2/15/08

Honduras approves law to protect forests


The Honduran government approved a new Forest Act to protect the country's forests.
From now on, the Institute for Forest Conservation and Development, Protected Areas and Wildlife will replace COHDEFOR (Honduran Corporation of Forest Development).
For several years, environmental organizations have denounced irregularities in COHDEFOR.
In 2005, the Agency for Environmental Research and the International Policies Center recommended the government to dissolve COHDEFOR, because it was plagued by corruption.
President Manuel Zelaya said the new institution would be a decentralized agency attached to the Presidency. It will have a legal status, a budget and financial autonomy.
When he took office on January 23, 2006, Zelaya said 1 percent of the budget would be used to create a reforestation fund and to protect the country's hydraulic resources.
He also said that his government would end illegal felling and an Incentive Act would be passed to encourage landowners to implement reforestation programs.
According to the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), Honduras lost 35 percent of forests from 1990 to 2005, mainly due to the illegal felling of pine trees and precious timber.

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