honduras: environmental awareness in communities in honduras

FoE Honduras /  Movimiento Madre Tierra aims to deeply engage people who are most impacted by social and environmental injustice. In recent years they have sought to build the capacity of communities to resist the current so-called “development” model which puts profits before people and the environment. Women and young people are the focus of this work, which supports mobilization and struggle toward social transformation.

what happened: FoE Honduras built communities’ capacity through four main activities: an ecology seminar; a forests, health and human rights workshop; a reforestation campaign; and activities to enhance family gardens.

The process for organizing these modules was collaborative, building on previous work by FoE Honduras and COHAPAZ with communities from poor neighbourhoods in Tegucigalpa and Comayagüela. Meetings helped clarify expectations and procedures, to ensure maximum benefit for participants, and to clearly resolve themes, methodologies and educational materials.

The ecology seminar was attended by 22 participants from impoverished communities, community youth leaders from La Mosquitia (the northeast part of Honduras along the Mosquito Coast), and young students from the San Francisco Institute. Debate was promoted, to allow sharing of views while analysing causes and effects of environmental deterioration. Educational publications produced for the seminar addressed the communities’ main challenges, and paradigms for founding societies on social and environmental justice.

For the workshop on forests, health and human rights, 28 community leaders learned about Honduran forestry policies and legislation, and other laws that threaten human rights and well being. The workshop provided momentum toward the Tegucigalpa and Comayagüela communities' goal to plant one million trees.

Turning to the reforestation campaign, one hundred representatives of 19 communities assembled at the community Villa Nueva to plant 1,500 trees. This was preceded by training sessions on organic fertilizers and compost, and planting local tree species. Each household where trees were planted also received advice on how to care for them.

To build capacity for family vegetables gardens, FoE Honduras held workshops on nutrition, local seeds and organic agriculture, as well as the threats of pesticides and GMOs. This helped achieve 300 diverse family gardens in Tegucigalpa and Comayagüela, and increased awareness and desire to eat locally produced food.

Overall, the participants gain deeper understanding of the causes of national and international social-environmental problems and conflicts. They also became more committed to defend environment, including forests and water. A good measure of this progress is greater involvement of youth and women in the reforestation campaigns, greater awareness of the need to resist water privatization, and increased participation in demonstrations initiated by FoE Honduras.

what we learned: Capacity building processes must involved communities from their very outset, and should build upon previous engagement to ensure a solid foundation of trust. Isolated interventions do not strengthen local capacity. Furthermore, involving communities in the design, implementation and evaluation of capacity building work ensures it addresses their real needs.

FoE Honduras also saw a wide horizon of potential alternatives for poorer communities. People easily engage in initiatives that solve specific challenges to their survival and quality of life. However, there also many barriers, such as lack of space to grow gardens or plant trees, or dependence of families on single mothers who are pressed for time.

what next: FoE Honduras will continue to engage and build the capacity of local communities, which underpins its work on social and environmental justice. These efforts are crucial when the poorest are also those most vulnerable in to the impacts of plundering of natural resources for private profit. Yet these same citizens are crucial to build a new future of social and environmental justice.

with thanks to our funders: the sigrid rausing trust