Honduras Approves Law to
Protect Forests
The Honduran government
approved a new Forest
Act to protect the
country's forests.
From now on, the
Institute for Forest
Conservation and
Development, Protected
Areas and Wildlife will
replace COHDEFOR
(Honduran Corporation of
Forest Development).
For several years,
environmental
organizations have
denounced irregularities
in COHDEFOR.
In 2005, the Agency for
Environmental Research
and the International
Policies Center
recommended the
government to dissolve
COHDEFOR, because it was
plagued by corruption.
President Manuel Zelaya
said the new institution
would be a decentralized
agency attached to the
Presidency. It will have
a legal status, a budget
and financial autonomy.
When he took office on
January 23, 2006, Zelaya
said 1 percent of the
budget would be used to
create a reforestation
fund and to protect the
country's hydraulic
resources.
He also said that his
government would end
illegal felling and an
Incentive Act would be
passed to encourage
landowners to implement
reforestation programs.
According to the United
Nations Food and
Agricultural
Organization (FAO),
Honduras lost 35 percent
of forests from 1990 to
2005, mainly due to the
illegal felling of pine
trees and precious
timber. |
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