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ENVIRONMENT:
Priest Proposes 'March for Life'
Across Mesoamerica
Thelma
Mejía*
TEGUCIGALPA, (Tierramérica)
- Two years ago, logging groups
allegedly offered to pay an
assassin 40,000 dollars for the
head of Salvadoran Catholic
priest Andrés Tamayo, leader of
an environmental campaign in the
northeastern Honduran department
of Olancho.
The killer-for-hire backed out
and confessed the deal to
Tamayo, who remained undaunted
in denouncing the problem of
deforestation in Olancho, where
some 2.5 million hectares of
forest have been destroyed in
the past decade.
Born in El Salvador in 1958,
Tamayo has been serving as a
priest in the Honduran
department for 22 years. He has
led two massive ''marches for
life'' to demand dialogue with
government officials and
solutions for ending illegal
logging in Olancho.
Under national and international
pressure, the government finally
agreed to sit down to talk. And
the country has made progress
towards a new law on forests.
For his efforts to save the
Honduran forests, Tamayo
received the prestigious Goldman
Environmental Prize on Apr. 17.
Awarded by the U.S.-based
foundation of the same name, it
is widely seen as the ''Nobel
for the environment''.
Tamayo, who now proposes a
''Mesoamerican march for life,''
from Mexico through Central
America, spoke with Tierramérica
recently in Tegucigalpa.
Q: What does the Goldman Prize
mean to you?
A: Above all, it reflects the
story of suffering of my people,
there, inland, struggling to
survive. Second is having won a
space so that important people
realise what is happening in
Honduras, a country that I feel
is mine and for which I am
pained to see how it is being
destroyed. Knowing that there
are other people in the world
who value the environment is
gratifying, and in July I will
address the Group of Eight
(Britain, Canada, France,
Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia
and United States) about these
problems.
Q: You are the only Central
American who will have a chance
to make a presentation at that
meeting. What will be your
proposal?
A: I plan to denounce the
inequalities, unfair trade and
the destruction and plundering
of natural resources, not only
in Central America, but in all
Latin America. While the rich
business executives of the
industrialised world and the
international bodies approve
policies at the cost of our
natural wealth, which are 80
percent the product of illegal
activities and violations of
laws, poverty will worsen and we
will be exporting migrants. I
have to expose this reality. If
poverty persists due to lack of
opportunities, people will
continue fleeing the country in
search of a better future, and
if to this we add the fact that
many leave because there are no
trees, what kind of future and
progress are we talking about?
Q: How can this negative
relationship between migration,
poverty and environmental
destruction be resolved?
A: That is the challenge:
building a better future for the
country by promoting a major
cultural change in society. The
forests can survive and recover
to the extent that people change
their culture. This should be
part of a great Latin American
crusade.
Q: How can we defend the future
of forests in Latin America?
A: Through a process in which
true commitment to ethics and
transparency prevails. I feel
that here the Catholic Church
should play a greater role,
lifting up its voice even more.
I think we should create a Latin
American environmental union,
which would begin with a
Mesoamerican march that we are
trying to organise for Mexico
and Central America. They are
just plans for now, but we are
going to do it. The idea is that
the Church and environmental,
grassroots and human rights
organisations from the region
will participate. In the case of
Honduras, I believe that all
citizens, including politicians,
journalists and the military,
should join in protecting the
environment, not from the
perspective of repression, but
rather through participation.
(* Thelma Mejía is a
Tierramérica contributor.
Originally published Apr. 30 by
Latin American newspapers that
are part of the Tierramérica
network. Tierramérica is a
specialised news service
produced by IPS with the backing
of the United Nations
Development Programme and the
United Nations Environment
Programme.)
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