Ecobreves – HONDURAS: The Struggle to Enforce the Forest Law

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

TEGUCIGALPA, Feb 27 2012 (IPS) - The Law on Forests, Protected Areas and Wildlife of Honduras, adopted in 2008, is not effectively implemented and has not stopped illegal logging. Representatives of the justice system, activists and local governments are working together on strategies to ensure that it is genuinely enforced. There is awareness among the stakeholders involved that measures to protect the environment need to be more effective, because a lack of knowledge around the law allows for a great deal of impunity, National Human Rights Commissioner Ramón Custodio, who is heading up the multi-stakeholder initiative, told Tierramérica.

One of the areas where impunity is most marked is illegal deforestation, which continues without adequate state control, as well as deliberately set forest fires, said Custodio.

It is estimated that Honduras loses around 58,000 hectares of forest every year, primarily through illegal logging, which costs the country roughly 55 million dollars in losses annually, according to the National Institute for Conservation and Development of Forests, Protected Areas and Wildlife, a government agency.