Ecobreves – HONDURAS: Reforestation to Save Unique Ecosystem

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

TEGUCIGALPA, Feb 2 2004 (IPS) - Local residents and officials have begun planting 52,000 trees in order to save the ecosystem surrounding Lake Yojoa, a tourist destination and home to 10 percent of flora and fauna species found in Honduras. “Every day I see with sadness how our lake is being exhausted. This winter the lakebed has not filled,” Ubaldo Enamorado, of the Santa Bárbara region, told Tierramérica. “If we don't do something, the lake is going to die, and we will too.”

Nearby communities are taking part in the rescue mission, with the aim of sowing more than a million plants. The project will take at least three years because most of the watershed is dry or extremely deforested, says Jorge Betancourt, of the Yojoa Lake Association of Municipalities.

As a result of deforestation, “the 13 main sources of water that supply the lake are seeing their flows decline dramatically,” he explained.