Drugs and agriculture cause deforestation to skyrocket at Honduran UNESCO site
Honduras’ Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve occupies a large portion of the country’s eastern region.
However, despite official protection and recognition as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Río Plátano is plagued by deforestation; satellite data show the biosphere reserve lost 13% of its primary forest cover between 2002 and 2020.
Deforestation shot up in 2020, nearly doubling the amount of forest loss over 2019. 2021 may be another rocky year for the biosphere reserve, with satellite data showing several “unusually high” spikes of clearing activity so far this year.
Sources say deforestation in the reserve is being driven by logging, agriculture and the drug trade.
2020-12-29 01:36:13 GMT2020-12-29 09:36:13(Beijing Time) Xinhua English
TEGUCIGALPA, Dec. 28 (Xinhua) The Honduran Armed Forces so far this year have destroyed 35 clandestine landing strips used for drug trafficking, a military spokesman said on Monday.
Since 2014, when the National Inter-Institutional Security Force was created, a total of 308 clandestine airstrips have been destroyed, Lt. Jose Coello, a spokesman for the Armed Forces, told local radio.
The most recent landing strip was destroyed with explosives in Brus Laguna, in the northeast department of Gracias a Dios, said the spokesman.
As of August this year, Honduran authorities had seized 2,241 kg of cocaine, more than the 2,218 kg seized in the whole year of 2019. Enditem
Honduras disables 35 clandestine airstrips for drug trafficking in 2020
Source: Xinhua|
Editor: huaxia
Video PlayerClose
TEGUCIGALPA, Dec. 28 (Xinhua) The Honduran Armed Forces so far this year have destroyed 35 clandestine landing strips used for drug trafficking, a military spokesman said on Monday.
Since 2014, when the National Inter-Institutional Security Force was created, a total of 308 clandestine airstrips have been destroyed, Lt. Jose Coello, a spokesman for the Armed Forces, told local radio.
The most recent landing strip was destroyed with explosives in Brus Laguna, in the northeast department of Gracias a Dios, said the spokesman.
As of August this year, Honduran authorities had seized 2,241 kg of cocaine, more than the 2,218 kg seized in the whole year of 2019. Enditem
Honduras disables 35 clandestine airstrips used for drug trafficking
Follow Newsd On
Teguchigalpa, Dec 29 (IANS) The Honduran Armed Forces so far this year have destroyed 35 clandestine landing strips used for drug trafficking, a military spokesman said.
Since 2014, when the National Inter-Institutional Security Force was created, a total of 308 clandestine airstrips have been destroyed, Xinhua news agency quoted Lt. Jose Coello, a spokesman for the Armed Forces, as saying on Monday.
The most recent landing strip was destroyed with explosives in Brus Laguna, in the northeast department of Gracias a Dios, Coello added.
As of August this year, Honduran authorities had seized 2,241 kg of cocaine, more than the 2,218 kg seized in the whole year of 2019.
Hurricane Iota bashes Nicaragua, Honduras after Eta floods
Category 4 Iota hampered communications in Nicaragua and Honduras, cutting off contact with regions already devastated by Hurricane Eta.
Â
Â
People watch the rising waters of the Rio Bermejo in the wake of Hurricane Iota in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, on Tuesday. Hurricane Iota tore across Nicaragua on Tuesday, hours after roaring ashore as a Category 4 storm along almost exactly the same stretch of the Caribbean coast that was recently devastated by an equally powerful hurricane. [ DELMER MARTINEZ | AP ]
Published Nov. 18, 2020
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) â Hurricane Iota battered Nicaraguaâs Caribbean coast and flooded some stretches of neighboring Honduras that were still under water from Hurricane Eta two weeks earlier, leaving authorities struggling to assess damage after communications were knocked out in some areas.