<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss version="2.0" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/" xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/" >

	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
		<atom:link href="https://news.mongabay.com/feed/?location=honduras&#038;post_type=post" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/honduras/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Wed, 01 Jul 2026 05:08:22 +0000</lastBuildDate>
		<language>en-US</language>
		<sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod>
		<sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency>
		<generator>https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0</generator>

<image>
	<url>https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/05/16160320/cropped-mongabay_icon-32x32.png</url>
	<title>Honduras environmental news</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/honduras/</link>
	<width>32</width>
	<height>32</height>
</image> 
				<item>
					<title>Honduras taps armed forces to eliminate deforestation by 2029. Is it working?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/video/2026/06/honduras-taps-armed-forces-to-eliminate-deforestation-by-2029-is-it-working/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/video/2026/06/honduras-taps-armed-forces-to-eliminate-deforestation-by-2029-is-it-working/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Jun 2026 06:34:02 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Fritz Pinnow]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sam Lee]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/27063710/Mongabay_Thumbnail_Honduras_Featured_2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=videos&#038;p=321942</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Honduras, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conflict, Conservation, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, and Military]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[RÍO PLÁTANO BIOSPHERE RESERVE, Honduras — Deep inside Honduras’ protected forests, a battle is taking place between environmental defenders and deforestation. Deforestation rates in the country are among the highest in the Americas, threatening one of the world’s most biodiverse ecosystems. In 2024, its government launched a plan to eliminate deforestation by 2029, with a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[RÍO PLÁTANO BIOSPHERE RESERVE, Honduras — Deep inside Honduras’ protected forests, a battle is taking place between environmental defenders and deforestation. Deforestation rates in the country are among the highest in the Americas, threatening one of the world’s most biodiverse ecosystems. In 2024, its government launched a plan to eliminate deforestation by 2029, with a special focus on recovering land used by criminal groups for timber trafficking. The “Zero Deforestation by 2029” plan, launched by the National Defense and Security Council in May 2024, declared a state of emergency for the country’s forests and set aside funds to retake control of protected areas where agriculture, livestock, mining and other illegal activities have been thriving, often with the involvement of powerful criminal groups. And part of this plan involves building up an “environmental protection battalion” of 8,000 troops. However, the militarization of conservation has always been a controversial issue. &#8220;Militarization [&#8230;] is not a long-term solution,&#8221; says Professor Kendra McSweeney, Professor of Geography, at The Ohio State University, who has been studying conservation in Central America. &#8220;Absent a larger investment in public policies, in leadership and in legal regimes that will enforce the law in those areas, it cannot work.&#8221; With young civilian scientists now leading armed patrols into jungles with cartel activity, the question remains: can militarized conservation stop forest loss, or is it creating new risks for conservation, environmental protectors and forests alike? Mongabay’s Video Team wants to cover questions and topics that matter to you. Are there any&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/video/2026/06/honduras-taps-armed-forces-to-eliminate-deforestation-by-2029-is-it-working/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/video/2026/06/honduras-taps-armed-forces-to-eliminate-deforestation-by-2029-is-it-working/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321942</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>For Honduran coffee growers, EUDR compliance means changing old habits</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/for-honduran-coffee-growers-eudr-compliance-means-changing-old-habits/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/for-honduran-coffee-growers-eudr-compliance-means-changing-old-habits/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 May 2026 12:22:15 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sandra Weiss]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[agroecology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Food systems]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/29120927/9-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320278</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, European Union, Honduras, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Avoided Deforestation, Coffee, Commodity agriculture, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, EUDR, Farming, Forest Destruction, International Trade, Monitoring, Politics, Supply Chain, Technology, Transparency, and Tropical Deforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[CONCEPCIÓN DE SOLUTECA, Honduras — In the 1970s, the Honduran government granted a piece of land in the mountains of Concepción de Soluteca to Roberto González’s parents. They duly grabbed a chainsaw and a machete to clear the forest. On the 12 hectares (30 acres) they received as part of a land reform, they planted [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[CONCEPCIÓN DE SOLUTECA, Honduras — In the 1970s, the Honduran government granted a piece of land in the mountains of Concepción de Soluteca to Roberto González’s parents. They duly grabbed a chainsaw and a machete to clear the forest. On the 12 hectares (30 acres) they received as part of a land reform, they planted corn, beans and bananas, the basic staple foods. It was a hard life up in the mountains, allowing the farmers and their families to just survive. There wasn’t much public infrastructure, and most children had to help with farmwork early on. This included González, who only attended elementary school for three years. When González inherited the land 20 years later, coffee cultivation was just taking off. Middlemen promised the farmers good money for the export crop, and the banks provided loans for cultivation. At first, this worked well, González, now 39, remembers. Coffee helped the farmers to generate income and improve living conditions. But it didn’t last long. They grew coffee much the same way they did other crops, without adequate soil or shade management. When harvests dwindled, they expanded their area, cutting the last standing forests and damaging water sources. Around 2012, they faced an outbreak of coffee rust, a fungal disease. It was a complete disaster: many farmers were thrown into poverty and forced to migrate. “We destroyed the foundations of our livelihoods, but it was out of ignorance; we just didn&#8217;t know better,” González tells Mongabay. Under the EUDR, coffee farmers step&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/for-honduran-coffee-growers-eudr-compliance-means-changing-old-habits/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/for-honduran-coffee-growers-eudr-compliance-means-changing-old-habits/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320278</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Honduran authorities seize jaguar kept as pet, put spotlight on local trafficking</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/honduran-authorities-seize-jaguar-kept-as-pet-put-spotlight-on-local-trafficking/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/honduran-authorities-seize-jaguar-kept-as-pet-put-spotlight-on-local-trafficking/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 May 2026 14:28:17 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Spoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/14105929/female-jaguar-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=319442</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Honduras, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Biodiversity, Cats, Conservation, Crime, Environment, Environmental Law, Illegal Trade, Jaguars, Law Enforcement, Mammals, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Authorities in Honduras have seized a jaguar kept as a pet by a businessman, in a high-profile raid that conservationists say should serve as a deterrent for others engaged in wildlife trafficking. The May 6 raid at a home in Olancho department, in the country’s east, was two weeks in the planning and the first [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Authorities in Honduras have seized a jaguar kept as a pet by a businessman, in a high-profile raid that conservationists say should serve as a deterrent for others engaged in wildlife trafficking. The May 6 raid at a home in Olancho department, in the country’s east, was two weeks in the planning and the first seizure of a live jaguar (Panthera onca) since 2018, said Marcio Martinez, head of the wildlife department at the Forest Conservation Institute (ICF), who was involved in the operation. He added it stemmed from a tip to the Special Environmental Prosecutor&#8217;s Office (FEMA) about a jaguar being kept in the residence of a local businessman in the El Pataste community. The jaguar, a female believed to be about a year old, is thought to have been captured in the Mosquitia forests, a stronghold for the species. The unnamed businessman had no prior criminal record, Martinez said. “He was not listed in our database as a person of interest in the matter of trafficking or illegal possession of wildlife.” Nor has he been arrested. Martinez said FEMA will summon him in the next few days to answer charges of damage to endangered species, illegal capture of wildlife and other possible infractions. He could face fines of around 172,000 lempiras ($6,500) if convicted. Since the seizure, authorities learned that the businessman previously owned wild animals, including big cats. “He will now be a person of interest to environmental government institutions,” Martinez said. The female jaguar being taken&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/honduran-authorities-seize-jaguar-kept-as-pet-put-spotlight-on-local-trafficking/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/honduran-authorities-seize-jaguar-kept-as-pet-put-spotlight-on-local-trafficking/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
					<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/14112732/WhatsApp-Video-2026-05-08-at-17.45.42.mp4" length="0" type="video/mp4" />
					<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-319442</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>EU deforestation law risks leaving Honduran coffee farmers behind</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/eu-deforestation-law-risks-leaving-honduran-coffee-farmers-behind/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/eu-deforestation-law-risks-leaving-honduran-coffee-farmers-behind/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 May 2026 15:15:25 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sandra Weiss]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Food systems]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/11150207/6-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=319115</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, European Union, Honduras, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Coffee, Commodity agriculture, Deforestation, EUDR, Farming, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forests, Governance, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, International Trade, Land Rights, and Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Reinerio Zepeda is 88 and for almost a century has made his living from arabica coffee, grown in the shade at his finca, or ranch, near Minas de Oro in central Honduras. “I love the peace up here, the trees and the birds,” he tells Mongabay by phone. Zepeda is one of the 98,000 coffee [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Reinerio Zepeda is 88 and for almost a century has made his living from arabica coffee, grown in the shade at his finca, or ranch, near Minas de Oro in central Honduras. “I love the peace up here, the trees and the birds,” he tells Mongabay by phone. Zepeda is one of the 98,000 coffee growers registered in the country, most of whom, according to recent data, own less than 3 hectares (7 acres) of land. Zepeda, like many of his neighbors, has been selling his coffee to intermediaries and is wondering what the next year will bring as he will need to meet several requirements to make his supply chain traceable. Starting January 2027, only farmers whose land wasn’t cleared after Dec. 31, 2020, will be able to send their commodities into the European Union, according to the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR). “I have heard