January 30, 2024, by Redacción
Written by Lucía Vijil Saybe
Despite the recognition of the progress made by the government of President Xiomara Castro on climate change issues, the dynamics of environmental conflict continue in many areas of Honduras where extractive projects are present. In fact, in the first days of January 2024, the demonstrations of territorial actors around an energy project that is intended to be installed in Tocoa and the construction of a maximum-security prison on Swan Island, have taken relevance in the environmental agenda.
While abroad we are taking on important roles related to environmental justice, what about the response to conflict?
International Recognition of Castro’s Management of Environmental Issues
In one of its latest publications, Forbes highlighted that: “Honduran President Xiomara Castro links the climate cause to mass migration and job creation in the country. The common denominator: saving their country’s rainforests, threatened by drug traffickers and cattle ranchers.”[1].
The magazine also outlined the approach to carbon transactions that materialized with the passage of the Special Forest Carbon Transactions for Climate Justice Act. With that decree, Honduras entered the market for selling carbon offsets to other countries. As a result: “The funds would create jobs in sustainable forestry for furniture and flooring manufacturing. The money would also improve coffee production while also planting trees to restore their forests. Ecotourism could become a business.”[2].
While this is happening at the international level, in the country, Lucky Medina, head of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, has stated: “Our institutions work closely with rural people and communities, especially the Minister of the Environment … Indigenous communities, which comprise 45% of protected natural areas, are connected to forests, rivers, and ecosystems. These communities are a real example of resistance against the strategies and destruction of forests and rivers.”[3].
On the other hand, in September 2023, it was announced that Castro would assume the Pro Tempore Presidency of the Coalition of Tropical Forest Nations representing 52 countries, with leadership in terms of climate change negotiation, climate action, and environmental justice. “This Coalition is the institution that mobilizes the resources and payments for conservation of sovereign credits for carbon sequestration, it has already made the necessary calculations so that the country can access some 250 million dollars from 2024,” Medina said at the time[4].
Meanwhile, at the COP28 climate summit, held in the United Arab Emirates in November and December 2023, the president said that[5]:
“In Honduras, we are leading by example: we canceled hundreds of concessions that damaged our forests and protected areas, which were illegally granted by the previous regime. We have increased our public investment in protection and reforestation by 500% with the Padre Andrés Tamayo program. We canceled several concessions, including the destructive and polluting concession of Lake Yojoa, Honduras’ main freshwater nature reserve. 10% of our National Army is now dedicated to the protection of our forests. As world leaders, our commitment must be to drive the economic and ecological transformations needed to stop the atrocities of capitalism and protect humanity.”
The various interventions at the international level by government officials take up what is embodied in their bicentennial plan. Here are a few:
- Recover water recharge areas (watersheds) by resuming the interrupted initiative of the Citizen Power to reforest, and the country’s commitments to restore the lost forest and reduce domestic consumption of green firewood by 40% by 2030.
- Establish a climate change adaptation and mitigation program. In line with regional agreements, ensure a) strategies for recycling solid materials, b) the reduction of pollution in air, water, and soil, c) the monitoring of the carbon footprint of our industry, and d) the prohibition of importing toxic waste.
- Under a territorial planning scheme, define the areas of firewood and timber production and those that are exclusively for rigorously protected conservation, to ensure that sustainable forest management is complied with, with community approval and benefits.
- Eliminate open-pit mining concessions that threaten the nation’s natural heritage and displace communities.
- Strengthen the care of wildlife and implement restrictions that prevent their trafficking and protect them.”
Analyzing the discourse and the international position on the Government’s approaches to climate change and environmental justice, it is important to highlight that:
- There is an intentional will on the part of the current government to discuss the need for effective mechanisms for the protection of forests, water sources, and direct positions that question the dynamics of capital.
- International recognition of environmental issues is also a funding opportunity. It is precisely one of the ways for large global organizations to compensate for the damage caused by those countries that contribute the most to pollution (usually rich countries).
