Community forestry and Payment for Environmental Services are strengthened in Honduras

Several rural communities in Honduras are moving forward with management and conservation, community forestry and management at the local level, in order to overcome their vulnerability. These programs are supported by the Forestry and Rural Productivity Project (PBPR) of the Secretariat for Agriculture and Livestock (SAG).

This project is being carried out in the context of the poverty reduction strategy, the World Bank's Country Assistance Strategy (CAS), the State policy for the agrifood sector and the rural environment of Honduras, the forestry policy, the territorial management policy and the protected areas policy.

In September 2006, a mission from the World Bank visited several rural communities that were benefited by the project and noted the progress made. The visit began in the municipalities of San Ignacio and El Porvenir, where a system of payment for environmental services is underway to protect the water sources for those communities. In the municipality of Marale, the mission got a first-hand look at the experiment carried out by a group of women working with food microenterprises - Delicias Maralense and Luz y Esperanza - that were established recently with the help of PBPR/SAG.

As regards forestry, the mission visited the municipal authorities of Yoro and Jocón to see the progress that has been made in the project on normalization of the Agua Fría pilot area. In regard to the community forestry, members of the San Francisco tribe of the Tolupan ethnic group reported on the activities of the microenterprise plan to be implemented soon. The mission also met with representatives of the Federation of Xicaques Tribes of Yoro (Fretrixy), which has signed an agreement with PBPR.