something on TV about Europe being concerned about deforestation, but nobody has showed up here to explain it to me,” says Zepeda, adding he’s more worried about falling prices than the bureaucracy in Brussels. “I haven’t cut trees; that would be crazy because I need them to produce my coffee. Everybody can come up here and check.” More than half of Honduras’s coffee exports end up in the EU, representing about 5% of the national GDP. Domestically, the coffee industry generates more jobs than any other sector (1.1 million) and brings in more foreign exchange than any other economic activity. Around 120,000 smallholder families make a&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/eu-deforestation-law-risks-leaving-honduran-coffee-farmers-behind/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/eu-deforestation-law-risks-leaving-honduran-coffee-farmers-behind/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-319115</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Rare, high-altitude jaguar sighting in Honduras raises hope for conservation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/rare-high-altitude-jaguar-sighting-in-honduras-raises-hope-for-conservation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/rare-high-altitude-jaguar-sighting-in-honduras-raises-hope-for-conservation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Apr 2026 18:44:42 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Spoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/27151446/IMG_0172-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318205</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Honduras, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Biodiversity, Camera Trapping, Cats, Conservation, Environment, Jaguars, Mammals, Predators, Research, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[High in the Sierra del Merendón mountains in Honduras, a jaguar has been photographed at 2,200 meters, or about 7,200 feet — an unusually lofty elevation for a species that usually sticks to lowland forests and wetlands. Jaguars (Panthera onca) are typically found below 1,000 m (3,300 ft), making high-elevation sightings so unusual that scientists [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[High in the Sierra del Merendón mountains in Honduras, a jaguar has been photographed at 2,200 meters, or about 7,200 feet — an unusually lofty elevation for a species that usually sticks to lowland forests and wetlands. Jaguars (Panthera onca) are typically found below 1,000 m (3,300 ft), making high-elevation sightings so unusual that scientists have coined a term for the big cats spotted here: cloud jaguars. Seeing jaguars at this elevation is very rare, said Allison Devlin, who directs the jaguar program for U.S.-based wildcat conservation NGO Panthera. “The fact that they&#8217;re able to travel through these high elevation areas also shows how resilient they are.” The jaguar, a healthy-looking young male, was photographed by camera traps on Feb. 6 this year — almost 10 years to the day, and in the same location, where camera traps captured the first recorded glimpse of an elusive cloud jaguar in the Sierra del Merendón. The mountains form an important corridor between Honduras and Guatemala, linking the jaguar’s historical range, which spans 18 countries across the Americas, running from Mexico to Argentina. As apex predators, jaguars play a key role in the ecosystem by keeping prey populations healthy and balanced, and in helping prevent zoonotic diseases that jump between species and can infect humans. But like all wild cats, they face multiple threats. Once-intact forests are being felled to make way for human settlements, plantations, ranches, mines and other developments. Climate change is also taking a toll: Forest fires are scorching wetlands&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/rare-high-altitude-jaguar-sighting-in-honduras-raises-hope-for-conservation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/rare-high-altitude-jaguar-sighting-in-honduras-raises-hope-for-conservation/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-318205</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A decade after the death of Berta Cáceres, we can no longer tolerate threats to environmental activists (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/a-decade-after-the-death-of-berta-caceres-we-can-no-longer-tolerate-threats-to-environmental-activists-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/a-decade-after-the-death-of-berta-caceres-we-can-no-longer-tolerate-threats-to-environmental-activists-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Mar 2026 14:43:42 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Michael Sutton]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/06/28101014/8_0314-honoring-river-defenders-brazils-munduruku-people-AmazoWatch-copy-e1773674548672-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315779</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Global, Honduras, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Commentary, Conflict, Crime, Endangered Environmentalists, Environment, Environmental Heroes, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Organized Crime, and Social Justice]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Environmental activist Berta Cáceres won the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2015 for successfully halting the Agua Zarca project, a massive hydropower development along the Gualcarque River in her native Honduras. On March 3, 2016, 10 years ago this month, gunmen hired by executives of the company building the dam assassinated her for her activism. Since [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Environmental activist Berta Cáceres won the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2015 for successfully halting the Agua Zarca project, a massive hydropower development along the Gualcarque River in her native Honduras. On March 3, 2016, 10 years ago this month, gunmen hired by executives of the company building the dam assassinated her for her activism. Since then, Berta has become a global symbol of courage and sacrifice in the face of greed and violence. Her legacy is powerful, but her martyrdom for simply protecting her community is unacceptable. In January, an independent group of experts appointed by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights released a comprehensive report on the assassination. They found that Berta’s murder was the result of a coordinated criminal operation to defeat opposition to the Agua Zarca project. Worse, international development funds intended for the hydroelectric project were diverted to the purchase of Indigenous land, surveillance, armed incursions, and Berta’s murder. Berta’s assassination is not an isolated case. Many environmental defenders’ stories resemble David vs. Goliath, as they frequently tangle with powerful, well-funded industries and governments — and the webs of corruption that sometimes link them. According to Global Witness, 2,253 environmental activists have been killed worldwide since 2012, and many more have been victimized. In September 2025, Global Witness reported that at least 146 land and environmental defenders were killed or disappeared in 2024, with a plurality in Latin America. According to the World Economic Forum, at least 175 park rangers were killed in the line of duty across 41 countries in the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/a-decade-after-the-death-of-berta-caceres-we-can-no-longer-tolerate-threats-to-environmental-activists-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/a-decade-after-the-death-of-berta-caceres-we-can-no-longer-tolerate-threats-to-environmental-activists-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315779</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>What’s at stake for the environment in Honduras’ presidential election?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/whats-at-stake-for-the-environment-in-honduras-presidential-election/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/whats-at-stake-for-the-environment-in-honduras-presidential-election/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Nov 2025 20:42:13 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/01/30172952/WhatsApp-Image-2025-01-10-at-2.48.15-PM-768x500.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=310237</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Honduras, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Forest Destruction, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Law, Logging, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Politics, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Honduras will hold elections Nov. 30 for president and all 128 seats in Congress. The winners will hold office for the next four years, shaping the country’s environmental policies at a time when its many forests and ocean ecosystems are rapidly disappearing. More than half of Honduran territory is covered in rainforest, with another 10% [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Honduras will hold elections Nov. 30 for president and all 128 seats in Congress. The winners will hold office for the next four years, shaping the country’s environmental policies at a time when its many forests and ocean ecosystems are rapidly disappearing. More than half of Honduran territory is covered in rainforest, with another 10% covered by coastal wetlands. La Mosquitia, one of the most important forests in Central America, connects protected areas in Nicaragua and acts a biological corridor for wildlife throughout the region. But the country also loses about 23,000 hectares (56,800 acres) of forest every year to fires, agribusiness and infrastructure development, as well as logging and illegal activities by criminal groups operating in remote border areas. A Miskito home in La Mosquitia. Image by Edgard Herrera/WCS. Despite having relatively low carbon emission rates, the government says these factors could eventually lead to a rise in emissions, complicating its long-term climate goal to cut them by 16% by 2030. It’s also committed to restoring approximately 1.3 million hectares (3.2 million acres) of forest by the same year. The candidates who win this election will leave office in 2029, giving the country just one year to meet these climate targets, making this a crucial moment to elect candidates with clear plans for the environment. Nevertheless, voters are more concerned about high crime rates and government corruption, including whether the outcomes of this election will be fair and honest. And while the Honduran economy has grown at a steady&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/whats-at-stake-for-the-environment-in-honduras-presidential-election/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/whats-at-stake-for-the-environment-in-honduras-presidential-election/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-310237</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Honduras, local communities miss out on benefits of large-scale renewables</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/in-honduras-local-communities-miss-out-on-benefits-of-large-scale-renewables/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/in-honduras-local-communities-miss-out-on-benefits-of-large-scale-renewables/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Nov 2025 14:19:12 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mie Hoejris Dahl]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/06140753/The-Marcovia-Solar-project.