National Environmental Conflict in Constant Demand
While international headlines are being made and the government’s environmental agenda is being replicated in national forums, some territorial actors continue to make their demands public to the institutions involved in these issues. In January 2024, the Municipal Committee for the Defense of Common and Public Goods (CMDBCP) and the Environmental Coalition of Honduras (CAH) were the protagonists of two environmental conflicts that question, precisely, the government’s leadership in the management of nature’s commons.
- Guapinol and San Pedro Sector
The communities of Guapinol and the San Pedro Sector, in the department of Colón, Honduras, are the visible faces of the consequences of an extractive model promoted by business interests that, facilitated by state institutions, generates the defenselessness of populations in the face of the violation of human rights and ecosystems. Since 2013, the Committee has been waging a continuous struggle for the protection of the “Carlos Escaleras” Dump Mountain National Park, the Guapinol River and all ecosystem dynamics in the face of a mineral extraction megaproject[6].
On December 9, 2023, the Municipal Corporation of Tocoa convened an Open Town Hall to consult on the installation of an energy project. With representation from municipal authorities, a “NO” to Ecotek/Emco’s thermoelectric energy project was consigned in the Popular Assembly (based on the law for the Self-Determination of Peoples), ratifying the decision of November 29, 2019, that declared Tocoa Free of Mining in a Municipal Open Council.
After the People’s Assembly, the Committee was presented to the Ministry of Natural Resources. The notarial act of the Assembly was formalized so that it could be incorporated into the corresponding case files. However, on January 22, 2024, the Municipal Mayor’s Office of Tocoa, led by Adán Fúnez (LIBRE party), convened an open town hall again on January 31 for the “socialization and approval” of the energy project in the community of Ceibita.
On January 19, 2024, more than 100 organizations joined the international demand for respect for the decision of the people of Tocoa to reject the extractive project. They also made specific demands of the governor[7]:
“We demand that President Xiomara Castro recognize and admit the agreement made by the People’s Assembly that unanimously said “NO” to the petroleum coke-based thermoelectric project and the other projects that make up the Emco Holdings megaproject of Ana Facusse and Lenir Pérez – including the iron oxide mining concessions in the Carlos Escalera Botaderos Mountain National Park. the pelletizing plant, and the water concessions in the Guapinol and San Pedro rivers and the La Ceibita creek – and cancel them immediately due to the rejection of the population due to their irreversible negative impacts on health and the environment, the destruction in the core area of the protected area Montaña de Botaderos Carlos Escalera National Park and the support of illegalities in the files. We demand that the Government of President Xiomara Castro, within the framework of the Precautionary Measures issued by the IACHR, MC137-23 and MC 50-14, guarantee the protection and protection of human rights at high risk; organizations and the international community to be aware of the demands and behavior of the State in its public officials to guarantee respect for the decision of the population of the municipality of Tocoa and in compliance with protection.”
On January 29, 8 legal and human rights organizations filed an Amicus Curiae brief with the Tocoa Sectional Court of First Instance. This action urges the Court of Tocoa to defend the right to citizen participation and a healthy environment[8]. On January 30, the municipal mayor of Tocoa notified the councilors of the suspension of the Cabildo Abierto convened for Wednesday, January 31, 2024, due to the favorable resolution by the Sectional Court of Letters of Tocoa, to the appeal filed.
- Honduran Environmental Coalition (CAH)
Following the massacre of 46 women deprived of liberty at the National Women’s Penitentiary for Social Adaptation (PNFAS) on June 21, 2023[9], the construction of a maximum security prison on Swan Island was announced as a security measure. On national television on January 1, 2024, the project and its execution were confirmed for the beginning of this year.
The Swan Islands are an archipelago recognized as a National Marine Park of great value for the conservation of coastal marine biodiversity, by Executive Decree 3056-91. But the decision to build a prison contradicts multilateral environmental agreements, to which Honduras is a signatory, such as:
- Convention on Biological Diversity
- Convention on Wetlands (RAMSAR)
- Convention for the Protection and Development of the Marine Environment of the Wider Caribbean Region (Cartagena)
- International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea
- International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL), among others of national and global relevance.
