Honduras lost 10% of its forests between 2010 and 2021, denounced Friday President Xiomara Castro, while inaugurating an environmental protection program.
“The total loss of forests during these last years of the dictatorship, from 2010 to 2021, was 696,562 hectares, representing 10% of our forests,” said the president, referring to the governments of Porfirio Lobo (2010-2014) and Juan Orlando Hernández (2014-2018 and 2018-2022).
Castro headed in a coniferous forest of San Matías, 5 kilometers north of Tegucigalpa, a ceremony in which he inaugurated the Environmental Program “Andrés Tamayo” 2023, a Salvadoran environmentalist priest nationalized Honduran.
He indicated that the program consists of preventing and fighting forest fires and reforestation in 150 of the country’s 298 municipalities.
He regretted that in Honduras the forests are deforested, especially by extensive cattle ranching, migratory agriculture and are affected by forest fires.
Castro called on his environmental officials to coordinate with local governments, communities and international cooperation to “stop the destruction of our forests”.
Honduras had 1.9 million hectares of coniferous forest, but lost some 500,000 hectares between 2015 and 2016, due to an overpopulation of an insect due to a severe drought attributed to climate change.
With an area of 112,492 km2, Honduras has five types of forests: coniferous, tropical humid, cloud, mangrove and dry.