-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308874</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Honduras, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Clean Energy, Community Development, Conservation, Corporations, Deforestation, Energy, Energy Efficiency, Energy Transition, Forest Loss, Governance, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Land Conflict, Land Use Change, Renewable Energy, and Solar Power]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[CHOLUTECA, Honduras — Under the slogan “Without human rights, there is no energy sovereignty,” more than 100 community members and activists gathered in mid-July at the Casa Real Hotel in Choluteca, a city in southern Honduras near the Nicaraguan border. At the event, participants — a mix of nonprofit leaders and community members — questioned [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[CHOLUTECA, Honduras — Under the slogan “Without human rights, there is no energy sovereignty,” more than 100 community members and activists gathered in mid-July at the Casa Real Hotel in Choluteca, a city in southern Honduras near the Nicaraguan border. At the event, participants — a mix of nonprofit leaders and community members — questioned the fairness of large-scale renewable energy projects in their territories, claiming the projects leave them without water and forests, and exposed to extreme heat. Yet reliable data on the impacts of renewable energy projects in southern Honduras remain scarce. In Honduras, where fossil fuels account for about 38% of the electricity supply, and where the World Bank estimates that about 1.4 million people lack access to electricity, experts told Mongabay that there’s an urgent need for an energy transition. That need will grow as the climate warms and national energy demand rises by a projected 39% from 2025 to 2035. Yet, community members in southern Honduras say large renewable energy projects come at the expense of the environment and of their well-being. They blame solar, wind and hydroelectric projects for deforestation, droughts and floods, and describe unbearable temperatures near solar farms. Some who have opposed the large-scale renewable energy projects have been threatened, displaced or even killed. Families living adjacent to solar projects in Choluteca report still lacking access to electricity. Many say they don’t feel the benefits of the energy transition; they either pay high prices for power or remain without, while the jobs&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/in-honduras-local-communities-miss-out-on-benefits-of-large-scale-renewables/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/in-honduras-local-communities-miss-out-on-benefits-of-large-scale-renewables/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308874</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Why is protecting this Honduran lagoon so dangerous? </title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/video/2025/10/why-is-protecting-this-honduran-lagoon-so-dangerous/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/video/2025/10/why-is-protecting-this-honduran-lagoon-so-dangerous/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Oct 2025 12:38:44 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Fritz PinnowSam Lee]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sam Lee]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/22065401/Mongabay_Thumbnail_Patrol_Featured_V3-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=videos&#038;p=308044</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Honduras, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Crime, Environment, Fish, Fishing, Mangroves, and Military]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[LAGUNA DE LOS MICOS, Honduras — Tension swirls around the Laguna de los Micos in northern Honduras, which is a critical marine ecosystem surrounded by mangroves and serving as a home and nursery for many species of coral reef fish. The communities living around the lagoon have voluntarily agreed to suspend fishing for two months [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[LAGUNA DE LOS MICOS, Honduras — Tension swirls around the Laguna de los Micos in northern Honduras, which is a critical marine ecosystem surrounded by mangroves and serving as a home and nursery for many species of coral reef fish. The communities living around the lagoon have voluntarily agreed to suspend fishing for two months of the year, giving the lagoon’s fish populations a chance to recover. Rangers from local conservation NGO, PROLANSATE Foundation, are tasked with enforcing the agreement—patrolling the waters, removing hidden nets, and confronting fishermen hiding in the mangroves with the help of the military. This initiative is a rare example of successful community-based conservation. Yet despite broad local support, rangers still face threats and intimidation from fishermen, highlighting the deep-rooted risks tied to conservation work in Honduras, one of the most dangerous countries in Latin America for environmental defenders. Caught between environmental duty and social tension, the rangers learn to deal with hostility as they try to protect the lagoon. Mongabay’s Video Team wants to cover questions and topics that matter to you. Are there any inspiring people, urgent issues, or local stories that you’d like us to cover? We want to hear from you. Be a part of our reporting process—get in touch with us here! Banner image: Soldiers from the PROLANSATE Foundation on patrol. ©Camilo Freedman. When the sea takes over: Voices from a climate-displaced community in MexicoThis article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/video/2025/10/why-is-protecting-this-honduran-lagoon-so-dangerous/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/video/2025/10/why-is-protecting-this-honduran-lagoon-so-dangerous/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308044</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Mounting corporate pressure on Honduras threatens community rights</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/mounting-corporate-pressure-on-honduras-threatens-community-rights/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/mounting-corporate-pressure-on-honduras-threatens-community-rights/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Jul 2025 14:26:39 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aimee Gabay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/24134911/Hn-lawsuits-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=303136</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Honduras, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Community Development, Conservation, Corporations, Energy, Environment, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Politics, and Renewable Energy]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Honduras is currently facing a total of $19.4 billion in lawsuits from corporations, an amount equivalent to roughly 53% of the country’s GDP in 2024, according to new data by the Institute for Policy Studies, Transnational Institute, Honduras Solidarity Network and TerraJusta. More than $1.6 billion of the claims are from the energy sector alone, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Honduras is currently facing a total of $19.4 billion in lawsuits from corporations, an amount equivalent to roughly 53% of the country’s GDP in 2024, according to new data by the Institute for Policy Studies, Transnational Institute, Honduras Solidarity Network and TerraJusta. More than $1.6 billion of the claims are from the energy sector alone, most of which are investors or companies involved in renewables. The lawsuits, most of which are tied to controversial investments made after the 2009 coup, undermine government efforts to implement reforms aimed at protecting the environment and human rights, the organizations say. Companies and investors are using these tribunals to resist government measures to protect natural resources and human rights, such as the rollback of policies that favor privatization and expensive private energy contracts, according to Karen Spring, a coordinator for the Honduras Solidarity Network and author of a 2024 report by the same organizations that released the new figures. “The companies do not like these re-negotiations and refuse to sit down with the government of one of the poorest countries in the western hemisphere to negotiate, and with greed and arrogance, appeal to these neocolonial international arbitration tribunals to force Honduras to give them what they want – consistent corporate profits at the expense of the public good,” Spring told Mongabay over email. X-Elio’s Solar Energy Park in Choluteca, Honduras. Image by Jen Moore. The $19.4 billion is a jump from the $14 billion reported by the same organizations in 2024, with two new&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/mounting-corporate-pressure-on-honduras-threatens-community-rights/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/mounting-corporate-pressure-on-honduras-threatens-community-rights/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-303136</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Nearly half of tree species in Mexico and Central America threatened with extinction</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/nearly-half-of-tree-species-in-mexico-and-central-america-threatened-with-extinction/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/nearly-half-of-tree-species-in-mexico-and-central-america-threatened-with-extinction/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Jul 2025 13:48:46 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2018/08/30153330/costa_rica_osa_0077-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=302104</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Belize, Central America, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Panama]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Extinction, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forests, Green, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Trees, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Lions have been dubbed the king of the jungle, but one could argue the real royalty are the trees, the massive woody beasts that hold down the land and root the web of life that teems around them. In Mesoamerica (Mexico and Central America), which hosts 10% of all plant life on Earth despite covering [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Lions have been dubbed the king of the jungle, but one could argue the real royalty are the trees, the massive woody beasts that hold down the land and root the web of life that teems around them. In Mesoamerica (Mexico and Central America), which hosts 10% of all plant life on Earth despite covering only 0.5% of the planet’s land surface, nearly half of all tree species are in trouble. Of the 4,046 known tree species found only in Mesoamerica, 1,867, or 46%, are threatened with extinction, according to a new study published in the journal Plants, People, Planet. The research represents the first comprehensive assessment of Mesoamerican trees. The study was part of the Global Tree Assessment, a decade-long initiative to evaluate the conservation status of all the world&#8217;s tree species. Researchers used the standards of the IUCN Red List, which tracks how close species are to disappearing worldwide. The IUCN Red List categorizes species into nine groups, ranging from not evaluated to extinct, by considering factors such as population decline, habitat loss, and population size. Before this assessment, less than 20% (700) of the tree species of the region had been assessed on the IUCN Red List before 2019. Fungi in Costa Rica. Through their entire life cycle and beyond, tropical trees host an abundance of life. Photo by Rhett A. Butler for Mongabay.com. &#8220;It&#8217;s an important study — essentially a clarion call for conserving endangered tree species in Mesoamerica,&#8221; William Laurance, a tropical ecologist at James&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/nearly-half-of-tree-species-in-mexico-and-central-america-threatened-with-extinction/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/nearly-half-of-tree-species-in-mexico-and-central-america-threatened-with-extinction/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-302104</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The reef that shouldn’t exist</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/06/300906/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/06/300906/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Jun 2025 12:36:10 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/05/01140517/2-reef-cocalito-768x512-1.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=300906</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America and Honduras]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Coral Bleaching, Coral Reefs, Environment, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Hope and optimism, Marine Conservation, and Oceans]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Founder&#8217;s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. In the summer of 2024, searing ocean temperatures devastated much of Mesoamerica’s corals. But in Honduras’s Tela Bay, a reef known as Cocalito remains improbably intact — dominated by elkhorn corals so robust they scrape the water’s surface. