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Juan Francisco Maldonado is the father of four small children. He is also a farmer who has found the production of resin to be a good way to earn money every 8 days, which helps him to support his family. "It is a very fast way to earn income. For example,
I go to work with the wood and in 8 days I am getting money from it. In
other work, for example planning corn or bean, the money does not come
for months. But the resin pays us every 8 days, and that is more practical,"
he says. "I have children and the money I receive each month helps me to buy what I need. I also grow corn. There are times when I dedicate myself to planting the corn and then in the summer I work on producing the resin. Then the money helps to make ends meet," he explains. According to Maldonado, the cost of producing the resin is not high. The only complaint he has is that in the past few years resin producers have only used modern methods that protect the environment but that do not produce the same amount of resin from the trees. "COHDEFOR (the Honduran Department of Forest Development) asks that we collect resin with tools in the modern method. You can get resin that way, but it is limited. Only a little resin comes that way-we want production, but we can't do as much this way. But we also know that it is for the good of the forest," asserts Maldonado. The whole family is involved in the resin production. According
to the resin producers an advantage is that the women and children can
help because all you need is a bucket and a spoon to collect the resin.
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