Ecobreves – HONDURAS: Fires Devastate Forest

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

TEGUCIGALPA, Mar 24 2003 (IPS) - – Honduras lost around 2,500 hectares of pine forest in February to fires, report officials from the government's Honduran Corporation for Forest Development. Intentionally set fires caused the losses incurred during the last week of February, Lucky Medina, in charge of forest protection, told Tierramérica.

Two alleged culprits were caught with flammable liquids in El Hatillo, a forested area that serves as a main “lung” for the capital, where the fires occurred.

But Clarissa Vega, environmental prosecutor, told Tierramérica that an average of 100,000 hectares of pine forest are burned in Honduras each year, equal to the area that is illegally logged.

The country will lose all of its pine resources within three decades at the current rate of destruction, she said.