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Founder&#8217;s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. In the summer of 2024, searing ocean temperatures devastated much of Mesoamerica’s corals. But in Honduras’s Tela Bay, a reef known as Cocalito remains improbably intact — dominated by elkhorn corals so robust they scrape the water’s surface. The survival of this reef is baffling. Elkhorn coral (Acropora palmata), once common across the Caribbean, has declined by up to 98% in many areas due to warming seas, disease and pollution. Yet in Tela Bay, fed by a river heavy with fertilizer and waste, these corals not only endure, they flourish. Scientists have taken notice, reports contributor Fritz Pinnow for Mongabay. A team from the University of Miami in the U.S., suspecting the corals harbor heat-resistant algae or unique genetic traits, collected samples to crossbreed with Florida’s nearly extinct elkhorns. Early findings suggest Cocalito’s coral hosts an unusually resilient symbiont. Still, results are preliminary, and other theories abound. Some point to environmental quirks. Coastal currents may shield Cocalito from sedimentation and heat. Others cite human behavior: the reef’s shallow waters deter fishers, perhaps allowing a healthier ecological balance to persist. Whatever the explanation, Cocalito’s persistence stands in stark contrast to the regional picture. Tela Bay’s other reefs were not spared from the global bleaching event, now affecting 84% of reefs worldwide. Local conservationists have long been working to mitigate stressors — fighting pollution, managing tourism and monitoring reef health — but even they are&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/06/300906/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/06/300906/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-300906</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Conservation tech without Indigenous knowledge and local context has limits (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/conservation-tech-without-indigenous-knowledge-and-local-context-has-limits-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/conservation-tech-without-indigenous-knowledge-and-local-context-has-limits-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 May 2025 15:26:09 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Marco Acevedo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/05/28151027/20240730_161302-e1748446039264-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=299791</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Guatemala, Honduras, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Environment, Indigenous Peoples, Land Rights, Reforestation, Technology, Traditional Knowledge, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Technology can be a powerful ally in conservation, but it’s not a silver bullet. Too often, tools like drones, GPS apps or satellite imagery are introduced as standalone solutions, disconnected from those who have stewarded these ecosystems for generations. What’s missing isn’t innovation. It’s inclusion. Local and Indigenous communities bring centuries of knowledge, experience and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Technology can be a powerful ally in conservation, but it’s not a silver bullet. Too often, tools like drones, GPS apps or satellite imagery are introduced as standalone solutions, disconnected from those who have stewarded these ecosystems for generations. What’s missing isn’t innovation. It’s inclusion. Local and Indigenous communities bring centuries of knowledge, experience and care to the lands they protect. Even the most sophisticated technology can fall short when this wisdom is overlooked. The spread of geospatial tools has opened exciting new possibilities: communities can now track deforestation, monitor biodiversity and respond to threats in real time. But there are barriers: limited internet, high costs and steep learning curves make adoption uneven, especially in rural and Indigenous areas. In Guatemala, an Indigenous woman works with EcoLogic staff to monitor forest health, merging ancestral knowledge with modern tools. Image courtesy of Lucy Calderón/EcoLogic Development Fund. And there are deeper concerns: Satellite data might detect forest loss, but it can’t recognize the subtle shifts in plant behavior or animal migration patterns that locals notice immediately. Without safeguards and clear ownership agreements, sensitive information can be misused, undermining trust and sovereignty. In short, no matter how advanced the tool, it cannot replace lived experience. Conservation is not just a technical task. It’s relational, cultural and deeply human. Technology means little without trust The success of any conservation project depends on how well it is integrated into community life. When new tools are introduced without respect for traditional ways of knowing, they can&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/conservation-tech-without-indigenous-knowledge-and-local-context-has-limits-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/conservation-tech-without-indigenous-knowledge-and-local-context-has-limits-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-299791</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A Honduran reef stumps conservationists with its unlikely resilience</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/a-honduran-reef-stumps-conservationists-with-its-unlikely-resilience/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/a-honduran-reef-stumps-conservationists-with-its-unlikely-resilience/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 May 2025 15:02:51 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Fritz Pinnow]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/05/01140522/4-reef-cocalito-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=298464</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America and Honduras]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[algae, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Coral Bleaching, Coral Reefs, Ecosystems, Global Environmental Crisis, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Marine, Marine Conservation, Ocean Warming, Oceans, and Research]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[TELA BAY, Honduras — Viewed from the boat, the mighty elkhorn corals shimmer through the clear water, their tips grazing the surface and seeming to reach for the hull. But it’s only when one is submerged that the corals display their full size and strength, and all the busy biodiversity swarming around them. Some of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[TELA BAY, Honduras — Viewed from the boat, the mighty elkhorn corals shimmer through the clear water, their tips grazing the surface and seeming to reach for the hull. But it’s only when one is submerged that the corals display their full size and strength, and all the busy biodiversity swarming around them. Some of the corals are wider than a man is tall, and the white-tipped, antler-like branches of individual corals interlock to create expanses of reef that entirely cover the seafloor, leaving nothing to see but coral. On it stretches across the bay, for more than a kilometer (0.62 miles). The latest &#8220;report card&#8221; on Mesoamerica’s coral reefs made clear that 2024’s hottest-ever recorded summer temperatures devastated some of the region’s most iconic reef sites. But against all odds, this reef at the western end of Tela Bay on Honduras’s Caribbean coast, composed largely of critically endangered elkhorn corals (Acropora palmata), displays remarkable health. Known affectionately as “Cocalito,” this patch of coral is raising urgent questions about what qualities endow corals with heat resilience and whether they can be harnessed to help save other reefs. “The reef challenges our basic understanding of corals, as it is thriving at a time where we are trying to stop reefs from dying,” Paolo Guardiola, a biologist and dive instructor in the town of Tela, told Mongabay. As the area’s program coordinator with the Coral Reef Alliance, a U.S.-based NGO that supports local reef conservation groups, he’s been monitoring the bay’s coral&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/a-honduran-reef-stumps-conservationists-with-its-unlikely-resilience/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/a-honduran-reef-stumps-conservationists-with-its-unlikely-resilience/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-298464</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Honduras pays the climate cost as its forests disappear and storms rise</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/honduras-pays-the-climate-cost-as-its-forests-disappear-and-storms-rise/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/honduras-pays-the-climate-cost-as-its-forests-disappear-and-storms-rise/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Apr 2025 14:09:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mie Hoejris Dahl]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/04/09135124/Pico-Bonito-National-Park-floods4-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=297273</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Honduras, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Extreme Weather, Forests, Impact Of Climate Change, Nature-based climate solutions, Oceans, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Solutions, Storms, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Deforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[TOCOA, Honduras &#8211; On a rainy November day in 2024, Storm Sara, a slow-moving tropical cyclone, struck Honduras, claiming at least six lives and displacing more than 6,000 people. Along the country’s northern coast, trees were bent or broken, roads turned into brown rivers, and houses were torn apart and swept away. Sara was one of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[TOCOA, Honduras &#8211; On a rainy November day in 2024, Storm Sara, a slow-moving tropical cyclone, struck Honduras, claiming at least six lives and displacing more than 6,000 people. Along the country’s northern coast, trees were bent or broken, roads turned into brown rivers, and houses were torn apart and swept away. Sara was one of 18 storms to batter Honduras last year.  Storms like Sara have been wreaking havoc across Honduras in part because the country continues to lose its forests, considered one of its best defenses against climate change-related events, experts have warned. Deforestation rates in the country continue to be among the highest in the Americas, driven primarily by cattle ranching, logging, mining and illegal drug trafficking. The loss of vegetation cover has rendered the land unable to absorb excess water, worsening the impacts of floods that destroy homes, crops and entire communities.  Amid the current climate crisis, forests may hold the key to mitigating climate risks, according to Josué León, coordinator of the forest unit at the Department of Environment and Development at Zamorano University in the capital, Tegucigalpa. Sources consulted by Mongabay say the Honduran government has started acknowledging the crucial role of forests in mitigating mounting climate risks, but its focus remains on emergency response, leaving most climate mitigation efforts to international actors or neglecting them altogether. Efforts to address deforestation are also lagging, they say. A red dirt road cuts through expansive oil palm plantations. Commodity-driven agriculture is responsible for 25% of Honduras&#8217; forest&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/honduras-pays-the-climate-cost-as-its-forests-disappear-and-storms-rise/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/honduras-pays-the-climate-cost-as-its-forests-disappear-and-storms-rise/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-297273</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>To save a Honduran reef, locals craft custom gear and hunt invasive lionfish</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/03/to-save-a-honduran-reef-locals-craft-custom-gear-and-hunt-invasive-lionfish/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/03/to-save-a-honduran-reef-locals-craft-custom-gear-and-hunt-invasive-lionfish/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Mar 2025 10:33:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Kristine Sabillo]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/11/15115754/spearing-lionfish-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=295732</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Caribbean and Honduras]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Aquariums, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Coral Bleaching, Coral Reefs, Ecosystems, Environment, Environmental Law, Fish, Fishing, Green, Impact Of Climate Change, Invasive Species, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, and Oceans]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Without a natural predator, invasive lionfish, which damage coral reefs, have become widespread throughout the Caribbean over the last several decades. To prevent further harm off the northern coast of Honduras, locals have resorted to crafting their own spears to effectively and safely hunt lionfish, reports Mongabay contributor Fritz Pinnow. Julio San Martín Chicas, program [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Without a natural predator, invasive lionfish, which damage coral reefs, have become widespread throughout the Caribbean over the last several decades. To prevent further harm off the northern coast of Honduras, locals have resorted to crafting their own spears to effectively and safely hunt lionfish, reports Mongabay contributor Fritz Pinnow. Julio San Martín Chicas, program coordinator with the NGO Coral Reef Alliance, told Mongabay that lionfish (Pterois volitans and P. miles), a group of venomous fish native to the Indo-Pacific, are believed to have proliferated after being released into the sea from personal aquariums. These fish feed on small native fish that play an important role in keeping harmful algae growth on corals in check. As lionfish reproduce quickly and eat the smaller fish, it puts “coral ecosystem at risk, as it critically disrupts the natural exchange of nutrients,” Chicas said. He added that to address the problem, humans must become lionfish predators and hunt them or teach natural predators like sharks and groupers to eat them. The latter hasn’t shown much success. A lionfish in the coral reef. Image by Fritz Pinnow for Mongabay. In the Honduran town of Tela, a group of locals led by divemaster Mario Motiño Jr. and his father, Mario Sr., have turned to hunting lionfish to limit their spread. Pinnow reports that 68% of Tela Bay has live corals, which are already vulnerable to overfishing and bleaching due to climate change. Lionfish are an additional problem. The Motiños, who own one of the largest metal fabrication businesses&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/03/to-save-a-honduran-reef-locals-craft-custom-gear-and-hunt-invasive-lionfish/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/03/to-save-a-honduran-reef-locals-craft-custom-gear-and-hunt-invasive-lionfish/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-295732</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Agriculture, illegal ranching and roads threaten the jaguar in Mesoamerica</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/agriculture-illegal-ranching-and-roads-threaten-the-jaguar-in-mesoamerica/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/agriculture-illegal-ranching-and-roads-threaten-the-jaguar-in-mesoamerica/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Feb 2025 09:29:59 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Astrid Arellano]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/01/30123023/04110011_V1.