According to the College of Biologists of Honduras (CBH): “The Swan Islands archipelago is home to ecosystems, habitats, and species that are rare and valuable to both Honduras and the region. These include winter lagoons with mangroves, healthy coral reef aggregates, and commercially important fish that use these ecosystems as refuges and breeding grounds. These fish stocks are then exploited by human communities in nearby areas. In addition, the cliffed shores of emerged coral serve as a nesting site for various species of seabirds. The broad cover of beach purslane (Sesuvium portulacastrum) also becomes nesting sites for endangered sea turtles and seabirds. On the other hand, the shrublands of the islands are home to an endemic species of lizard called Anolis nelsoni. These shrubs also serve as resting areas for migratory bird species.”
On January 17, 2024, the CAH expressed its opposition to the construction of the prison in that ecosystem. He publicly demanded that the Executive Branch: “We urge the President of the Republic to reconsider the project in collaboration with specialists and civil society, since the proposed construction is incompatible with values of sustainability, human rights and environmental conservation… The massive human presence irreversibly compromises marine biodiversity and water quality, affecting a natural heritage of incalculable value”[10].
The Association of Environmental Engineering Professionals of Honduras (CIAH) also said in a statement: “It is considered that the initiative is contradictory to the motto professed by the Government Plan… turning it into one more cause that contributes to the 30 thousand hectares of forests/habitats that are lost annually due to human activities and that the Government asks to stop; On the other hand, it is a promoter with the establishment of a large-scale penitentiary center in a national protected area and with limited carrying capacity and finite natural resources that make it impossible to sustain the supply chain that it will demand.”[11].
The CBH took a position on the project and said that: “We came to the conclusion that a prison is incompatible with the ecosystems, species, scenic beauty and climatic conditions of the archipelago. A penal facility in the Swan Islands is not environmentally sustainable and poses more short- and medium-term threats than long-term solutions.”[12].
To answer the initial question
The Committee and the CAH have escalated the level of conflict because the discussion is also encompassing the political and social dimension. As Gabriela Merlinsky states[13]“In environmental conflicts, socio-technical controversies arise, that is, forms of dissent around issues of a technical and scientific nature, which, by their openness to other registers of analysis, become social and political issues.
Focusing on the discourses positioned by environmental subjects, the following can be identified:
- Collective discontent with how common goods are appropriated and distributed that affects the livelihoods of communities and ecosystems. This pronouncement is the manifestation of the rejection of the power relations that have been historically constructed through regulatory frameworks, privileges, and exonerations for large companies.
- These two environmental conflicts are responding to a single interest but manifested through different identities. In other words, different modes of action (legal actions, citizen participation, advocacy, etc.) are being positioned from a diversity of subjects. The main call is the defense of the commons.
- Current manifestations demonstrate that human beings are not based solely on the unitary value of the ecosystem or landscape. Rather, they are the clear expression of respect for an environment, of understanding the different meanings of the contribution of ecosystems to their lives and of a close relationship with the non-human.
- There is a questioning of the different decision-making processes at the national and regional levels on the commons of nature. In the case of Tocoa, despite a repeated manifesto against a project, the questioning is directed at the authorities’ lack of respect for the sovereign’s decisions. In the case of the CAH, in some interviews they indicate that this issue should be transferred to a national consultation.
- When it comes to environmental issues, uncertainty is part of the constant. That is, decisions are made thinking that it will not affect anything if we use the right technology. Both Los Pinares Investments and the Government of Honduras have been emphatic that the projects to be built will not harm the environment and that with the use of technology, it will be solved. This approach to environmental issues responds to the school of the conception of ecological modernization[14]. This approach recognizes the drawbacks related to environmental justice but subordinates them to an idea of “conciliatory instances” between social demands, economic development, and environmental production. For that reason it is an attractive discourse, “it is perfectly profitable with the conditions that produce profitability in this phase of capitalism in which the commodification of nature, the sale of pollution rights… means fabulous profits in the present.”[15].
