Creek, Corozal, Nueva Armenia and Río Esteban, preparations are underway to organize groups into micro-enterprises, teach recycling techniques, and develop a bilingual manual in Spanish and Garifuna.

The project is supported by the Secretariat for the Development of Indigenous and Afro-Honduran Peoples and Racial Equality Policies.