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Ron Mader's El Planeta Platica, The Earth Speaks

Lancetilla   Botanical Garden is under the organization's protection.

TRUJILLO -- The Jeanette Kawas National Park, better known as Punta Sal, is one of Honduras' largest protected areas. It has a myriad of different eco-systems, including lagoons, estuaries, wetlands, mangroves, and 5 miles of coastal waterways. This is only one of four protected areas under the administration of PROLANSATE, an environmental.

PROLANSATE stands for the Foundation for the Protection of Lancetilla, Punta Sal, and Texiguat. In addition to these areas, PROLANSATE also works with the proposed national park at Punta Izopo to the east of Triunfo de la Cruz. This newly proposed park is designed to protect mangroves, areas for migratory and local water birds, and a breeding ground for fish.

The least known of the four protected areas is the Wildlife Sanctuary at Texiguat. The purpose for protecting this area is that it produces water for the coast. It is also rich in birds and endangered animals such as the toucan, the quetzal and the jaguar, said Rafael Sambula, PROLANSATE's executive director.

Lancetilla, a botanical garden where plant species are protected and studied, is the remaining area under the organization's protection. This park offers the sale of medicinal plants that caters to dealers as far away as La Ceiba and Tocoa. There is also a nursery maintained in conjunction with the city and the local Triumfo de la Cruz High School.

This nursery has 80 percent wood plants, such as cedar, mahogany, laurel, fruit trees, jicara (gourd trees); and 20 percent ornamental plants, such as bougainvillea. They try to make 25,000 plants a year available to organized groups that will care for them, like patronatos or citizens groups. The Honduran Beer Company (Cerveceria Hondurena) helps to support reforestation and training for this work, too.

PROLANSATE currently has a number of projects underway. Faced with an airborne virus that is killing North Coast coconut trees, the park has set up a nursery to raise different varieties that are resistant to the disease. Sambula's recommendation to people who have affected trees is that sick trees should be cut down and burned to prevent the continued propagation of the virus.

This coconut project is done in conjunction with the Garifuna communities of San Juan, Tournabe, and Miami, all in or near the Punta Sal park, and in conjunction with the Ministry of Agriculture and Cattle Ranching.

The foundation's mission is to conserve the natural resources, the environment as well as historically important sites and the cultural values of the country. Another innovative program is that of Rescuing the Cultural Patrimony of the Garifunas with Handicrafts project.

The project is funded by Angelica Foundation of the United States. PROLANSATE is sponsoring a course to train 5th and 6th grade students and interested adults to make Garifuna handicrafts. The first four modules have focussed on how to make crafts out of the bayal vine, called gomerei in Garifuna.

During the seminars, it became obvious that even in Punta Sal National Park, this plant's existence is seriously threatened. Students finally had to go all the way to Miami to get enough material to work with. Members of PROLANSATE and the Botanical Garden at Lancetilla have shown interest in projects to reforest the area with this culturally important plant.

PROLANSATE is one of several foundations that receives ample international funds. Donors include the World Wildlife Foundation, the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the Ramsar Convention (for wetlands), Vida Foundation/USAID, the Canada-Honduras Fund, Save the Rainforest (USA) as well as local associates.

Sometimes the foundation manages to charge tour operators who operate in the area. Other times, no. They are trying to strengthen this area of their administration. Unlike FUCAGUA, the environmental NGO near Trujillo that has its own guides for tourists, PROLANSATE only takes researchers into the parks. Regular tourists go with local tour operators.

PROLANSATE came to international attention when the woman who founded it in 1992, Jeanette Kawas, was shot in her home, presumably for her stand against squatters and cattle ranchers in the park that now bears her name. One problem she addressed was the advance of cattle ranching toward the center of the park, still the most important threat.

The other active case she was involved in was the desire of peasants associated with the National Union of Campesinos (UNC) to drain the wetlands and plant African palms in both the buffer zone and the nuclear zone. The problem has still not been solved. An even bigger problem is commercial fishing boats that fish and trawl for shrimp within the 5-mile marine area included as part of the park.

Another reason PROLANSATE is well funded is the international interest in the multimillion dollar tourist project for Tela Bay. PROLANSATE's position regarding this project is that as long as developers comply with recommendations described in the environmental impact study, they will accept the project.

Those who would like more information on the organization can contact Fundacion Prolansate, A.P. 32, Calle de Comercio, Tela, Atlantida, Tel./Fax (504) 48-2042, E-mail: prolansate@datum.hn

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