Honduras deploys military to end deforestation by 2029. Will it work?

Honduras this year launched a plan to end deforestation by 2029, with a particular focus on reclaiming land used by criminal groups for smuggling timber. Authorities have already carried out hundreds of operations and arrested dozens of people with links to organized crime, but some experts fear the plan does not go far enough.

The “Zero Deforestation by 2029” plan, launched by the National Defense and Security Council in May, declared a state of emergency for the country's forests and released green money to reclaim protected areas where agriculture, ranching, mining and other illegal activities flourished, often involving powerful criminal groups.

“It is time to take decisive action and enforce the laws against the destruction of our forests, restore security in these vital areas and create a new development paradigm that guarantees the protection of natural resources and the survival of people, especially indigenous peoples,” says the resolution outlining the plan from the country's National Defense and Security Council. The council is headed by President Xiomara Castro and determines national security, defense and intelligence policy.

The plan aims to displace groups living and working in protected areas and to “neutralise and control” the roads used to smuggle timber. It also calls on the ministry to investigate the timber industry and land titling, as illegal land titling is common in protected and indigenous areas.

More than $766 million has been earmarked for the plan by 2028. The goal is to set up an “environmental protection battalion” of 8,000 soldiers. The plan calls for the Forest Conservation Institute (ICF) – part of the Special Prosecutor's Office for the Environment – to coordinate its work with the armed forces, the National Defense Secretariat and the Ministry of State.

Officials said they carried out 349 operations between May and August, intervening in the core and buffer zones of twenty protected areas across the country, giving priority to the Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve, the Sierra de Agalta National Park and the La Muralla Wildlife Sanctuary, among others.

For years, the Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve has been plagued by deforestation and the construction of roads and secret airstrips for drug gangs, often leading to violent clashes with indigenous communities. More than 100,000 Miskitu, Tawahka, Pech and Garífuna live in or around the area but are unable to defend themselves, the National Defense and Security Council said.

“Fighting deforestation, crime and insecurity also means fighting for the dignity and sustainable progress of indigenous peoples and communities and strengthening their resilience to climate change,” the Council said.

Last month, authorities removed 34 houses, 200 head of cattle, 10 stables and two roads in the La Muralla Wildlife Refuge in Olancho, northern Honduras, according to the ICF, and set up five checkpoints between the departments of Olancho and Francisco Morazán, where wood is often transported.

Significant seizures of logging equipment also occurred in Puerto Lempira, Wampusirpi and Guaimaca, the ICF said in August.

Historically, around 97% of environmental crimes in Honduras went unpunished, the National Defense and Security Council said. In 2022 and 2023, the first two years of Castro's government but before the creation of the zero-deforestation plan, officials arrested 153 people for environmental crimes, but only three of them were convicted and punished.

“[Environmental crimes are] “They are destroying forests and destabilising the region. They are threatening our physical and cultural security, as well as our food and water supplies – a fluid that is vital for human survival,” the council said.

Some experts raised concerns about the design of the new plan because it involves many different branches of government that don't normally have a legal mandate to fight deforestation. The ministry usually handles such cases, and involving the military and other agencies could cloud the effort, they said.

A similar problem occurred in 2011, when the armed forces were given partial control over the country's reforestation and forest fire prevention programs, weakening the forestry authorities that were supposed to take on these tasks, according to an ICF report.

“They are giving one institution powers that another body is responsible for and that have to follow a certain legal procedure. So there are some contradictions,” says Fausto Mejía Zelaya, head of Independent Forest Monitoring, a nongovernmental organization that monitors the timber industry in Honduras.

An even greater challenge will be managing conflicting regulations at different levels of government. In some cases, local authorities have granted permits for mining in forest areas and dredging rivers, even though these activities violate federal law. The plan does not take these complexities into account, Mejía says.

It also shows a lack of transparency and information sharing between different levels of government, he stressed. If local and federal officials had worked together from the beginning, they could have avoided issuing permits that led to deforestation.

“There is a problem in the management of information, in the exchange of information between institutions, and that is the cause of deforestation in this country,” he said.

Banner image: Officials inspect a truck carrying timber in Honduras. Photo courtesy of Poder Judicial.

See this reporter’s article:

Report: Honduran environmentalists hit hard by human rights crisis

RETURN MESSAGE: Use this form to send a message to the author of this post. If you would like to leave a public comment, you can do so at the bottom of the page.