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=293586</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Animals, Big Cats, Biodiversity, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Jaguars, Protected Areas, Ranching, Roads, Wildlife, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Jaguar have always disregarded national borders, but some threats are keeping the big cats contained within the territories that they inhabits. The spread of extensive monoculture plantations, illegal ranches, forest fires, roads and hunters are putting severe pressure on this apex predator’s habitats in Mesoamerica, the region that includes Mexico and the countries of Central [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Jaguar have always disregarded national borders, but some threats are keeping the big cats contained within the territories that they inhabits. The spread of extensive monoculture plantations, illegal ranches, forest fires, roads and hunters are putting severe pressure on this apex predator’s habitats in Mesoamerica, the region that includes Mexico and the countries of Central America. To ensure that the emblematic feline survives in this area, conservationists say it’s crucial to protect a stretch of wildlife corridor that passes through northern Guatemala, crosses into Belize, and reaches up to northern Honduras. Throughout this entire region, there are key sites for safeguarding jaguars (Panthera onca). Known as Jaguar Conservation Units (JCUs), they host stable jaguar populations — or could, if some prevailing pressures were eliminated — and are united by connecting corridors. “The loss of any of these areas would cut off the jaguar populations’ connectivity at a regional level,” says Roberto Salom-Pérez, Latin America director for the big cat conservation NGO Panthera. A jaguar in the Maya Biosphere Reserve in Guatemala. Image courtesy of WCS Guatemala. For many scientists, organizations and governments, the challenge is implementing the Jaguar Corridor Initiative. The initiative aims to improve the connectivity between populations of the Americas’ largest feline throughout its entire range, which stretches from Mexico in the north to Argentina in the south. Similarly, an unprecedented global agreement to save the jaguar, which began in late 2018, continues to work toward the conservation of the species before 2030, ensuring that there are 30&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/agriculture-illegal-ranching-and-roads-threaten-the-jaguar-in-mesoamerica/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/agriculture-illegal-ranching-and-roads-threaten-the-jaguar-in-mesoamerica/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-293586</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Honduras, communities race to establish reserve as La Mosquitia forest disappears</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/in-honduras-communities-race-to-establish-reserve-as-la-mosquitia-forest-disappears/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/in-honduras-communities-race-to-establish-reserve-as-la-mosquitia-forest-disappears/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Jan 2025 17:47:13 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/01/30172952/WhatsApp-Image-2025-01-10-at-2.48.15-PM-768x500.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=293687</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Honduras, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forests, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Mapping, Politics, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Deforestation, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Over the last several decades, La Mosquitia has become one of the most dangerous regions of Honduras. Drug trafficking, cattle ranching and illegal logging have pushed into the isolated forests and mountains that stretch along the southern border, becoming part of an everyday struggle for many Indigenous communities. Protected areas in La Mosquitia, like the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Over the last several decades, La Mosquitia has become one of the most dangerous regions of Honduras. Drug trafficking, cattle ranching and illegal logging have pushed into the isolated forests and mountains that stretch along the southern border, becoming part of an everyday struggle for many Indigenous communities. Protected areas in La Mosquitia, like the Río Plátano and Tawahka Asangni biosphere reserves, receive some resources from the government to combat the problem, but satellite data show deforestation increasing in even these places. As a result, some Indigenous communities are trying to set up a nearby protected area of their own, managed and controlled by residents. “The same community elders who protected this area for many years are today hampered by outsiders who have illegally invaded the land,” Daniel Kiapa, a legal representative for several Indigenous communities in the area, told Mongabay. “We’re hoping to see peace in the next couple of years and hopefully that the forest will regenerate.” The protected area they want to establish won’t be a traditional park or reserve, because those designations would create restrictions for Indigenous communities, who still rely on ancestral hunting, farming and gathering of plants for medicinal practices. Instead, it will be an Indigenous anthropological reserve, with a multiple-use zone where communities can use natural resources. The proposed Warunta Indigenous Anthropological Reserve will cover 65,369 hectares (161,530 acres) in the department of Gracias a Dios, on territory governed by the Council of Elders of La Mosquitia (known as Bakinasta). Indigenous Miskito, Pech,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/in-honduras-communities-race-to-establish-reserve-as-la-mosquitia-forest-disappears/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/in-honduras-communities-race-to-establish-reserve-as-la-mosquitia-forest-disappears/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-293687</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Agribusiness giant Olam gets head start on EUDR; its suppliers, not so much</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/agribusiness-giant-olam-gets-head-start-on-eudr-its-suppliers-not-so-much/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/agribusiness-giant-olam-gets-head-start-on-eudr-its-suppliers-not-so-much/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Dec 2024 14:19:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aimee Gabay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Food systems]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/24141340/Photo-5-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=292277</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, European Union, Honduras, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Cacao, Coffee, Commodity agriculture, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Farming, Food, Food Industry, Supply Chain, Sustainability, and Tracking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A massive gap is forming in the race to comply with the European Union’s antideforestation rules, as smallholder farmers and suppliers struggle to meet the new requirements while agribusiness giants express confidence about being ready in time. Olam Agri and ofi, both subsidiaries of Singapore-headquartered food and agribusiness conglomerate Olam Group, told Mongabay they’re using [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A massive gap is forming in the race to comply with the European Union’s antideforestation rules, as smallholder farmers and suppliers struggle to meet the new requirements while agribusiness giants express confidence about being ready in time. Olam Agri and ofi, both subsidiaries of Singapore-headquartered food and agribusiness conglomerate Olam Group, told Mongabay they’re using advanced traceability and information systems to get ahead. By contrast, smallholders in countries like Honduras and Indonesia still lack critical information and resources to even begin the compliance process before the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) takes effect. In response to these and similar concerns from trade groups and exporting countries, the EU has agreed to delay the law’s implementation by a year from the initial start date of end-2024.   Coffee is one of the seven commodities subject to the EUDR; the regulation will prohibit imports into the EU market of commodities sourced from land that was deforested after Dec. 31, 2020. Coffee will be heavily impacted by the new regulation: between 2001 and 2015, 1.9 million hectares (4.7 million acres) of forest, an area about half the size of Switzerland, was cleared for coffee cultivation. And in 2023, half of the coffee exported from Honduras was destined for the EU. ofi carrying out agroforestry training. Image courtesy of ofi. Miguel Pon, executive president of the Association of Coffee Exporters of Honduras, told Mongabay by email that he believes “no more than 20 percent of all Honduras [coffee] producers are prepared with the points and polygons&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/agribusiness-giant-olam-gets-head-start-on-eudr-its-suppliers-not-so-much/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/agribusiness-giant-olam-gets-head-start-on-eudr-its-suppliers-not-so-much/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-292277</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Grassroots efforts sprout up to protect Central America’s Trifinio watershed</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/grassroots-efforts-sprout-up-to-protect-central-americas-trifinio-watershed/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/grassroots-efforts-sprout-up-to-protect-central-americas-trifinio-watershed/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Dec 2024 16:21:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/13213804/WhatsApp-Image-2024-12-13-at-2.32.57-PM-1-768x450.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=291605</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Agriculture, Biodiversity, Cattle, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Drinking Water, Environment, Environmental Law, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forests, Freshwater, Freshwater Fish, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Lakes, Pesticides, Politics, Pollution, Protected Areas, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Ranching, Rivers, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Deforestation, Tropical Forests, Water, Water Pollution, Wildlife, and Women In Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[ESQUIPULAS, Guatemala — An estimated 8 million migrants have entered the U.S. during the Biden administration, the highest number in centuries. Many still come from the so-called Northern Triangle, made up of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, as they seek to escape gang violence and a lack of employment. But there’s another driver of migration [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[ESQUIPULAS, Guatemala — An estimated 8 million migrants have entered the U.S. during the Biden administration, the highest number in centuries. Many still come from the so-called Northern Triangle, made up of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, as they seek to escape gang violence and a lack of employment. But there’s another driver of migration that officials sometimes overlook: climate change. Dry seasons in Central America are getting longer and hotter all the time, and rural families can’t grow enough crops to feed their families. More than 3 million people were expected to face crisis-level food insecurity earlier this year, potentially driving them out of the region. They also lack access to clean drinking water. “The problems of extreme poverty, low access to services, a highly aggravated and vulnerable population — all of that is made worse by the consequences of climate change,” said Berta Medrano, head of the Gaia Association, a conservation group that works in all three countries. Governments in the region are still working to develop policies that address crop failure and climate change-resilient jobs in hopes of slowing migration. The international community, whether in the form of NGOs or government agencies like USAID, are also very present in the region. But some parts of the problem may not be receiving enough attention. One major watershed running through Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador has been so polluted and industrialized that 20% of it could dry up by 2050, according to a U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/grassroots-efforts-sprout-up-to-protect-central-americas-trifinio-watershed/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/grassroots-efforts-sprout-up-to-protect-central-americas-trifinio-watershed/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-291605</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Foreign