Service members from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic, members of the Central American Armed Forces Convention (CFAC), attended CFAC’s XI Specialised Environmental Exercise held in Managua, Nicaragua, the place they signed agreements for the safety of forested areas.
“These agreements will likely be strengthened by the task forces and particular models in border areas,” Guatemalan Army Colonel Rubén Téllez, press director of the Ministry of Protection, instructed Diálogo on August 2. “In Guatemala there are two army models [the Special Jungle Operations Brigade and the Mountain Operations Brigade] that present help to the Ministry of Protection, the Ministry of Setting and Pure Sources, the Nationwide Institute of Protected Areas, and the Nationwide Council of Protected Areas to safeguard forest assets.”
The designated task forces are the Morazán-Sandino Joint Drive, on the Honduras-Nicaragua border; the Maya-Chortí Joint Drive, on the Honduras-Guatemala border; and the Lenca-Sumpul Joint Drive, on the Honduras-El Salvador border.
CFAC deems the preservation and restoration of forested areas a precedence, as they undergofrom pure disasters and/or felony actions. The July 4-8 agreements will unite CFAC service members to guard these pure assets within the space.
“These agreements signed on the Managua assembly have been to contribute to the struggle towards narcotrafficking, organized crime, and unlawful logging,” Colonel Klaus Werner Korte Padilla, Honduras’ consultant to CFAC, instructed Diálogo. “CFAC is already scheduling yearly updates of signed agreements.”
Unlawful actions
For Col. Téllez, the largest challenges going through CFAC are felony actions associated to narcotrafficking, akin to deforestation to plant coca and marijuana.
The Guatemalan Army reported through Twitterthe eradication of 1.1 million coca bushesfrom January 1 to August 5, 2022.
In Honduras, Army Lieutenant José Antonio Coello, Honduran Armed Forcesspokesman, instructed Diálogo that authorities had seized greater than 2.6 million coca bushes, which is greater than 600 hectares of forest destroyed, from January to August 2022.
“In Honduras, unlawful logging and timber trafficking are carefully linked to narcotrafficking within the northeastern a part of the nation,” Perception Crime, an group that research organized crime in Latin America and the Caribbean, stated. “Between 50 and 60 % of the timber commerce comes from unlawful logging, and most of it comes out of forest reserves in northeastern Honduras.”
Forest fires in Honduras are one other menace for authorities to beat. In line with the Honduran Forest Conservation Institute (ICF), as of July 2022 greater than 42 % of forest fires occurred in three departments: Francisco Morazán with 321, Gracias a Dios with 140, and Olancho with 136 fires.
Help within the face of threats
Assembly contributors agreed to yieldseedlings to reforest broken forests.
To help these initiatives, associate nations, akin to the USA, by means of the U.S. Company for Worldwide Improvement (USAID), are supporting the safety of the hemisphere’s environmental assets.
“As well as, by means of a complete method that contributes to biodiversity safety and sustainable forest administration, [USAID] helps insurance policies and authorized frameworks that strengthen Guatemala’s Protected Areas System, allow long-term sustainable forest administration, construct an efficient environmental justice sector, and have interaction communities whose livelihoods depend upon wholesome ecosystems and thriving forests,”Col. Téllez stated.
In Honduras, USAID supported ICF to conduct a coaching workshop within the growth and implementation of operational plans for technicians from the 12 forestry areas on the Nationwide Hearth Safety and Technique for Hearth Use and Administration program.
“The help of associate nations in partnership with authorities entities to cut back organized crime actions and enhance the safety of protected areas will enhance the Army’s capability to deal with environmental crimes,” Col. Téllezconcluded.
