Honduras Could Lose All Forest in 20 Years

by Thelma Mejia

About 250,000 acres of forestlands disappeared every year and, due to the absence of policy to promote sustainibility and conserve natural resources, the environment faced a bleak future, according to a study carried out by the Central American environmental organization "Fumanitas" and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

Between 1962 and 1990, almost 6,000 square miles -- twenty percent of the total surface area of the remaining Honduran forest areas -- were destroyed.

The situation was particularly alarming in the mangrove swamps along the Pacific Coast and posed a serious threat to the natural habitat of the Golfo de Fonseca, a maritime frontier shared with Nicaragua and El Salvador, the report, released May 13, said.

"We are experiencing a process of environmental degradation of which few people are aware, and whose economic cost has yet to be determined," Walker said.

The problem was exacerbated by the unplanned burning of trees, the illegal cutting of wood, and the indiscriminate use of firewood for domestic and commercial use, particularly in rural areas of the country. The use of stoves made of ceramic that operate using firewood is one of the most common causes of deforestation. Three of every four rural families use this technique to cook their food, while in urban areas, nearly 59 percent of the population uses this method.

Honduras, the second-largest country in Central America, possessed a wide variety of natural ecosystems that, if managed properly, would guarantee an improvement in the standard of living for the present and future population, according to environmental experts.

But despite the country's natural riches, Honduras remained one of the poorest countries in Latin America, with a low level of human development that revealed the absence of policies to adequately promote economic development and sustainability.

Rafael del Cid, of Fumanitas, said the present situation had resulted from development strategies designed in the 1970s, that were geared toward transforming the agrarian and forest sectors.

"But the achievements until now have been insufficient in terms of reaching to awaited economic take-off and improving the life chances of the population," he said.

Del Cid, who has also acted as a consultant to the United Nations, said that it was necessary "to change the new environmental agendas in the country, which until now have focused on fostering economic growth without concern for the social and environmental costs."

The free-market economic reforms had made the unsustainable use of natural resources part of a strategy to reach the long sought- after progress and economic well-being, "although the results could be that we are left without land or trees, due to our ignorance of how to preserve the environment," he said.

The study presented by Fumanitas and the World Wildlife Fund formed part of a series of investigations being carried out in Central America with the objective of alerting the region's governments to the gravity of the problem.