investor lawsuits impede Honduras human rights &#038; environment protections</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/foreign-investor-lawsuits-impede-honduras-human-rights-environment-protections/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/foreign-investor-lawsuits-impede-honduras-human-rights-environment-protections/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Dec 2024 23:29:14 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sarah Brown]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/12232119/Carlos-Escaleras-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=291550</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Honduras, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Community Development, Conservation, Deforestation, Energy, Environment, Governance, Human Rights, Land Rights, Law, Mining, Politics, Research, and Transportation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Foreign investors in Honduras enjoy “extraordinary privileges” that hinder the government’s ability to implement reforms that could benefit human rights and the environment, a report has found. These advantages allow corporations to sue the Central American country for policy changes that allegedly harm their investments using controversial investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanisms, resulting in a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Foreign investors in Honduras enjoy “extraordinary privileges” that hinder the government’s ability to implement reforms that could benefit human rights and the environment, a report has found. These advantages allow corporations to sue the Central American country for policy changes that allegedly harm their investments using controversial investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanisms, resulting in a surge of lawsuits amounting to billions of dollars. The report from the Institute for Policy Studies, the Transnational Institute, TerraJusta and the Honduras Solidarity Network reveals that the impact of these legal disputes creates a “chilling effect,” otherwise known as a “deterrent effect,” in which the state may be discouraged from enacting public interest legislation due to the costly risk of liability under investment agreements. “The lawsuits directly undermine the government’s ability to listen to local communities and make sovereign decisions about protecting their land and resources,” Karen Spring, coordinator for the Honduras Solidarity Network and co-author of the report, told Mongabay. Honduras has faced 19 claims over the past two decades, 14 of which have occurred since 2023. The chart highlights the various sectors involved and the legal pathways investors have used to file these lawsuits. Image via ‘Corporate Assault on Honduras’ report. The ISDS provision allows private sector lawyers to determine whether countries are treating foreign investors fairly. The report says that many lawsuits in Honduras stem from companies that made questionable investments after the 2009 coup d’état, with around a third of the investments facing significant resistance from affected communities. ISDS is&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/foreign-investor-lawsuits-impede-honduras-human-rights-environment-protections/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/foreign-investor-lawsuits-impede-honduras-human-rights-environment-protections/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-291550</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A father and son duo fight invasive lionfish on a Honduran reef</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/a-father-and-son-duo-fight-invasive-lionfish-on-a-honduran-reef/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/a-father-and-son-duo-fight-invasive-lionfish-on-a-honduran-reef/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Nov 2024 16:52:59 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Fritz Pinnow]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/11/15110220/1-Mario-Motino-Sr.-front-and-Mario-Motino-Jr.-back-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=290147</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America and Honduras]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Coral Reefs, Ecosystems, Environment, Fish, Fishing, Invasive Species, Marine, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Predators, and Saltwater Fish]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[TELA, Honduras — “These lionfish are so confident,” says Mario Motiño Jr., co-founder and divemaster for Tela Divers, a community group in the small city of Tela on the northern coast of Honduras. He’s talking about Pterois volitans and P. miles, spectacular striped fish native to the Indo-Pacific that, with no natural predators due to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[TELA, Honduras — “These lionfish are so confident,” says Mario Motiño Jr., co-founder and divemaster for Tela Divers, a community group in the small city of Tela on the northern coast of Honduras. He’s talking about Pterois volitans and P. miles, spectacular striped fish native to the Indo-Pacific that, with no natural predators due to their venomous spines, are brazenly wreaking havoc on marine ecosystems throughout the Caribbean. “When we get close to them with our spears they don’t even move, we can get as close as we want to hunt them.“ To protect Tela’s embattled coral reef, Motiño and his father, Mario Motiño Sr., both industrial engineers, are mounting a single-minded lionfish hunting effort to limit the fishes’ spread. “Lionfish hunting is usually a luxury practiced on the touristy islands, but here in Tela, we had to make gear to make it accessible for everyone,” says Motiño Sr. “The lionfish are everywhere because no one has dedicated themselves to hunting them here on the coasts of the mainland.” Live coral covers 68% of Tela Bay, creating a complex ecosystem. Overfishing has harmed parts of the reef, and bleaching, a potentially fatal result of high water temperatures due to human-caused climate change, has affected 40% of the corals in the wider Mesoamerican Reef, according to a new report based on research by the Atlantic and Gulf Rapid Reef Assessment (AGRRA). Add to that the invasive lionfish, which are believed to have been released from personal aquariums. With no natural predator&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/a-father-and-son-duo-fight-invasive-lionfish-on-a-honduran-reef/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/a-father-and-son-duo-fight-invasive-lionfish-on-a-honduran-reef/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-290147</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A deadly fly is spreading through Central America. Experts blame illegal cattle ranching</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/a-deadly-fly-is-spreading-through-central-america-experts-blame-illegal-cattle-ranching/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/a-deadly-fly-is-spreading-through-central-america-experts-blame-illegal-cattle-ranching/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Nov 2024 17:03:10 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/10/15140350/FEATURE1-768x450.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=290005</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Guatemala, Honduras, Latin America, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Panama]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Animals, Cattle, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forests, Governance, International Trade, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Law, Politics, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Ranching, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Deforestation, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[MEXICO CITY — Illegal cattle ranching in Central America has led to the spread of a deadly parasite long thought to be eradicated, and conservationists are calling for tighter controls before it reaches Mexico and the US. An outbreak of new world screwworm (Cochliomyia hominivorax)  — a fly that infects warm-blooded animals — is the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[MEXICO CITY — Illegal cattle ranching in Central America has led to the spread of a deadly parasite long thought to be eradicated, and conservationists are calling for tighter controls before it reaches Mexico and the US. An outbreak of new world screwworm (Cochliomyia hominivorax)  — a fly that infects warm-blooded animals — is the direct result of cattle smuggling through protected areas across Central America, conservationists said. Unregulated movement of livestock has accelerated transmission, and could cost the region millions of dollars if officials don’t act soon. “The screwworm outbreak highlights an urgent need for tighter regulation in the cattle trade across Mesoamerica, as the unchecked movement of illegal cattle exacerbates both environmental and health issues,” said Chris Jordan, Latin America Director for Re:wild, a conservation group. “…Tackling this requires cooperation from companies, industry leaders and governments, who must step up to prevent contraband cattle from crossing borders unchecked.” New world screwworms lay their eggs in the open wounds of cattle and other animals, with the resulting larva feeding on live flesh until the host dies. It can be disastrous for agribusiness and countries relying on beef exports. A joint US campaign in the 1980s and 90s helped eradicate screwworm from Central America and Mexico. But last year, the fly reappeared unexpectedly, this time in Panama. Experts believe it traveled from South America through the thick jungles of the Darien Gap, which had previously kept the parasite at bay for nearly thirty years. Experts still don’t know if the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/a-deadly-fly-is-spreading-through-central-america-experts-blame-illegal-cattle-ranching/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/a-deadly-fly-is-spreading-through-central-america-experts-blame-illegal-cattle-ranching/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-290005</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>U.S. court approves historic settlement for Honduran farmers&#8217; case against the World Bank’s IFC</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/world-banks-ifc-must-pay-reparations-to-honduran-farmers-us-court-rules/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/world-banks-ifc-must-pay-reparations-to-honduran-farmers-us-court-rules/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Oct 2024 18:57:20 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jared Olson]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/10/10183544/20230215_100147-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=288517</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Honduras, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Agriculture, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporate Social Responsibility, Environment, Finance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Law, Law Enforcement, Palm Oil, and Plantations]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[AGUÁN VALLEY, Honduras — In the years after 2018, during periods when the threats subsided and the paramilitary gunmen didn’t show up, nights in the village of Panamá were peaceful. People meandered freely through the dirt roads of the community, wedged against an ocean of reclaimed, reoccupied African palm plantations on the remote northern coast [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[AGUÁN VALLEY, Honduras — In the years after 2018, during periods when the threats subsided and the paramilitary gunmen didn’t show up, nights in the village of Panamá were peaceful. People meandered freely through the dirt roads of the community, wedged against an ocean of reclaimed, reoccupied African palm plantations on the remote northern coast of Honduras. They played soccer or lounged about mom-and-pop stores to drink beers. But when the sicarios, or gunmen, appeared on the streets, sauntering around with assault weapons and bulletproof vests, everything closed. They were the same gunmen accused of killing more than a dozen members of the land rights cooperative since 2018. Panamá is one of several villages in northern Honduras that have faced repeated waves of violence allegedly linked to the Dinant Holding Corporation, a Central American African palm oil and consumer goods company. In 2009, Dinant benefited from a $30 million dollar loan to develop its plantations from the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation, even though the company was linked to waves of violence against land defenders in the Bajo Aguán Valley region of Honduras. Yet on Oct. 3, a court in the U.S. state of Delaware has approved a historical settlement in a class action lawsuit against the IFC, alleging that the lender was liable for allowing its money to finance violent actors implicated in human rights abuses and killings. As a result of the settlement, the IFC will pay nearly $5 million in reparations to 13 anonymous plaintiffs from the Bajo Aguán