WORLD RAINFOREST MOVEMENT
MOVIMIENTO MUNDIAL POR LOS BOSQUES

International Secretariat
Maldonado 1858; Montevideo, Uruguay
E-Mail: wrm@wrm.org.uy
Web page: http://www.wrm.org.uy
Editor: Ricardo Carrere

CENTRAL AMERICA

- Honduras: Forest defender murdered in Olancho

Around the year 2002, the forests in the department of Olancho were being
devastated by the action of logging companies. Forest destruction was done
to feed many saw-mills (both legal and illegal), and in some of them,
several parliamentarians were directly involved. While the companies got
richer, the local populations received the impact of timber exploitation,
in particular the disappearance of water resulting from felling the forest
and the ceasing of its function regulating the water cycle.

Faced with this situation, the local population started to organize itself
and in 2002, the Environmental Movement of Olancho was created, with the
aim of ensuring forest protection. For this purpose, they requested the
government to regulate timber exploitation, to apply appropriate
management methods, to carry out the necessary monitoring of felling and
to protect protected areas. In some areas of particular cultural and
biological value, they demanded that logging be banned for a 10-year
period.

In order to achieve these objectives, the local population organized a
series of actions, leading up to the March for Life, held on 27 June. This
march, from the provincial capital (Juticalpa) to the national capital
(Tegucigalpa), involved thousands of people marching for 7 days and
covering some 200 kilometres to submit their demands to the president of
the Republic. This march was supported by 27 organizations of students,
workers, peasants, indigenous communities, pro-human rights activists and
the Catholic and Evangelical Churches.

However, on reaching the Presidential House, they found that it had been
surrounded by tens of anti-riot police, armed with metal shields, rubber
truncheons and protective helmets. President Ricardo Maduro refused to
receive them, although they waited for three hours outside his office.

One of the movement's main leaders, the priest Jose Andres Tamayo,
summarised the situation, saying "For seven days we have peacefully
marched to demand the government to eradicate the unmerciful logging of
Honduras' forests, and specifically those of Olancho...and Maduro did not
respond to our demands."

Faced by the government's lack of response, the local inhabitants were
forced to take measures, among which the prevention of entry of loggers
into forest areas. In four communities, a total logging ban was achieved
this way.

The response was not long in coming. Threats and attacks were started and
the preparation of black lists, and attacks on logging company facilities,
carried out by people hired by the companies themselves as part of a
strategy to blame the environmental movement for these attacks.

This went on until 17 July, when the Committee of Families of People
Detained-Disappeared in Honduras (Comité de Familiares de Detenidos
Desaparecidos en Honduras - COFADEH) issued a communiqué denouncing "that
terrorism in Olancho is placing at risk the lives of those defending the
environment." The communiqué ended by stating "no one wants to mourn the
death of a forest martyr, what we want is to defend everyone's life, even
those who live planning and executing death every day." The following day,
Carlos Arturo Reyes, one of the people mentioned by COFADEH on the list of
people threatened by sawmill owners was murdered in his own home.

Olancho and its forests are now mourning a martyr they never wanted. Will
President Maduro now be willing to listen to the population of Olancho? Or
will he continue to turn a deaf ear to their claims while the life of
those defending the forest continues to be cut down by murderers paid by
economic interests? No one wants any more martyrs, what is wanted is
justice and forest protection. Is it too much to ask?

Article based on information from: interview to a member of the Olancho
Environmental Movement, La Esperanza, Honduras, 20 July 2003. "Llegó a la
capital 'marcha por la vida' que encabeza cura salvadoreño", Rebelión,
27/6/03 (http://www.rebelion.org/ecologia/030627honduras.htm) "Terrorismo
en Olancho pone en riesgo la vida de defensores del Medio Ambiente",
COFADEH, 17/7/03
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