Fostering a sustainable network in Honduras

MAP’s second CBEMR training session in Honduras brought together government officers, NGOs staff, including Goldman (Environment) Prize winner Jorge Varela Marquez, members of NGO Consultores en Desarrollo y Ambiente CODA, local people and regional experts. This meeting of minds and determination formed a network to patrol the gulf and persuade local villagers and village leaders to reduce the cutting of mangroves. The week-long training significantly built on participants’ understanding of mangrove ecology through theory of community-based ecological mangrove restoration. Demonstrations took place on Isle de Pajaros, an island in a dynamic Gulf setting that suffers from poor hydrology, which was negatively affecting the trees.

Here, participants practiced research techniques and successfully improved the hydrology in the middle of the island, allowing the island to drain effectively at lower tides. Following the training, a network funded by the USFWS was established, run by Jorge Varela Marquez and fishermen Jose Damilo and Jose Leonidas. The group has continued to engage local communities to encourage them to restrain their villagers from cutting mangrove. In addition, the “mangrove rangers” have encouraged local communities to sustainably manage their surrounding mangrove wetlands for the benefit of local communities.