Valley&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/world-banks-ifc-must-pay-reparations-to-honduran-farmers-us-court-rules/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/world-banks-ifc-must-pay-reparations-to-honduran-farmers-us-court-rules/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-288517</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indigenous peoples won in court — but in practice, they face a different reality</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/indigenous-peoples-won-in-court-but-in-practice-they-face-a-different-reality/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/indigenous-peoples-won-in-court-but-in-practice-they-face-a-different-reality/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Sep 2024 17:31:15 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aimee Gabay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/09/20160633/Endorois__Ogiek_Peoples_of_Kenya-3-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=287641</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central America, Global, Honduras, and Kenya]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Community Forests, Crime, Development, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Politics, Social Justice, and Violence]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[After years of delays, the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (AfCHPR) will soon meet for the first time to discuss Kenya’s failure to implement rulings recognizing the Ogiek peoples’ claim to land in the Mau Forest. It has been seven years since the community won its first landmark victory, and little has progressed [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[After years of delays, the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (AfCHPR) will soon meet for the first time to discuss Kenya’s failure to implement rulings recognizing the Ogiek peoples’ claim to land in the Mau Forest. It has been seven years since the community won its first landmark victory, and little has progressed since — a situation experts say is all too common. “To date, unfortunately, nothing has happened,” said Daniel Kobei, Ogiek leader and executive director of the Ogiek Peoples’ Development Program. The Ogiek peoples are not alone in their frustration. Lack of implementation of international court rulings is low and information on progress is murky, including on rulings that impact Indigenous peoples and their access to land in biodiversity hotspots. Calculations by Mongabay of the African court’s most recent activity report in 2023 found that of the 57 applications mentioned, 52 of them had no update on implementation as the state had not handed in a progress report. Some of these applications went as far back as 2013. According to a 2021 report by the AfCHPR, only 7% of all its judgments had been fully complied with up to 2020. However, lawyers told Mongabay that this number is likely inaccurate, as there is no official reporting or research on state compliance, and many of the judgments are too vague to measure. Other experts said that the level of implementation is likely very low and risks questioning the legitimacy of high-level human rights courts. “What is at&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/indigenous-peoples-won-in-court-but-in-practice-they-face-a-different-reality/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/indigenous-peoples-won-in-court-but-in-practice-they-face-a-different-reality/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-287641</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Honduras taps armed forces to eliminate deforestation by 2029. Will it work?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/honduras-taps-armed-forces-to-eliminate-deforestation-by-2029-will-it-work/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/honduras-taps-armed-forces-to-eliminate-deforestation-by-2029-will-it-work/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Sep 2024 10:00:05 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/09/11174940/Feature-1-768x450.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=287226</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Honduras, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Forest Destruction, Forests, Governance, Illegal Logging, Land Conflict, Law Enforcement, Logging, Organized Crime, Politics, Protected Areas, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, Timber, Tropical Forests, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Honduras this year launched a plan to eliminate deforestation by 2029, with a special focus on recovering land used by criminal groups for timber trafficking. Officials have already carried out hundreds of operations and arrested dozens of people tied to organized crime. But some experts worry that the plan doesn’t go far enough. The “Zero [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Honduras this year launched a plan to eliminate deforestation by 2029, with a special focus on recovering land used by criminal groups for timber trafficking. Officials have already carried out hundreds of operations and arrested dozens of people tied to organized crime. But some experts worry that the plan doesn’t 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 greenlit funds to retake control of protected areas where agriculture, livestock, mining and other illegal activities have been thriving, often with the involvement of powerful criminal groups. “It’s time to take decisive action and enforce the law against the devastation of our forests, to restore security in these vital areas and forge a new development paradigm that guarantees the protection of natural resources and human survival, especially for Indigenous people,” the country’s National Defense and Security Council said in the resolution outlining the plan. The council is headed by President Xiomara Castro and makes national security, defense and intelligence policy. The plan aims to evict groups living and working in protected areas and to “neutralize and establish control” of roads where timber is trafficked. It also asked the Public Ministry to investigate the logging industry and the land titling process, as titles are often granted illegally within protected and Indigenous territories. President Xiomara Castro during a meeting about protecting threatened protected areas. Photo courtesy of Sedena. Over $766 million has been&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/honduras-taps-armed-forces-to-eliminate-deforestation-by-2029-will-it-work/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/honduras-taps-armed-forces-to-eliminate-deforestation-by-2029-will-it-work/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-287226</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Failed U.S. ‘war on drugs’ endangers Central American bird habitats, study warns</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/failed-u-s-war-on-drugs-endangers-central-american-bird-habitats-study-warns/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/failed-u-s-war-on-drugs-endangers-central-american-bird-habitats-study-warns/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Sep 2024 16:47:22 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Boris van der Spek]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/09/03154121/Golden-cheeked_Warbler_male-Kerr_WMA-TX_-_2015-05-24at13-39-5312_21618131341-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=286890</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Latin America, and Nicaragua]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Birds, Deforestation, Forest Destruction, Forests, Rainforests, Research, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Every year, between November and February, the golden-cheeked warbler makes its way down from the U.S. state of Texas to Central America. But as it travels to find refuge from the winter, this tiny, endangered bird, Setophaga chrysoparia, with its bright-yellow cheeks and a buzzing song, seems unable to evade habitat loss. More than 90% [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Every year, between November and February, the golden-cheeked warbler makes its way down from the U.S. state of Texas to Central America. But as it travels to find refuge from the winter, this tiny, endangered bird, Setophaga chrysoparia, with its bright-yellow cheeks and a buzzing song, seems unable to evade habitat loss. More than 90% of the golden-cheeked warbler population winters in a region that is at increased risk of deforestation, experts are warning. It isn’t alone. Dozens of migratory and native forest birds in Central America could see as much as two-thirds of their habitats threatened by encroaching narco-trafficking activity that drives deforestation, according to recently published research. More than half of the migratory species analyzed had more than a quarter of their global populations in landscapes that have become more vulnerable to drug-related deforestation in Central America. And this is only for the migratory species that breed in North America, the study authors say. The Maya Biosphere Reserve in Guatemala. Large-scale deforestation in the region has been linked, in part, to narco-trafficking, say experts. Image courtesy of CIFOR via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0). They found that antidrug policies can push narco-trafficking into more remote forest areas, many of which represent important bird landscapes. Some of the areas that have become more vulnerable as a result lie within Central America’s Five Great Forests: the Maya Forest in Guatemala, the Indio-Maiz in Nicaragua, the Tortuguero in Costa Rica, and the Moskitia in Honduras. The study found that since 1970, deforestation&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/failed-u-s-war-on-drugs-endangers-central-american-bird-habitats-study-warns/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/failed-u-s-war-on-drugs-endangers-central-american-bird-habitats-study-warns/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-286890</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Garifuna land rights abuses persist in Honduras, despite court ruling</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/garifuna-land-rights-abuses-persist-in-honduras-despite-court-ruling/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/garifuna-land-rights-abuses-persist-in-honduras-despite-court-ruling/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Jul 2024 10:48:49 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aimee Gabay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/07/17103942/Photo-3-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=284465</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Honduras, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Community Development, Development, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Infrastructure, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Law, Law Enforcement, and Resource Conflict]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Since the early 17th century, the Garifuna Afro-Indigenous peoples of Honduras have lived on the country’s northern Caribbean coast, where they collectively own large tracts of rich coastal land and sustain their livelihoods on subsistence agriculture and small-scale fishing. But ever since palm oil plantations, tourist developments and other harmful practices have expanded across their [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Since the early 17th century, the Garifuna Afro-Indigenous peoples of Honduras have lived on the country’s northern Caribbean coast, where they collectively own large tracts of rich coastal land and sustain their livelihoods on subsistence agriculture and small-scale fishing. But ever since palm oil plantations, tourist developments and other harmful practices have expanded across their ancestral lands and their way of life and territory have been under threat. Garifuna human rights activist Rony Leonidas Castillo Güity was 8 years old when he first noticed changes in his community. It was the early ‘90s and the government had just built a highway to improve access to his community in Iriona, a municipality in the Honduran department of Colón. “That’s when we started to see movements of strange people we didn’t know,” he told Mongabay over the phone. Today, the coast is covered in luxury developments, such as the five-star Indura Beach &amp; Golf Resort and the Rosa Negra tourism complex in Tela, a municipality in the department of Atlántida. Hotels and apartments, created without the consent of the Garifuna peoples, sit directly on top of the community’s ancestral burial grounds and agricultural lands. On April 12, Garifuna communities and the Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras (OFRANEH) carried out protests in Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras. Image courtesy of Carlos Ortiz. “Our communities are facing a war,” Miriam Miranda, a Garifuna human rights defender and leader of the Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras (OFRANEH), told Mongabay over WhatsApp messages. “Today, we no&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/garifuna-land-rights-abuses-persist-in-honduras-despite-court-ruling/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/garifuna-land-rights-abuses-persist-in-honduras-despite-court-ruling/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-284465</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>On a remote island, Honduras plans mega-prison in an unstudied reserve</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/on-a-remote-island-honduras-plans-mega-prison-in-an-unstudied-reserve/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/on-a-remote-island-honduras-plans-mega-prison-in-an-unstudied-reserve/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Jun 2024 18:44:07 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Maxradwin]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/06/05172402/Casal_e_filhote_de_atoba_Sula_leucogaster_nas_ilhas_Moleques_do_Sul_sul_do_Brasil-768x450.