The New Forestry Law will Impact the Social, Economic and Environmental Future of Honduras

Honduras is a country of forests, but most policies are directed to the promotion of agriculture, with little attention paid to the forests. What is needed now is a new law to promote holistic development through the rational use of natural resources.

For this reason, different sectors of society have been working to craft a new approach to the law protecting forested areas and wildlife, with the goal of creating a base of holistic development.

But despite these good intentions, there are other sectors, specifically political and business, who have expressed at many times their opposition to the new legislation and have tried to force through legislation that would facilitate the abuse of natural resources.

Throughout this process, there have been at least 10 drafts of the law, which represents a significant investment by government employees who are paid with national funds and loans from international organization, which means eventually that they are paid by the Honduran people.
We have to count as well the numerous trips taken by legislators and civil servants from different branches of the government, both from the Liberal and the National Parties, to other countries, principally Chile and Costa Rica, to learn their approaches to this issue.

"The economic investment is large," admits one Congressional representative, "but it is necessary to know what has been done in other countries so we don't commit the same mistakes but so that we can attempt the same successes they have had."

A version of this legislation was officially presented for discussion and approval to the Congress in October of 2001. Unfortunately, political maneuvering surrounding the election of the next President, Ricardo Maduro, prevented the legislation from being presented for a final vote.

However, the current president of the Congress, Porfirio Lobo Sosa, has said that the approval of a new Forestry Law is one of the priorities of the current administration. He re-opened the issue for discussion, with the promise that a new draft will be based on the work of a bi-partisan committee of Congressional representatives.

The committee members have started their work with the foundation of three proposals to the previous administration: one by HAA (the Honduran Agroforestry Alliance, a coalition of farmers, rural cooperatives, indigenous groups and environmentalists), lumber companies, and governmental representatives in 2001; a second by the Secretary of Agriculture and Livestock; and a third by Program of Rural Areas.

What did they propose?
The goal is to create "a piece of legislation to regulate the forestry sector, a law that has the objective of using resources rationally and sustainably, a law that leaves behind the current theories of clear cutting, which only favors the interests of large lumber companies who have exploited the forests without regulation for decades," says the Congressman Francisco Ramos.
Analysts believe the irregularities in forest management have occurred in a highly politicized environment, in which government authorities have found it easy to give the use of natural resources as political favors, without concern for the destruction they cause to the environment.
Ramos, for his part, says that the new Forestry Law will reverse these tendencies and that preventing the political use of natural resources one of the objectives of the committee, of which he is a member.

Conflicting Points

Representatives of different political and social sectors understand that in the process of bringing all the political and economic interests of the interested groups together into a new law, it will be necessary to include some unfavorable provisions in order to include what each wants.

Lumber companies, farmers, indigenous groups, environmentalists, scientists and government authorities are, among other, the actors working to give shape to the new law.

In this case, "a sector of the State intends to implement the privatization of the forests and a system of managing the resource that precludes participation by the social sector" in the process.

"On one there is the idea that we should use the resources of the forest in a sustainable manner, but other want to cut indiscriminately," said Ramos. "And that is the position endorsed by the Lumber Association.

He indicated nonetheless that others support it to maintain the current politicization of the forest and the resulting higher levels of corruption.

The Honduran Agroforestry Alliance (HAA) advocates the creation of a law "with a participative focus that looks to the sustainability of the forestry resources," say its supporters.

HAA also suggests the modernization of the forestry administration to guarantee the participation of civil society in the processes of guarding, conserving and taking advantage of the resources, without precluding the enforcement of policies that preserve protected areas and wildlife.

"More than having a legal order, we should have forestry policies characterized by sustainability, the definition of permitted cutting, both on the small and large scale," says a Congressional representative of the Democratic Unification party.

The Institution

One of the stumbling blocks to the new law will be the role given to the State in the new law to manage and take advantage of the forestry resources.

Civil society proposes that the current role of the forestry administration should be revised and reoriented to enforce the new legislation and to guarantee, furthermore, the ample participation of civil society in the process to guarantee the faithful application of the law in the future.

Ramos is in agreement with this revision, and with the other questions posed to the current Forestry Administration.

"The current role of the Department of Forestry Administration as a manager of the forestry sector has been prostration, to sell the forest without doing anything to sustain it in the long term," he says.

Nonetheless, he signals, the committee has posed extensive discussion of the subject of closing the Department of Forestry Administration, which represents an government investment of 80,000,000 lempiras ($5,000,000). "We have to be prudent in the analysis of this subject," he explains.

Is made to take (to close or reorganize the current institution), the new institution will always need the political will of the government to provide the economic, logistic and technical resources because, he adds, "If we don't do this, we are formulation a law that will never be applied."

The concessions

Another controversial aspect of the law is the granting of concessions in the short and the long term for the use of the forest. There are already sectors who want to be included in the legislation, but only superficially, in order to be part of structuring the concessions.

"Even now there are demand that the figures for the concessions and contracts be managed long-term with the companies" says Celinda Villeda, member of a collaborative group invited to take part in the new version of the Forestry Law.

Villeda demands that the clear regulation of these controversial aspects be in the primary text of the legislation and not left for the regulations, as some interested sectors would like.

Bringing the Forestry Law in line with existing legislation
Bringing the Forestry Law in line with existing legislation is the other great task of the committee, says Ramos. He explains that they must ensure that the new law works with and does not contradict other existing laws.

In this case, he says they should overcome contradictions arising from the suggestion that some land be set aside as forest that is already protected by the Agricultural Reform Law that gives small farmers the right to have title to land where they live and work.
Other contradictions have arisen with the Municipality Law, the Coffee Production Incentive, the Agricultural Investment, the Agricultural Modernization the Order of Territory, among others.
Difficult Work

Congress has in its hands the historical responsibility of approving a law with a vision for the country that either favors the majority or that benefits only a small group of lumber companies and their partners who use political influence to avoid a law that would regulate their activities.
The present administration has made this process difficult since the previous government had already don the work of coordinating all the sectors and actors tied to the issue.

"We want the work of the committee to be free from manipulation by politicians or interested groups, which is why we are working with different sectors. We want a comprehensive, viable law that is not prejudiced against anyone-a law with a vision for the country," say a congressional member of the Democratic Unification party.

Members of HAA have said that it is yet to be seen if such expectations are fulfilled. At the same time they state their intention to defend at all costs their rights to be actors in the process of conservation, management and use of the forestry resources. The small farmer groups, cooperative members, indigenous groups and environmentalists are ready to protest to the National Congress and to the public if their social interests are scorned.

The final hour
We have been working on a new Forestry Law since 1999. It is process that is proving to be very expensive, as we pay for all the costs and consultations involved with money from foreign loans. The time has come to finally discuss and approve this law that is so vital to our future. This is an historic opportunity for a country so blessed with forests.

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