Implementing Agency:
Department For International Development (PAND)

Managing Institute:
CARE International UK

Contractor:
CARE International UK

Project Code: 110-680-001	Start Date: 01/04/1988	End Date: 31/03/1992
Commitment: £301,576	Status: Completed	Type of Funding: Bilateral - JFS

Project Background:
Honduras is the only Central American country in which forestry is one of the principal economic activities. Sixty per cent of the soils in the country are appropriate only for forestry use. There are some 3 million hectares of pine and 4.4 million hectares of hardwoods. Pine is an important export wood and Honduran conditions produce some of the fastest growing pine in the world. 40 percent of the population lives in the pine lands. These people subsist almost exclusively by agriculture, growing maize, beans, sugar and coffee. Agriculture on the pine soils is at subsistence level studies indicates that the gross annual income per family is around $220. Since the soils cannot be worked intensively, the peasants resort to destruction of large areas of forest in order to feed their families. Exploitable timber is lost to Honduras and very little gain accrues to the peasants. The use of inappropriate extensive agricultural methods in the pine lands promotes a gradual destruction of the forest and of the whole ecosystem. Soils are bared and easily erode. The watershed lost their ability to take up excess water and streams and rivers flood in the rainy season and run dry when the rains stop. After some years of agriculture, the land becomes incapable of supporting even a sparse forest cover. The absence of employment opportunities in the pinelands has forced large percentages of the rural population to migrate to the towns. There they may find work but more often find worse conditions to overcome. Since the poor soils cannot generally support intensive arable farming, the lands are often put under extensive cattle grazing. An extended poorly functioning, state bureaucracy supports this depressing reality. COHDEFOR has attempted to improve the campesinos' lot and to put a break on the fires through the creation of SSF, mandated to help the peasants achieve agricultural and economic stability through forest activities. To date it has been largely unsuccessful. Cutting permits are still handed out to logging firms that may operate miles from the villages. No employment opportunities accrue to the peasants either through wood harvesting or through subsequent reforestation activities, if they take place. The dry season is still characterised by the smoke and haze from countless forest fires across the country. The National Agrarian Institute, INA charged with implementing Honduras' agrarian reforms laws, has been slow both in giving title to smallholders and also in defining land use categories for the country. Consequently, the only lands available to farmers are often those which both agencies agree privately should be under forest cover. Settled on forest land with no forest employment opportunities, the farmer resorts to traditional practices that will at least guarantee him a minimum return.

Project Objectives:
The objectives of this project are: To improve the economic well-being of participant communities in the central highlands of Honduras through the rational exploitation of their forest resources. Achievement of the final goal is assessed through accomplishment of the following intermediate goal: To increase the income of 400 participants by a factor of 3 through the organisation of hand logging groups.

Intended Outputs:
Examination of COHDEFOR timber sales records, complemented by - Market statistics - Receipts of cones, resin and minor products purchased from participants - Conversations with log haulers and village leaders - base line economic data.