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=282998</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Honduras, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Environment, Environmental Law, Forests, Marine Conservation, Politics, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Honduras is preparing the construction of a maximum-security prison to address the country’s ongoing security crisis, which continues to suffer from widespread gang violence. But the prison happens to be located on a remote Caribbean island designated as a protected area, and conservationists say the project could destroy its ecosystem. The prison could threaten the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Honduras is preparing the construction of a maximum-security prison to address the country’s ongoing security crisis, which continues to suffer from widespread gang violence. But the prison happens to be located on a remote Caribbean island designated as a protected area, and conservationists say the project could destroy its ecosystem. The prison could threaten the uninhabited Islas del Cisne (Swan Islands), an archipelago recognized as a national marine park. Because the three-island archipelago is so far from mainland Honduras — approximately 250 kilometers (155 miles) away — it has a unique ecosystem yet to be completely studied. “All human activities, even the smallest ones, have an impact on the environment,” said Ilia Rivera, president of the Honduras College of Biologists. “So thinking about building a prison in a place so far from the mainland — obviously it’s going to have an environmental impact on the island’s terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.” One of the islands that make up the Islas del Cisne archipelago. Photo courtesy of ICF. The project comes amid a human rights crisis largely tied to Honduras’ longstanding gang problem. In 2022, the government announced a state of exception that allowed it to bypass some constitutional rights while conducting searches and making arrests. But the people they arrest have to be put somewhere, and the country has a problem controlling violent inmates. Islas del Cisne, covering a total area of approximately 410 hectares (1,013 acres) doesn’t have permanent inhabitants. But around a dozen members of the Honduran Naval Force&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/on-a-remote-island-honduras-plans-mega-prison-in-an-unstudied-reserve/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/on-a-remote-island-honduras-plans-mega-prison-in-an-unstudied-reserve/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-282998</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Honduran environmental defenders hit hard by human rights crisis, report says</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/honduran-environmental-defenders-hit-hard-by-human-rights-crisis-report-says/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/honduran-environmental-defenders-hit-hard-by-human-rights-crisis-report-says/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 May 2024 17:18:22 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/05/28170345/Feature-7-768x450.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=282594</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Honduras, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Agriculture, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, extractives, Forest Destruction, Forestry, Forests, Governance, Illegal Logging, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Mining, Palm Oil, Politics, Protected Areas, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Honduras has struggled with a poor human rights record over the last decade, with the international community expressing concern about reports of torture, arbitrary killings, life-threatening prison conditions and warrantless home searches, among a long list of other things. A significant percentage of the people suffering human rights abuses are connected to the environment, either [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Honduras has struggled with a poor human rights record over the last decade, with the international community expressing concern about reports of torture, arbitrary killings, life-threatening prison conditions and warrantless home searches, among a long list of other things. A significant percentage of the people suffering human rights abuses are connected to the environment, either because they’re activists, conservationists or members of Indigenous communities speaking out against harm to local ecosystems. In a new human rights report on Honduras this month, the Organization of American States (OAS) detailed just how grave the situation has become for environmental defenders in the country, calling the situation “alarming.” While human rights violations also affect women, children, journalists, incarcerated people and members of the LGBTQ+ community, environmental defenders make up a disproportionately large portion of the victims. “It is of special concern to the OAS that violence against defenders, particularly the number of murders recorded in recent years, has been mainly directed against those who defend the environment, land and territory,” the report said. An Inter-American Commission on Human Rights panel on the violence in Bajo Aguán. Photo by Daniel Cima via Flickr. (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) The statement carries extra weight given the OAS’ role as the leading governmental alliance promoting democracy, security and peace in the region. It said much of the violence can be traced back to long-standing agrarian conflicts tied to the growth of manufacturing, extractive industries and large-scale agriculture. The groups hit hardest by those conflicts tend to involve the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/honduran-environmental-defenders-hit-hard-by-human-rights-crisis-report-says/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/honduran-environmental-defenders-hit-hard-by-human-rights-crisis-report-says/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-282594</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesian palm oil, Brazilian beef top contributors to U.S. deforestation exposure</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/indonesian-palm-oil-brazilian-beef-top-contributors-to-u-s-deforestation-exposure/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/indonesian-palm-oil-brazilian-beef-top-contributors-to-u-s-deforestation-exposure/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 May 2024 15:45:17 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/05/07152346/colombia_cattle-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=281790</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Honduras, Indonesia, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Peru]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Beef, Biodiversity, Cacao, Cattle, Coffee, Conservation, Corn, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Forest Destruction, Forests, Green, International Trade, Palm Oil, Pasture, Rainforests, Ranching, Rubber, Soy, Threats To Rainforests, and Timber]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[If you’re in the United States, your meal might come with a side of deforestation.  The US imported palm oil, cattle products, soybeans, cocoa, rubber, coffee and corn linked to an estimated 122,800 hectares (303,445 acres) of tropical deforestation between October 2021 and November 2023 — an area the size of the city of Los [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[If you’re in the United States, your meal might come with a side of deforestation.  The US imported palm oil, cattle products, soybeans, cocoa, rubber, coffee and corn linked to an estimated 122,800 hectares (303,445 acres) of tropical deforestation between October 2021 and November 2023 — an area the size of the city of Los Angeles, according to a new report provided by the NGO Trase for Global Witness. More than a third (33.8%) of the deforestation was linked to oil palm imports, primarily from Indonesia. Cattle products, sourced mainly from Brazil, Australia and Mexico, were the second-largest contributor, at 31.8%. Coffee placed third, at 24.2%, followed by cocoa (7.6%), soybeans (2%), corn (0.37%) and rubber (0.15%). “I think it&#8217;s quite striking how palm oil was potentially quite a big source of deforestation exposure for the U.S. as a commodity that has received lots of attention,” Mark Titley, senior research associate at Trase, told Mongabay. Several Latin American countries were identified as significant sources of deforestation. Brazil was the second-largest contributor to U.S. deforestation exposure, primarily through cattle products. Colombia was the source of nearly a fifth of the deforestation linked to U.S. coffee imports. Mexico, Peru, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Honduras also contributed, mainly by exporting cattle products, coffee and cocoa. Trase&#8217;s methodology combines satellite data on tree cover loss with trade records and commodity production data to estimate the amount of deforestation per ton of production in each country and year. &#8220;So if we&#8217;re looking at palm oil, we&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/indonesian-palm-oil-brazilian-beef-top-contributors-to-u-s-deforestation-exposure/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/indonesian-palm-oil-brazilian-beef-top-contributors-to-u-s-deforestation-exposure/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-281790</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Agroforestry project sows seeds of hope in drought-hit Honduras</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/agroforestry-project-sows-seeds-of-hope-in-drought-hit-honduras/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/agroforestry-project-sows-seeds-of-hope-in-drought-hit-honduras/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Mar 2024 15:30:54 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sonam Lama Hyolmo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/03/26080432/a-4-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=280251</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Global Agroforestry, Indigenous Peoples and Conservation, Indigenous-led conservation, and Latin America]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Honduras, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation, Agriculture, Agroecology, Agroforestry, Climate Change, Conservation, Drought, Environment, Extreme Weather, Indigenous Peoples, Sustainability, and Weather]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Ivis Rene Cabrera no longer gazes up at the sky in hopes of rain to irrigate his field. He’s come to expect the long dry spells as northwestern Honduras grapples with increasingly longer periods of drought during the dry season. Now, he and the rest of the Indigenous Tolupan community’s gaze is to the ground. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Ivis Rene Cabrera no longer gazes up at the sky in hopes of rain to irrigate his field. He’s come to expect the long dry spells as northwestern Honduras grapples with increasingly longer periods of drought during the dry season. Now, he and the rest of the Indigenous Tolupan community’s gaze is to the ground. Their hope lies in an agroecology project to revive the harvests on their typically fertile lands. Beans and corn, staple foods of the community, used to be bountiful in Honduras’s Yoro department, before they were hit by severe droughts. “We used to produce 10-12 cargas [1,400-1,700 kilograms, or 3,000-3,700 pounds] each, and now we cannot cultivate the crops anymore in many parts of Yoro. The drought-led crop failure has led many people to migrate to other areas in search of better livelihood opportunities,” Cabrera says. In 2021, to build community agricultural resilience to climate hazards in Yoro, Spain-based NGO Ayuda en Acción and its Honduran partner, FUNACH, introduced an initiative where 1,669 people, almost equal parts women and men, participated in multiple synchronized strategies to help them adapt to hazards like droughts. Agroforestry in particular has helped Cabrera find his way back to the fields. “We have now begun harvesting all year around as we cultivate different foods. The support that we received in building water systems helped us experiment and harvest new crops like leafy greens and avocados. It helps bring food to my table,” Cabrera tells Mongabay. The agroforestry plots are established to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/agroforestry-project-sows-seeds-of-hope-in-drought-hit-honduras/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/agroforestry-project-sows-seeds-of-hope-in-drought-hit-honduras/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-280251</doi>				</item>
			</channel>
</rss>