The New Forestry Law Works To Respond To The Concerns Of All Involved.

For a few years now, a new forestry law proposal has been discussed, but in the past months, the work has intensified in order to obtain a final product that responds to the interests of the Honduran majority.

The National Congress discussed the blue prints of this Law in two previous debates that took place a few months ago, but due to the demands that were made by the March for Life, (an organization advocating for proper use of natural resources), the discussion was suspended in order to involve diverse sectors of society in the discussion.

Long hours of debate were spent deliberating critical points that were raised when the Legislative branch of Congress discussed the proposal. One of these critical points included the creation of the Honduran Agency of Finance, which was later eliminated during these intense discussions, in order to create a fund that would reinvest in the forest and protected areas.

The tendency that the proposal carries is to conserve the right to property, and is very well-defined on this point, but only in regards to communities, not particular people. In order to resolve this an agreement was added putting a limit on an individual´s use of the land and its produce during a 20 year period.

Virgilio Umanzor, representative of the Liberal party and president of the Report Commission for this Law, explained to the diverse sectors involved in a meeting that took place on the 13th of October, that this agreement would be renewable after being evaluated in five years. It will be permanently established if it has been well-managed.

In relation to finance, the project included three funds, one for forestry reinvestment, another for municipality reinvestment and a third to be given over for protected areas. In the report two more funds were created to pay for environmental services and the protection of farms.

This has been one of the stronger discussion points in which there has not been much consensus due to the reservations that sectors maintain in regards to the use of funding. One subcommittee proposed to create a forestry reinvestment and farm protection fund as well as a wildlife and land protection fund, to be called the Forestry Development Fund and Forestry Conservation Fund.

This discussion became heated when the access of these funds was brought up; funds that will contain more then 30 million Lempiras each. Finding an intermedian to be in charge of managing the finds unbiasly was brought into the discussion in order to extinguish tensions.

During this same debate, Atilio Ortiz, one of the technical advisors that supports the Report Commission expressed that the social emphasis is lost when aspects, such as, community support where the forest is utilized, is removed from the picture.

"The communities want to be repaid because their forests are being well-utilized. In the beginning it was proposed that 40% was being used for social projects, and that it would be managed by the municipal fund, but this idea has disappeared from the final proposal," he said.

José Flores Rodas, member of the Inspections Board for the Honduran Corporation of Forestry development, as well as one of the participants involved in discussing the final proposal, assures that good forestry management is profitable.

He also said that clear guidelines should be established for the intermedian group, but that the primary and secondary industries should not be included in this because they are subjects of credit in the national system, and it would be a crime to include them.

Abraham Benaton, representative for the logging companies, said in refering to this issue, that he was worried because with a non-partisan management the system becomes centralized, "What is feared is that if the government gets involved, it will not be easy for it to return to the forest because it will have to continue with certain norms.

Petitions Made By The Social Sector

"A rural model based on the sustainable use of natural resources"

"That vocational forestry land be rescued"

"Strong sanctions against those who harm the forest"

"Protection of hydrographic basins"

"Regulations that guarantee the protection of declared areas"

"That the forestry sector not be politicized"

"That the foresty regency not obligate the organizations that are putting the forest to good use to hire technical advisors."

Article:

New Forestry Law
proposal sent
to Congress

Law works to respond
to all concerns

Interviews:

Rural worker´s perspective

AJS Lawyer -Gilda Espinal

Representative of Congress

Former Director of Honduran Forestry Development

President of the Honduran Federation of Agro-Forestry