Overview of Social and Environmental Issues
Honduras has a strongly varied environment ranging from lush rainforest and secondary forest vegetation in the hot humid north coast, to the cooler humid altiplanos, and drier fertile interior valleys to the semiarid south. Each area has its own problems.

In the north coast years of cattle pasturage has left pastureland compacted and highly eroded, meanwhile logging has almost destroyed the once abundant hardwood stands. In the highlands cultivation of steep terrain and the high use of agrochemicals in coffee and vegetable production has left streams and aquifers polluted and full of silt. In the Central valleys extensive logging has damaged important watersheds leaving population centers with less and less water. Southern Honduras (with its longer dry season and lower levels of rainfall) has suffered from centuries of free range cattle farming, and shortening of the cycle of slash and burn agriculture, leaving once beautiful hills barren and streams which used to run all year now run dry in February leaving communities without water until the rainy season begins in May.

Honduras has been a center of recent sales in tropical timber, both the abundant pine and less common tropical hardwoods. For this reason the government has instituted a certification process and disallowed the harvesting of natural hardwood stands.

2008 saw the effects of these government policies with logging dropping as the main reason for loss of forest cover in Honduras, only to be replaced by firewood production. Higher energy prices have driven many people living in towns and cities to return to cooking their food using firewood. This has led to the doubling of the price of firewood, making the cutting of trees for firewood more attractive to residents of rural areas. Also the badly designed stoves have taken their toll with more people afflicted by respiratory diseases.

Our Response
We at Trees for the Future are trying to tailor our projects to the needs of each area.

In the north coast we are working with Lancitilla Botanical Reserve and Botanical Gardens supporting a program which is providing fruit and timber species to farmers who then plant in the most fragile pastures thus protecting areas in risk for erosion. We are also currently providing educational material explaining the advantages of some tree forage species and stable fed dairy cattle.

In the highlands we are working with local NGO's and Peace Corps volunteers, to teach soil conservation practices using leguminous species to maintain soils and improve the quality of soils. We are also providing fast growing timber species to coffee farmers to encourage the diversification of income, and coffee shade. These seedlings will be certified by local government institutions so that farmers will have the opportunity to legally sell the timber thus improving the economic situation of their families.

In the central valleys we are working with local groups planting trees to protect important watersheds which provide water to population centers.

In the South Trees for the Future is providing forage species to cattle producers and teaching the advantages of minimal or no pasture cattle. We are also encouraging the use of Moringa oliefera for its nutritional benefits.

August 2009
In the central area of the country our projects are planting approximately 200,000 trees with Aldea Global and the CEASO system.

Visits to projects were scheduled for June and July but due to political unrest our in-country staff has not been able to visit southern or eastern projects which include some of our largest projects. Due to the same situation, Peace Corps volunteers have not been able to verify planting of trees in outlying communities. We hope that as the political situation stabilizes, we will be able to verify the planting of trees country-wide sometime in August.

January 2009
January is the time to establish nurseries in Honduras. We are currently sending seed to Peace Corps volunteers and other participating groups around the country. We are hoping to plant 3 million trees in Honduras in 2009.