The Environment

Large areas of pristine tropical rain forest are being cut down for the financial gain of economically and politically powerful individuals including high-ranking military officers and government officials. The area slated to become the park is being lost to the economic interests of a few while the common interests of natural resource conservation and the protection of the country's biodiversity are not being represented.

Congress stonewalling creation of Patuca National Park

By ALEXIS AGUILAR

Special to Honduras This Week

With an area of 2,220 km², the proposed Patuca National Park would be located along the border with Nicaragua between the proposed Tawahka Asangni Biosphere Reserve in Honduras and the existing Bosawas Natural Reserve in Nicaragua. The establishment of the Patuca National Park is extremely important for conservation in Honduras and Central America since its location makes it an essential link of the Central American Biological Corridor.

It would also be the largest national park in the country and the third largest protected area next to the Rio Platano and the Tawahka Asangni Biosphere Reserves. These two reserves together with the Bosawas Natural Reserve and the Patuca National Park would comprise the largest continuous block of protected areas in Central America covering an area greater than 20,000 km².

The Patuca National Park is of special importance for the conservation of biodiversity in the country since it is one of the few protected lowland areas -- most protected areas in Honduras are cloud forests on mountain tops. Also, the broadleaf rain forest (which covers most of Patuca National Park) is the most endangered forest in Honduras since it is disappearing at the fastest rate and has the slowest rate of regeneration.

The greatest biodiversity in the country is found in high precipitation, warm lowlands with some topographical variation such as those found in the proposed Patuca National Park.

In November 1993, President Rafael Callejas signed a presidential accord stating the government's intention to protect this valuable area. The Honduran Forestry Development Corporation (COHDEFOR), the government agency in charge of protected areas in Honduras, in recognition of the park's extreme importance has included it in its list of 33 priority protected areas among the 103 existing in the country. Now, it is up to the National Congress to issue the decree that will legally declare it a national park. Yet, Congress is stalling on the issue to avoid controversy over the park's establishment.

Unfortunately, the so-called "agricultural frontier" has reached the Patuca National Park area, which means it is being degraded for economic interests, mainly cattle ranching. Large areas of pristine tropical rain forest are being cut down for the financial gain of economically and politically powerful individuals including high-ranking military officers and government officials. The area slated to become the park is being lost to the economic interests of a few while the common interests of natural resource conservation and the protection of the country's biodiversity are not being represented.

International organizations such as The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and the German development agency GTZ have shown an interest in working in the Patuca National Park area, yet they are reluctant to do so due to the lack of legal backing in the form of a legislative decree -- any investment in conservation could be easily lost since the legal status of the area is undefined.

The Indigenous Tawahka Federation of Honduras (FITH) also advocates the legal declaration of the Patuca National Park as a way to slow down the advance of the agricultural frontier. Moreover, they consider that, in the future, the park could become part of a system of U.N. Biosphere Reserves that would include the Rio Platano, Bosawas, and Tawahka Reserves.

Likewise, MARENA (the government agency in charge of protected areas in Nicaragua) has demonstrated an interest in coordinating activities with Honduras in the protection and management of what would be the binational protected area consisting of the Bosawas Reserve and the Patuca National Park. Yet, they are waiting for Honduras to legally recognize, as they have already done, the importance of this area. This project provides a unique opportunity for Honduras and Nicaragua to cooperate in a worthy endeavor and coincides with the renewed interest in the political union of Central America.

It should be remembered that the presidents of the isthmus committed themselves in the XII Central American Summit (Managua 1992) through the Central American Biodiversity Agreement to advance initiatives for environmental cooperation in the region such as the Central American Biological Corridor. The Central American Commission for Development and the Environment (CCAD) was created to address such issues. Considering that the Honduras-Nicaragua border zone is the only one in Central America lacking an international protected area, the creation of the Patuca National Park is precisely the type of initiative the CCAD should support.

The formal process to establish the Patuca National Park will have to occur with the consultation of all interested parties including the surrounding communities, indigenous groups, land owners, conservation and development NGOs, and the Honduran government. A management plan can then be drafted and funds sought to implement it. However, this process can only start when the National Congress, leaving aside individual interests, issues the decree legally declaring the Patuca National Park.

Once established, the Patuca National Park will become not only a jewel of the Honduran system of protected areas with which to promote ecotourism and the environmentally sustainable development of the area, but it will also become a key piece of the Central American Biological Corridor that will greatly help us conserve our biological wealth.

Alexis Leonel Aguilar Henríquez is a Honduran graduate student at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA).