Tropical Conservation Newsbureau/Planeta.com

Joint Effort to Save Lagoons, Livelihoods in Honduras

March 1997

The administrators and residents of a national park in Honduras are working together to save the reserve's web of lagoons, vital to the survival of thousands of people. Jeannette Kawas National Park is managed by the Protection of Lancetilla, Punta Sal and Texiguat Foundation (PROLANSATE) and is north of the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa, near the Caribbean coast.

The 80,000-hectare (197,600-acre) park, which protects rainforest, cloudforest, mangroves and wetlands, was named after a former president of PROLANSATE, who was murdered in 1995, because, conservationists believe, of her determined fight to protect the coastal parkland.

The area was once home to Garifuna indigenous people, but by the time the park was declared in 1992, thousands of Honduran farmers had immigrated to the region, clearing forest for crops and cattle. They also fished the bountiful waters of the park's complex of lagoons, which once covered 6,000 hectares (14,820 acres), until erosion caused by deforestation claimed 1,000 hectares.

Seven communities with 1,500 residents border the lagoons, while another 19,000 people live nearby. According to park director Juan Alberto Hernandez, in addition to overfishing and erosion, the lagoons are contaminated by a palm-oil extraction plant built along the nearby San Alejo river. The factory dumps its wastes into the river, which feeds into the lagoons. PROLANSATE president Neptaly Altamirano adds that the plant never completed the required environmental impact study, but at least oxidation ponds for the wastes are now being built.

Hernandez reports that another threat to the lagoons is an introduced fish. The natural fauna of the lagoons, he explains, include guapote, catfish, bass, and crab, all important sources of nutrition to local families and all in danger of extinction. A fish farm stocking an exotic species called tilapia was established upstream from the San Alejo river, but the holding tanks broke. Following the same path as the palm-oil wastes, tilapia reached the lagoons and are eliminating the native fish.

In answer to these perils, PROLANSATE launched an environmental campaign in the local communities, teaching farmers to plant trees with their crops so they will eventually no longer need to cut down the park's forest. The conservation group is also working with park officials to reduce the tilapia population in the lagoons.

With the support of local subsistence fishermen, two annual fishing seasons have been established. According to PROLANSATE, this will allow the native fish populations to recuperate. Hernandez emphasizes that residents support the new control on fishing. "They understand the need to protect the lagoon's resources in order to ensure their own survival," he says.

Contact: PROLANSATE, Calle del Comercio, Apdo. 32, Tela, Honduras, tel & fax 504/48-2042.

This article is provided from the Rainforest Alliance's Tropical Conservation Newsbureau, based in San Jose,Costa Rica. For more information, contact Diane Jukofsky or Chris Wille, Rainforest Alliance, Apdo. 138-2150, Moravia, San Jose, Costa Rica; Phone: 506-240-9383; Fax: 506-240-2543; Email: infotrop@sol.racsa.co.cr

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