Final Thoughts
As Chantal Mouffe points out[16], “conflict reactivates the political in the public space and also functions as a condition for the possibility of any democratic project.” On environmental issues, there are clear antagonistic positions on the vision of development, the perception of solutions to the issue of violence, and ways of dimensioning nature. The complexity of conflict is when, in the conflict of interests, adversaries become public enemies who must be intimidated, persecuted, criminalized and prosecuted.
The two conflicts mentioned in this document represent a great democratic challenge for public management and administration, and it is hoped that their resolution will be in the best possible way. In other words, environmental subjects are demanding an exchange of ideas, attention to the multiple legal processes underway, active, and proactive listening in relation to the positioning of the problems of their communities at the regional and national level.
The final call is that, precisely because of the relevant role that the country is assuming in environmental issues, effective actions are taken to demonstrate the government’s coherence between what is said and what is done.
On the other hand, the ecosystems on Swan Island are no less important than the pine trees that are being planted at the national level. The Guapinol River is no less important than the micro-basins that are being declared. The communities are continuously demanding President Castro’s pronouncement and response in favor of their struggles.
The way out of the socio-territorial conflict requires a coherent country project, which does not allow the doubts of those who continue to resist from the territories.
[1] Silverstein, Ken. 2024. Honduran President Castro Links Economic Hope And Climate Cause. Forbes. Available in: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kensilverstein/2024/01/21/honduran-president-castro-links-economic-hope-and-climate-cause/?sh=545692e67d07
[2] Ditto.
[3] Ditto.
[4] People’s Power. 2023. President assumes the Pro Tempore Presidency of the Coalition of Tropical Forest Nations where she will have access to $250 million starting in 2024. Available in: https://www.poderpopular.hn/vernoticias.php?id_noticia=5613
[5] The Press. 2023. Xiomara Castro and her speech at the COP28 Climate Summit in Dubai. Available in: https://www.laprensa.hn/honduras/honduras-presidenta-xiomara-castro-discurso-cumbre-clima-cop28-dubai-emiratos-arabes-unidos-FF16460489
[6] To dig deeper into the case: https://cespad.org.hn/una-lectura-integral-del-conflicto-socioambiental-caso-guapinol-y-el-sector-san-pedro-en-honduras/
[7] Guapinol resists. 2023. Urgent Communiqué: Tocoa Says NO To Thermoelectric Power Plant In Popular Assembly. Available: https://www.guapinolresiste.org/post/comunicado-urgente-tocoa-dice-no-a-termoel%C3%A9ctrica-en-asamblea-popular
[8] More information: https://www.guapinolresiste.org/post/organizaciones-jur%C3%ADdicas-y-de-derechos-humanos-nacionales-e-internacionales-presentan-amicus-instand
[9] To dig deeper into the case: https://www.oas.org/es/CIDH/jsForm/?File=/es/cidh/prensa/comunicados/2023/139.asp
[10] Criterion. 2024. Despite reported environmental damage, authorities insist on the construction of a prison in the Swan Islands. Available in: https://criterio.hn/pese-a-senalado-dano-ambiental-autoridades-insisten-en-construccion-de-penal-en-islas-del-cisne/
[11] CIAH. 2023. Swan Island Pronouncement. Available: https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=776928027805380&set=pcb.776928071138709
[12] CBH. 2023. Pronouncement. Available in: https://twitter.com/CBiologosHn/status/1677165023020343296/photo/1
[13] Merlinsky, G. 2022. All ecology is political. P. 18
[14] Harvey, D. 1996. Justice, nature and geography of difference. Oxford, Blackwell.
[15] Merlinsky, G. 2022. All ecology is political. p. 121
[16] Mouffe, C. 1996. Politics and the Limits of Liberalism. Politics. Journal of Studies on the State and Society.