Ecobreves – HONDURAS: Community Works to Rescue Coastal Sand Dunes

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

TEGUCIGALPA, Apr 30 2012 (IPS) - The community of Santa Rosa de Aguán, in the northern Honduran department of Colón, is preparing to implement a plan to rehabilitate coastal sand dunes as a means of reducing its vulnerability to extreme weather events. Mayra Gill of the Santa Rosa de Aguán Volunteer Committee told Tierramérica that this community was one of the hardest hit by Hurricane Mitch in 1998, and that “today we see how the deterioration of the dunes is increasing the risk of flooding.”

“We didn’t know what the dunes were or why they were important, and we had never heard of climate change, either, but now we are organizing ourselves to rehabilitate these mountains of sand,” she added.

With the support of the United Nations and the Swiss Agency for Cooperation and Development, the community plans to demolish concrete structures that obstruct the natural circulation of sand in the dunes along the Atlantic coast of Honduras.