BY Napoleón Morazán
The State of Honduras has recognized the rights of the indigenous and Afro-Honduran peoples of the Moskitia region by granting and registering community and inter-community freehold titles. However, the indigenous peoples continue to face a systematic reduction of their ancestral territories and forests, due to colonization for the establishment of illegal cattle ranching by non-indigenous settlers from other parts of the country. For this reason, the State of Honduras created the Interinstitutional Subcommission for the titling, expansion, regulation and protection of the natural resources of the Honduran Moskitia region. The regulation is a consensual and peaceful process between the occupants and the indigenous people that will allow the use of productive areas, the recovery of degraded areas and the conservation of the territories.
Securing land tenure is a mechanism arbitrated by the State, where the Indigenous People allow the settlers to use the territory with clear rules and commitments. To this end, during the second quarter of the year 2023, WCS contributed to the installation of technical meetings for the formation of the Securing Land Tenure Commission between the institutions that comprise it, namely the National Agrarian Institute (INA), the Institute of Forest Conservation (ICF), the Secretary of Governance, Justice and Decentralization (SGJD) and the Unit of Indigenous and Black Peoples of the Honduran Mosquitia (UPINMH). This commission was officially formed and elaborated the technical instruments for the process and development of the sanitation launch in the indigenous territory of BAKINASTA, in the community of Wampusirpi, on September 9, 2023.
The initiation of this cleanup process will allow the State of Honduras, specifically the ICF and the Indigenous Territorial Councils, to begin the recovery of degraded areas in the Río Plátano and Hombre Biosphere Reserve. In total, approximately 3,400 hectares are lost annually, mainly due to illegal cattle ranching by settlers and occupants who have acquired territories through fraudulent transactions, threats, and intimidation of indigenous people, for cattle ranching purposes and commonly for laundering the proceeds of organized crime.
According to a multi-temporal analysis carried out by WCS and updated with the support of EU DeSIRA, the loss of coverage reflects that approximately 87,000 hectares have been lost between 2012 and 2022. This loss has resulted in forest fragmentation, loss of biodiversity and connectivity of the Moskitia forest.
WCS with the support of EU DeSIRA and jointly with the ICF Reforestation Program and the BAKINASTA Territorial Council, will initiate the restoration of degraded areas, to recover the coverage and connectivity of the Moskitia area and thus reverse the process of forest degradation, ensure the tenure of the territories and regularize the activities of the settlers who peacefully accept the cleanup process.