The government of President Xiomara Castro in Honduras has unveiled an initiative renewing and strengthening its commitments to protect the biosphere of Platano River and the Moskitia forest at COP28 in Dubai.
The “Renewed Vision for the Conservation and Defense of the Moskitia” aims to combat illegal cattle ranching “propelled by organised crime and the drug trade”, according to the official document text.
The vision named three objectives: reducing deforestation and illegal cattle farming in the forest to 0% by 2030; recovering and restoring 100,000 ha of land currently in the hands of illegal cattle farmers; and mobilising innovative sources of finance to generate $7-10 million annually, in perpetuity.
Speaking at COP28, Luis Soliz, director of the Honduran Forest Conservation Institute, urged “international cooperation to scale up these impacts for the benefit of future generations, striving for a harmonious coexistence of the environment, Indigenous rights, and sustainable development”.
The vision chronicled a long list of recent past or existing efforts to address crime and deforestation in Moskitia, including:
- Reduction of deforestation in the heart of the biosphere by 66% between 2022-23
- Creation of the First Environmental Protection Battalion
- Inter-institutional checkpoints to prosecute environmental crimes and control the flow of goods, legal and illegal, in the forest
- Strengthening the government’s Taskforce against Environmental Crime
- Recognising the ancestral and property rights of Indigenous communities
- Cancelling four “extractivist” forest management plans in Moskitia
- Suspension of all primary industry operating in Moskitia
- Forest patrols covering an area of 190,600 ha
- Establishment of 146 ha of agroforestry systems by the Institute of Forest Conservation
- Stakeholder engagement and launch of the “Save the Platano River Biosphere” campaign
- Removing illegal settlements and non-Indigenous people
- An Environmental Tribunal for crimes committed in the forest region
- Increasing the government’s institutional presence in the forest
- Strategic alliances and international cooperation
The Moskitia forest is Central America’s second largest rainforest and a World Heritage site as of 1980. It includes a number of ancestral Indigenous territories.
Animal agriculture is responsible for 90% of deforestation in the Mesoamerican ecological region.
By Alejandra Padin-Dujon in Dubai – alejandra@carbon-pulse.com
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